Rocky Mountain

Plot synopsis:
A car pulls up to an historical marker in the desert that reads:
ROCKY MOUNTAIN, also known as Ghost Mountain. On March 26, 1865, a detachment of Confederate cavalry crossed the state line into California under secret orders from Gen. Robert E. Lee to rendezvous at Ghost Mountain with one Cole Smith, with instructions to place the flag atop the mountain, and though their mission failed, the heroism displayed by these gallant men honored the cause for which they fought so valiantly.
In 1865, eight horsemen trek across the California desert, arriving at Ghost Mountain. Led by Captain Lafe Barstow (Errol Flynn) of the Mississippi Mounted Rifles. The eight soldiers encounter a man who calls himself California Beal (Howard Petrie). As a last desperate effort to turn the tide of the war, Barstow's mission is to persuade Cole Smith and his 500 men to raid California on behalf of the Confederacy. From their vantage point on the mountain, the men see a Shoshone war party attack a stagecoach. Barstow's men charge and drive off the Shoshone after the stage overturns, rescuing driver Gil Craigie (Chubby Johnson ) and the only surviving passenger, Johanna Carter (Patrice Wymore), traveling to join her fiancé, Union Army officer Lt. Rickey (Scott Forbes).
That night, the Indians burn the stage. Next morning, a detachment of four Union soldiers and three Shoshone scouts examine the ashes. Barstow's men ambush the detachment, killing one and capturing the rest, including Lt. Rickey. From them, Barstow learns that the Union knows about their presence in California and that California Beal is actually Cole Smith himself. Smith leaves, promising to return in two days with his men. Craigie talks with the Shoshone scouts and learns that they are really a chief, Man Dog, and his sons. He warns Barstow that they will escape and return with their tribe. That night, while Jimmy (Dickie Jones) is on watch, the Indians try to escape. The soldiers kill two of them, but Man Dog evades their bullets.
In the morning, Rickey suggests that he take Johanna to a nearby garrison before the Indians arrive. Barstow, however, hopes that Smith's men will come before the Indians do and rejects the suggestion. Near dawn, Rickey's men jump their guards. One dies in the attempt, and another's recaptured, but Rickey makes his escape. The Southerners find a riderless horse but it turns out to be Smith's, not Rickey's, and they realize that help is not coming.
Barstow decides to use all his men to lure the Indians away from the mountain while Johanna, Craigie and the Union trooper escape. The greatly outnumbered Rebels ride into a box canyon and turn to fight, charging the Shoshone. During the battle, Rickey returns with a troop of Union cavalry, and Johanna tells Rickey what has happened. The cavalry attempt to save Barstow's men but are too late; all the Southerners have been killed. Rickey raises their rebel flag on top of Rocky Mountain to salute the bravery of their fallen foes.

Tags: violence

Review:
It is realistic and reminiscent of "Little Big Horn", starring John Ireland and Lloyd Bridges.As a confederate officer fighting a lost war, Errol and his companions save stranded stage coach travelers from Indians on the warpath.
It's often a miracle there's any scenery left uneaten to finish the movie with!"Rocky Mountain" is one of Flynn's better films (of many good ones), and as always, this underrated actor is real and natural.
Errol Flynn brings a world-weary look and an understated performance to this William Keighley directed Western.
The middle though,does drag a bit.The characters of the confederate soldiers are very well established and should elicit sympathy and respect.This was Errol Flynn's last western, and , while he was no longer in his prime and looks older and a little weathered, he is perfect for the role of a man who has seen too much war.
Very refreshing western film starring Errol Flynn and Patrice Wymore, his last wife/widow who remembers Flynn much more gently than previous wives.
This film sketches out the story of a tiny band of rebel soldiers led by Flynn's character, Lafe Barstow, whose mission is to wait for a rebel renegade to rendezvous with them atop Rocky Mountain, originally called Ghost Mountain.
This was the last Western film Flynn starred in and it's one he gives a solid performance.
The story begins near the end of the Civil War. Confederate soldiers led by Flynn are sent to California to recruit more men.
Flynn's leading lady in this film, Patrice Wymore, would become his third and final wife in real life.
It's a nice cast with some colorful characters actors like Guinn Williams, Howard Petrie, Chubby Johnson, Dickie Jones, and Slim Pickens in his film debut.
There are some great angled shots, clever compositions, and the director does well with the action sequences.The screenplay dispenses with all the heavy-handed messages and over-the-top, unfunny comedy sequences one might find in a Ford film, and aims its sites on a human drama of confederate soldiers on a mission who are forced to go to Plan B, C, and D in order to not only complete their mission, but to get two Yankee civilians to safety in spite of entanglements with Union soldiers and Indians on the war path.
