[6] Gregory Peck stars in William Wellman’s (The Ox-Bow Incident, The Story of G.I. Joe) eerie western about a band of thieves that wander into a Death Valley ghost town where a young woman (Anne Baxter) and her grandfather have struck gold. Yellow Sky is about the uneasy relationship between the two parties, a matter complicated by visiting Apache Indians and infighting within Peck’s crew. …
[7] Three orphans grow up together as brothers under the care of a kindly benefactor. When they’re old enough, they join the Foreign Legion, but their dreams of adventure are dashed when a sinister sergeant turns their first outpost into a last stand. There are shades of Gunga Din here, but it’s not nearly as carefree or uplifting as that movie. The final act is …
[7] This isn’t the romanticized WWII of modern cinema, it’s probably closer to the real thing. The Story of G.I. Joe is based on print journalist Ernie Pyle’s interviews with soldiers in the field. Pyle was in the foxholes with them, and he was in it for the long haul. His newspaper column became the public’s window into life on the battlefield. William Wellman’s (The …
[7] James Cagney makes his breakthrough performance as a Chicago street kid who becomes a successful gangster during prohibition. I don’t usually like gangster movies, but director William Wellman (Wings, The Ox-Bow Incident) frames The Public Enemy as a cautionary tale with a moral ending — it doesn’t glamorize the lifestyle like so many more modern movies do. And while I may not relate with …
[5] Robert Mitchum headlines this William Wellman flick about a family battling their personal demons while also trying to hunt and destroy a near-mythical black panther that is preying on their cattle during a deadly snowstorm. Mitchum plays one of three brothers, along with William Hopper and Tab Hunter. Mitchum and Hopper go off into the blizzard to kill the panther, but the family’s just as …
[6] John Wayne leads an ensemble cast in this William Wellman film about the passengers and crew of a trans-Pacific flight who experience engine failure and a loss of fuel. When they realize they won’t reach the California shore, everyone prepares for the worst. The High and the Mighty plays more like a straight drama than the disaster flicks that would come after it in the 1970s. …
[7] In 1880’s Nevada, news spreads of the murder of a local cattle farmer, inciting a few dozen townspeople to form a posse hellbent on lynching those responsible for the crime. Based on the book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark and directed by the always-thoughtful William Wellman (Wings, Battleground), The Ox-Bow Incident is a relatively simple, straight-forward meditation on mob mentality and vigilante justice. When …
[8] It’s the Great Depression and young boys (and a few girls) are running away from home to lessen the burden on their poor families. This movie follows two boys, played by Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips, who hop aboard train after train trying to find food and work. Along the way, they befriend a girl played by Dorothy Coonan Wellman. The three become part …
[7] Van Johnson and Ricardo Montalban are among the men holed up under snow and fog in William Wellman’s (Wings) depiction of the Battle of the Bulge. Unlike most other war films of the time, Battleground is more of a character study than an action film, tracing the remarkable spirit of the men who endured the long siege. The acting is good all around, and …
[8] Director William Wellman took a full year to shoot it and was nearly fired for his perfectionism, but the gamble paid off. Wings was a huge success at the box office and became the first ever Oscar-winning Best Picture. At two-and-a-half hours, it runs a little too long, but it’s well paced and very well acted. The spectacular aerial battle sequences are what the …
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