The Sheepman United States 1958 Dirctor: George Marshall
Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen
Rating: 4 out of 5
This movie is a combination of comedy and drama. Jason Sweet comes to a small town in the wild west, Powder Valley. Within half an hour, he has gotten to know young Dell Payton (Shirley MacLaine), he has bought an excellent horse for only $40 and beaten up the toughest cowboy in the town, Jumbo (Mickey Shaugnessy). After that, he tells the people in the town why he has come: he is a sheep farmer going to setttle down in the town. The grazing rights are open to everybody but sofar nobody has dared to bring sheep to a town ruled by cattle ranchers who are afraid that sheep and cattle won't mix.
One of the ruling cattle rancers is his old partner Johnny Bledsoe. They haven't seen each other since they became enemies. Bledsoe now calls himself Colonel Bedford and has kept his old life a secret in order to be able to romance Dell Payton.
So far as I can remember, I have never seen a Glenn Ford movie (where he has gotten principal credits) who has disappointed me. He has done all kinds of movies: film noir as in The Big Heat (1953), comedy as in The Gazebo (1959) and drama, The Blackboard Jungle (1955) but in general he is playing the same kind of character in his movies, the calm and collected everyday-hero, showing courage under pressure. Playing a cowboy who beats up people might be an exception, a middle-class civil servant is his kind of characters. It was during these years, the end of the 1950s his career peaked. None of the main characters, Ford, MacLaine or Leslie Nielsen are doing something special, but I notice the supporting characters: Mickey Shaughnessy as Jumbo is doing a great job.
Copyright Mattias Thuresson 1997
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