He was absolutely wonderful in the part and it's a shame he quit the business to go into real estate...I really think he might have had an Oscar in his future had he continued making movies.This is not a perfect film by any means, but with strong performances, beautiful scenery, and interesting direction, this "John Ford Lite" Western has enough going for it to make up for any of its shortcomings.
He plays a Confederate officer ,sent to California with a small troop to make contact with Southern sympathisers with the aim of stirring up rebellion in the state and diverting Union resources from other battle fronts.Two problems arise --the promised support is not forthcoming and he is sidetracked when riding to the rescue of a stagecoach coming under Indian attack.It proves to contain the fiancee of the local Union cavalry commander and when a troop is sent out to find her Flynn is forced to take them captive as well.When Native American scouts of the Union army turn out to be traitors and launch an attack his hands become even more full.
Effectively shot in black and white there are some good action scenes and the acting is fine ,but it suffers by comparison to other "Indian attack " movies like "Apache Drums " Not bad but a notch or two short of classic status.
Rocky Mountain is directed by William Keighley and written by Winston Miller and Alan Le May. It stars Errol Flynn, Patrice Wymore, Scott Forbes, Guinn Williams, Dick Jones, Howard Petrie and Slim Pickens.
As it is, it's a great film regardless.Plot has Flynn leading a small group of Confederates into California to hopefully curry favour from Cole Smith (Petrie).
Paired with a director clearly able to tap into something more than being a flirtatious good looking hero, Flynn gives Captain Lafe Barstow a dignified elegance, becoming a leader of men of some considerable substance - and crucially he has screenwriters and producers willing to give us a sombre story.Filmed out in New Mexico, the surrounds magnificent, it's brilliant how Keighley and McCord cloak the story in a claustrophobic aura.
Flynn's men are a great bunch, lovable tough boy rogues each with their own fallible core, while the mystery element of Cole Smith's involvement in proceedings, and that of the looming Indian War, keeps the narrative interesting.Wymore would soon become the next in line of Flynn's wives, but there's no hint of it here, the production team writing the characters apart in strong and believable fashion.
Comic relief is kept to an absolute minimum, rightly so, the only jovial sightings here are that when the canine of the piece is in flight, where Steiner steps away from moody Civil War flavours for a bit of jolification.It is however with the ending where the film could have died on its own sword or thrive, having asked us to invest greatly in Barstow's own - Magnificent Seven - Wild Bunch - The Professionals etc, we need to care about the outcome, to feel it.
The action excites, the stunts and speedy set plays hold court, then the heroism and chest pushed out bravery of it all pays us off - capped off by a character order that tingles the senses as Steiner gives us a "Dixie" lament.This may not have the bluster of Flynn's other more well known Westerns, and certainly it's not one to be picking up if one is after a mood lifter.
Not an especially great movie and it's slow moving in the middle.But here's the deal: Errol Flynn's character does VOICE OVER at the beginning.
By the time Errol made this film, he'd walked through a number of Westerns including his previous venture, where he played, of all things, a sheep-herder, in "Montanta".
Yet from the outhouse to the penthouse Flynn transitioned into Rocky Mountain which goes down as his last but also one of his best Westerns.There's an authentic, grainy feel in this black and white adventure by co-Robin Hood Director, William Keighley.
Of note are two great scenes where "real" Indians attack a stagecoach plus the final confrontation between Flynn's men.
Maybe it tells us a lot about the attitudes to race of the Hollywood film studios.Errol Flynn is a Confederate officer whose small band of men travel 2000 miles to California to meet up with southern sympathisers and outlaws to stir up rebellion.
They then have to contend with the girl's fiancé, a Union cavalry officer who comes looking for her with his troops and some Indian scouts.When it turns out that the Indian scouts have betrayed the Union soldiers, Flynn and his small army are overwhelmed by the Indians and decide to sacrifice themselves to save the girl.The film was photographed in New Mexico and has a John Ford feel to it with some of the photography, however the nighttime battle scenes ends up at the viewer looking at a dark screen!Flynn does well as a jaded but gallant officer but the film lacks action with plenty of lulls, there is some good horse chase sequences, a decent battle at the end with the Indians and a loyal dog that will bring a tear to the most cynical eye..
Errol Flynn was a great actor and he could save useless script or poor film.
THis one is nothing unusual - typical western of Civil War times, with all the impossibly trite clichés - Indians, rocks, horses, lady in love, long talks, terribly poor pavilion shots, bravura music, sped-up battles, silly faces and caricature evil men.
