1957
The United States of America
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The Tall T is a film that many will probably never see. It’s not because it isn’t a great film or a particularly rare one. The reason that many will probably never see it is because everything about it seems like a stereotypical Western. In a genre that has been milked as dry as the Western, some would argue even to the point that it is impossible to say anything new with it, few would probably want to take the time to watch such an unassuming film. It stars one of the great cowboys of the silver screen, Randolph Scott, in the lead role. But he doesn’t have the star power that actors like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, or Henry Fonda maintain to this day. To many, Scott’s image on the movie poster or DVD case for The Tall T probably wouldn’t seem any different than any other B-movie actor that inundated the Western genre. The story seems too familiar. Scott must save the damsel in distress being held for ransom from a gang of outlaws. How many times have we encountered that story? And finally, the name itself, The Tall T, doesn’t really do anything to grab a potential viewer’s imagination. It doesn’t have any nostalgic romanticism that titles like High Noon or Stagecoach. But perhaps all of these things are what makes The Tall T such a good film. It doesn’t insist upon itself. It knows the rules of the game and is content to play by them. By doing so, The Tall T transforms itself into one of the purest concentrations of Western cinema ever committed to celluloid.
It’s starts of simply enough. Pat Brennan (Randolph), a tough old cowboy, rides into a stagecoach way station to get some water for his journey into town. It’s obvious that he knows the station manager and his young son. The boy can hardly wait to see him and begs him to let him water his horse. Brennan and the station manager pass jokes good naturedly and the boy asks him to bring him some candy from town. The old cowpoke agrees. Despite his tough-as-leather exterior, he has a soft spot in his heart for the boy. He promises to bring him some on his way back.
After he gets into town, he loses his horse in a bet. Forced to return back to the station in foot, we get a comical scene of him walking down a desert road wearing the very saddle that he rode into town on. In fact, the entire film so far has a friendly tone, much like John Ford’s Stagecoach(1939) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). It’s clear that he would rather not wear the saddle, but he takes it in stride. Just another day as a cowboy…
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Thankfully, he isn’t forced to walk the whole way back to the station. He is picked up by his friend Rintoon, a stagecoach driver, who was transporting newlyweds Willard and Doretta Mims. Willard initially refuses to let him on board, but Doretta convinces him to change his mind. As Brennan joins Rintoon at the front of the stage coach, he jokes that this would be the first time he’d been on a honeymoon.
But the jokes end as soon as they return to the station. They are held up by a band of thieves led by Frank Usher. One of them, a heartless killer named Chink, kills Rintoon. It turns out that they were trying to ambush another coach. Nevertheless, they get ready to kill Brennan and the Mims. It’s obvious that they mean business seeing as how they murdered the station manager and his son and threw their bodies down the same well that the boy had used to water Brennan’s horse.
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But perhaps I am telling too much about the plot. The rest of the movie transpires in a predictable fashion. The husband cowardly offers his wife for a ransom, is killed after delivering their demands to her father, Brennan and Doretta fall in love, and they manage to outsmart and kill the three bandits. As I said, the plot is pretty standard Western fare. It’s how the director, Budd Boetticher, commands all the different elements of the story and characters together that makes The Tall T such a powerful film. In the incredible three part documentary A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), Scorsese explains, “Budd Boetticher explored the bare essentials of the genre. His style was as simple as his impassive heroes; deceptively simple. The archetypes of the genre were distilled to the point of abstraction…The choreography of basic human passions was his forte. In the seven Westerns he made with Randolph Scott, Boetticher always gave precedence to character over action.”