This somewhat off-beat Civil War western pairs an in-decline Errol Flynn with his 3rd wife, Patrice Wymore.
William Jacobs was producer and the solid direction was by William Keighley.Errol Flynn stars as a Confederate officer (his first time to do so) who with a small contingent of seven men travel 2000 miles to California to rendezvous with an outlaw who has promised to provide 500 men to join with them in the south's faltering struggle.
Excellent is Scott Forbes as the formidable Union officer and the girl's fiancé, Slim Pickens in his first movie, Sheb Wooley, the likable Chubby Johnson as the Stage driver and Howard Petrie as the dubious and distrustful outlaw Cole Smith.Beautifully photographed in Monochrome by ace cinematographer Ted McCord ("Treasure Of The Sierra Madre"/ "The Hanging Tree") in amazing location sites in and around Gallup, New Mexico the picture also boasts a brilliant score by the great Max Steiner.
"Rocky Mountain" is also part of a four movie western box set of Flynn which also contains "San Antonio", "Montana" and the excellent "Virginia City".Nice one - Warner Home Video but where oh where is "Silver River"??.
Says Lafe Barstow, captain in the army of the Confederate States of America, about his command: "Six rattle-headed kids and an old man...Kip Waterson, the baby-faced heir to a plantation...Pierre Duchesne, from French Louisiana...Pat Dennison, an old man, really, but a hard, reckless fighter who never gave ground while he lived...Kay Rawlins from the Mississippi steamboats, a rough and friendly man as the Indians now found out...Jimmy Wheat, a little red neck cropper who could fight like a wildcat with hydrophobia, who carried a useless little dog for 2,000 miles...Jonas Weatherby, the Texan, a seasoned plainsman at 18...Plank, another real plainsman, hard and bitter, with chain gang scars on his legs at 22..." They've come 2,000 miles with orders to raise an army among the Confederate sympathizers in California in a last-chance effort to draw the Union armies away from Lee. It's 1865.
"We just put it off awhile." Rocky Mountain, in its small-scale way, is a good movie..
The ending also smacks of "A Tale of Two Cities", with Barstow's bunch acting as a diversionary lure to deflect a capture of Union commander Rickey's fiancé: Johanna(Patrice Wymore) by the Shoshone.
Also, now realizing that their mission to help capture CA is a certain failure, even if they should escape, they change their mission to saving Johanna.Unlike most westerns of the time, there is little small talk humor in the film.
Errol Flynn was the hell raisers hellraiser lucky to survive to 50.However up to the early 1950s he could just about pull him self together to swash a reasonable buckle in such films as "Against all Flags" and "The Master of Ballentrae", even as late as 1955in the "Dark Avenger" there was still a trace of the old magnificent Flynn,then the rapid decline.Rocky Mountain was the last western Flynn made and it's not bad at all his lived in face was just right for the character he was playing a war weary Confederate cavalry captain called Lafe Barstow who in March 1865 is under orders with 7 troopers to travel 2000 miles to California meet up with local outlaw Cole Smith and his men and start a war there,mission impossible from the start.
things start to go wrong when they go to the rescue of a stagecoach under attack from a Shoshone war party they save the life of the driver and his young female passenger(Patrice Wymore) Things get even more complicated when her fiancé(Scot Forbes)a union officer is captured when he comes to her rescue.The plot then has many twists and turns,Forbes character escapes and is presumed killed when there is the sound of gun fire,with the Shoshone gathering for a mass attack Flynn and his men in an act of Southern chivalry decide to act as decoys to draw the Shoshone off allowing Miss Wymore and the stagecoach driver to make their escape the ruse works but Flynn and his men they find themselves trapped in a box canyon."they have seen our backs now let them see our faces"then with the Confederate banner flying they charge head first in to the Shoshone and are heroically slaughtered.
Flynn's demise is similar to his death in"They Died With There Boots On"Forbes has escaped but turns up to late with the Yankee cavalry,They are buried with full military honours and while the Confederate flag is flown from the highest butte the Warner Brothers choir sing a moving version of Dixie it is a truly awesome scene,Warner Brothers recycled it in all there t.v. westerns in the next decade when Ifirst saw this film as a lad the whole cinema audience stood up and cheered(we were all English for goodness sake)this is a fine film with many pleasures not least FLynn's boys Slim Pickens,Guinn Williams utterly reliable, Sheb Wooley who forgets his southern chivalry when he makes a pass at Miss Wymore he redeems him self at the end.
Dickie Jones plays a 16 year old he has a nice moment when he tells Miss Wymore of the time at Gettysburg when General Lee(the most beloved of American generals) graciously excepts a skillet lid of black eyed peas,"Thank you son that's elegent"Flynn mentions that he has a large plantation back home were the cotton fields extent as far as the eye can see does that make him a slave owner ha also says that his Lady died a long time ago,A natural death or a war crime the film dosen't elaborate on either point,indeed the causes of the war are not mentioned Flynn is excellent his charismatic officer is similar to the one he played in "Operation Burma"As a last thought the Confederate cavalry in films such as "The Last Outpost"and Two flags West" seem to spend all their time rescuing the Yankees from rampaging indians who are attacking their forts, it's a pity the yanks can't re turn the compliment here..
Excellent and underrated Western starring Errol Flynn.
And although Flynn's star was beginning to fade by this time, he is still excellent here -- a very pleasing mix of rugged and a gentleman.The story is a bit different than what we usually see in Western -- it's actually about a group of Confederate soldiers that are on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, preparing to raise a band of less than noble men to start trouble and turn the Civil War around by changing the balance of power in the West.
Errol Flynn (Lafe Barstow), Patrice Wymore (Johanna Carter), Scott Forbes (Lieutenant Rickey), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Pap Dennison), Dick Jones (Jim Wheat), Howard Petrie (Cole Smith), Slim Pickens (Plank), Chubby Johnson (Gil Craigie), Buzz Henry (Kip Waterson), Sheb Wooley (Kay Rawlins), Peter Coe (Pierre Duchesne), Rush Williams (Jonas Weatherby), Steve Dunhill (Ash), Alex Sharp (Barnes), Yakima Canutt (Ryan), Nakai Snez (Man Dog).Director: WILLIAM KEIGHLEY.
Censored to 7,427 feet (82 minutes) in the U.K.SYNOPSIS: Flynn's last western sees him as a Confederate officer sent with a small group of soldiers to California where they are supposed to meet with a powerful group of outlaws and persuade them to take the territory in the name of the Confederacy.
The Confederate soldiers repel the Indians and inside the stagecoach is a beautiful young woman, Wymore, who was on her way to meet her fiancé, Forbes, a Union Army officer.
The Confederates manage to capture the Yankees, but then the Indians launch a massive attack.NOTES: Film debut of Slim Pickens.COMMENT: Meticulously directed by William Keighley, incorporating a most exciting chase sequence (doubtless staged by Yakima Canutt) right at the very start, this beautifully photographed mainly-on- actual-locations, Civil War western runs through its 83 minutes in commendably short order.
Oh well, up until the finale in both pictures, he did a pretty good job.Actually, Flynn plays it decidedly low key here as Captain Lafe Barstow, leading a rag tag group of seven other un-uniformed Confederate soldiers on a mission in California.
No stranger to cavalry films, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams appears as crusty veteran Pap Dennison, along with Western movie mainstays like Slim Pickens and Chubby Johnson.
Rocky Mountain High And Low. Rocky Mountain was the eighth and last western film for Errol Flynn and in it he plays in the climax a version of one of his better known cowboy epics, They Died With Their Boots On. While Flynn was leaving the genre, Rocky Mountain provided debuts for two character actors much associated with westerns, Slim Pickens and Sheb Woolley.
Does it get more ridiculous than that?On the way the group rescues Patrice Wymore from an Indian attack on a stagecoach along with driver Chubby Johnson and then captures a Yankee patrol sent after them because Wymore is the betrothed of army lieutenant Scott Forbes who is in command.
But on the plus side Rocky Mountain has some great location cinematography from New Mexico where it is shot and a great performance from Errol Flynn who is not playing a dashing hero, but a rather weary and jaded individual who is really sick of the war.
Not unlike the real Errol Flynn at the time.And it has a gallant charge right into the Indians as the Confederates make their last stand.
Rocky Mountain is not the greatest of westerns, but it's not a bad one for Errol Flynn to close that chapter of his career with..
"Rocky Mountain" represented Errol Flynn's last hurrah in a western at Warner Brothers.
This stalwart little 83-minute oater occurs against the backdrop of the American Civil War with Captain Lafe Barstow (Errol Flynn of "Virgina City") and a squad of Confederate soldiers riding into California to rendezvous with Southern sympathizers.
"G-Men" director William Keighley concluded his career with this feisty little western and "Rocky Mountain" is a good western, unlike the previous Flynn vehicle "Montana." Errol looks pretty tough in the opening scenes with a beard, but he shaves it off later so that he appears as he usually did with a mustache.
Seeing it again yesterday I realized how good this film is nowadays, of all Flynn' s westerns it is the one that less aged.
Great cinematography in black and white, great music by Max Steiner, great performance of Flynn, excellent actors like Slim Pickens.