To truly understand what Scorsese means, one need only to examine the most important relationship in the film. It is not the one between Brennan and Doretta, but between Usher and Brennan. Scorsese explains, “In the power play, the hero and the villain were complimentary figures. They shared the same loneliness, the same dreams, and the same ethical code. Somehow, the gentleman and the desperado were fascinated by each other.” The scene where they talk over a campfire about their hopes and aspirations brings to mind the famous coffee shop scene with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro from Michael Mann’s Heat (1995). Both men are obviously impressed by each other. They admire each others’ skills and abilities. Usher obviously respects Brennan more than his own trigger happy men. Brennan realizes that not only is Usher not a simple criminal, but he is someone who may have turned out like him if life hadn’t dealt him harder breaks. But they leave with the knowledge that they could not be partners or friends and that they will eventually have to destroy each other.
Under Boetticher’s direction, even simple cliché’s take on deeper meanings. One of the great unspoken rules of the West is that you never shoot a man in the back. As an undiluted Western, the characters comply with the rule. Well, at least Brennan does. While Chink is content to shoot Mr. Mims in the back when he flees back to town, Brennan warns him before shooting him so that he has a chance to turn around and fire back. This code is so important to Brennan and so intrinsic to his character that he even lets Usher go after killing his two men because it would mean shooting him as he fled. It was only after Usher returns for the ransom money that Brennan can kill him and ride into the sun with Doretta. Instead of merely pertaining to cinematic traditions, the act of not shooting Usher in the back proves the integrity of Brennan’s character.
While some Westerns play to the balconies with epic gun battles, over the top villains, and fantastic set pieces, The Tall T is content with remaining a simple film. It is a story of tough men and an even tougher environment. It is a story where the villains are as honorable as the heroes, at least in their own way. It is a story that has been told since the first cowboy drove his first herd of cattle. While it is an old story, The Tall T is one of its best incarnations. Where other Westerns would run ahead and burn out, The Tall T just keeps rolling on from one town to the next, happy to enjoy the scenery and wondering what is behind that sunset after all.
Interesting genre choice. This is a very well-rounded blog!
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you. I do what I can.
ReplyDeleteAs a professional journalist and copy editor, it's wonderful to see good writing and analysis points, both of which stood out in your review of "The Tall T" (found in looking for more details on this flick when it recently appeared on the Encore Western channel-- probably the best place to catch older, obscure Westerns in their entirety). I never would've noticed the Hero-Villain interaction if you hadn't pointed out their opposite-yet-the-same relationship to each other. Excellent take on a movie that easily could be overlooked.
ReplyDeleteThe same can be said for all of the Boetticher/Scott cycle of Westerns. I may be revisiting them on this site soon...
DeleteHmm...I'll need to re-watch this movie before I respond to you properly. It's been over 3 years since I watched it...
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed your synopsis and analysis of both the movie and the relationships between the characters. Finished watching the movie just minutes ago and went online to ready other's interpretations of our own thoughts. Your comments provided us with this additional insight. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteVery glad to hear it! Thank you!
DeleteThe moment when Scott hits his head coming out of the old mine was unscripted. He really hit his head, Richard Boone laughed, then the three actors and the director, Budd Boetticher,improvised a scene where the bad guys had a laugh at the Scott character's expense.
ReplyDeleteIt's not out of character because Brennan (Scott) made a dumb mistake that lost him his horse at the beginning of the movie. And he's good-natured enough to laugh at himself.
Hitting his head and getting laughed at breaks the tension with something we've never seen before, the hero banging his head on a door. It's like something from an Ed Wood movie, and like the mistakes in an Ed Wood movie it was a real mistake.
Boetticher told me that himself.
As usual, it was Richard Boone that made this movie interesting. He had that way about him, you can't take your eyes off him. It was totally within his character of Frank Usher to gently pull the blanket up as the lady slept. He was currently stuck in the life he led, but had he gotten away with the money, I think he would've gone far away, bought a ranch, and lived a good and happy life...that was really what he wanted.
ReplyDeletesimple and effective stuff it is much better than the merely spectacular one,I really love these movies made in the fifties undeservedly considered B western movies, I am sure Sergio Leone learned a lot by Bud Boetticher.
ReplyDeleteIn this great movie the photography is great too and the frames are accurate and never casual,everything seems to be real.We should never understate these movies!
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