THE PROUD ONES – 1956A much better than I was expecting western from the middle of the heyday of the genre.Robert Ryan is a lawman in a railhead town at the end of the cattle trail. He tries to play fair with everyone, and tells the just arrived cowhands etc to behave themselves. It they cause no trouble, they will not get any from Ryan and his deputies, Walter Brennan and Arthur O'Connell.Ryan is keeping company with Virginia Mayo, who runs a boarding house in town. He is finally going to pop the question and ask for her hand in marriage. This happy turn of events is soon interrupted by the return of several past problems.First is the son, Jeffery Hunter, of a gunslinger Ryan had killed some years before. The son is looking for maybe a little payback. He has heard that Ryan had gunned his father when the man was unarmed. Hunter wants to decide if Ryan is indeed a back shooter. The second, and bigger problem, is the new saloon and gambling hall owner, Robert Middleton. Middleton, who goes by the unlikely name of "Honest John Barrett" runs anything but a honest set-up.It does not take long before Ryan catches a card sharp in Middleton's saloon, doing a bit of underhand card playing. Ryan runs the card sharp out of the place. One of Middleton's guns goes for Ryan from behind. Hunter, who is having a beer, shouts out a warning to Ryan. The gun hand puts one in Hunter's leg and grazes Ryan in the head before Ryan drops the four flusher.Ryan has Hunter put up at Miss Mayo's place to heal up. Ryan intends to ride close watch on Middleton's action. The deal with the two is that there is bad blood between them. The two had squared off in a different cow town before. Ryan had left that burg because his girl, Mayo had asked. Middleton had mistakenly taken this as cowardice on Ryan's part. Another twist is that Hunter's father was in Middleton's employ when he bought it.Hunter recovers and is given a job as a jailer by Ryan. Ryan sits the kid down and tells him that his dad was a low-life gunman. Hunter does not like hearing this but can see that Ryan seems to have the respect of the town.The one deputy, Arthur O'Connell, quits in order to be with his with child, wife. Hunter is offered the job, which he takes. Ryan is slowly filling up the jail with Middleton's crew as they get caught rolling winners at the table etc. The pit boss at Middleton's saloon, George Mathews kills a man for calling him a cheat. Ryan adds him to the jail house residents. Middleton has had enough of Ryan and sends for his two best guns, Ken Clark and Rodolfo Acosta.Adding to Ryan's problems is that the head wound he got earlier is causing bouts of 2 or 3 minutes of blurred vision. This of course he keeps to himself. Clark and Acosta make a late night play at bushwhacking Ryan on his rounds. Ryan has to run for it as a bout of blurred vision hits.The next night he takes Hunter along on his rounds. Acosta makes another play at Ryan. This however ends with Acosta getting some unneeded changes to his breathing process. Acosta's partner, Clark, does not like this and grabs a few of Middleton's men for a raid on the jail house. They free Mathews etc and kill guard Brennan.Ryan hears the shooting and comes a running. He finds Hunter exchanging shots with Clark, Mathews and bunch. Ryan and Hunter chase the villains into a large barn on the edge of town. There is a long gun battle during which Ryan has another bout of blindness. He also catches a round in his gun arm. Hunter though is up to the task and the gunmen are soon ready for Boot Hill.All that remains is to put the pinch on ringleader Middleton. Middleton is not inclined to go peacefully and goes for a hidden gun. Hunter is not fooled by the move and puts Middleton down for the count. Ryan and Mayo ride off to start a new life and Hunter is the new town lawman.Also in the cast are Edward Platt, Fay Roope, Richard Deacon and Whit Bissell.The director was Robert D. Webb. Webb was a long time second unit man whose films after making the move to main chair, include, THE GLORY BRIGADE, THE SPIDER, WHITE FEATHER, BENEATH THE 12 REEF, GUNS OF THE TIMBERLAND and Elvis's first film, LOVE ME TENDER.The look of the film is just what one would expect from top notch cinematographer, Lucien Ballard. Ballard lensed, HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL, FIXED BAYONETS, BERLIN EXPRESS, DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, THE GLORY BRIGADE, INFERNO, THE KILLER IS LOOSE, BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, CITY OF FEAR, NEVADA SMITH, WILL PENNY, HOUR OF THE GUN, TRUE GRIT, THE WILD BUNCH and THE GETAWAY.The film features a rather subdued and haunting theme from Lionel Newman.Ryan is Ryan. Did he ever turn in anything but a great performance? Hunter is good while a mustache wearing Brennan is at his scene stealing best in his limited screen time.Unlike most westerns, this one is not set out in the big spaces. It instead makes great use of the town as the backdrop for all the gun-play and double dealing. Most of the action takes place at night which works quite well.

"The Proud Ones" (1956) is a town-Western where practically the entire story takes place within the confines of a Western town set, like "Rio Bravo," which came out three years later. At 94 minutes, "The Proud Ones" is more streamlined than the overlong "Rio Bravo," not that it makes it better (it doesn't).Robert Ryan plays the righteous sheriff in a thankless job, the beautiful Virginia Mayo is his babe, Robert Middleton plays the villainous saloon owner and Jeffrey Hunter the young buck who signs on as deputy at a dangerous time, even though the sheriff killed his father and the tensions thereof.This is a decent Western with Ryan shining in the main role, but it's hampered by some "yeah, right" dramatics. For instance, Hunter's macho posturing early on (which may be the writer's fault), his character's unnecessary rough handling of Sally while he's wounded in bed (Why sure!) (I think Hunter's a stud enough to get practically any woman he wants any time he wants without resorting to nigh forcible rape), and his stubborn refusal to see evidence that Chico pulled a gun after a shootout (it just doesn't ring true).Writing like this makes "The Proud Ones" seem more like a TV show than a theatrical film, but, then again, maybe that's just the lame way they wrote screenplays in the 50s, I don't know.Still, it's got a lot to make it worthwhile, particularly the strong cast.GRADE: C+

My brother gave me this movie for Christmas because he knows I love Robert Ryan. There's just something about middle-aged character actors from the "golden age" of Hollywood that appeals to me; they're so cool and tough in ways that modern actors just can't match.And this movie did not disappoint me. Ryan is great in it. He's macho and wise but also vulnerable. There were times when I was genuinely worried that the bad guys would get the upper hand over him.In fact, quite a lot of this movie is suspenseful. It has many unexpected twists, not only in terms of "surprise" action but also character development. The constantly evolving relationship between Ryan and Jeffrey Hunter is a particular source of interest.Even the mandatory love interest - Virginia Mayo - gets a lot of solid character development, though she does disappear from the movie for somewhat long periods of time.Best scene? When Ryan rips into the cowardly town council. It's simply awesome.

Twentieth-Century-Fox was second only to Warner Bros. in rehashing the plot lines of its earlier films. "The Proud Ones" was made a mere four years after "Red Skies of Montana" - but the similarities between the films are only too obvious. The newer film even features the same star, Jeffrey Hunter. Not only that, "The Proud Ones" incorporates music cues that Sol Kaplan composed for "Red Skies of Montana." The story of the Cinemascope picture is bound to evoke deja vu: a young upstart seeks vengeance on an older man he believes is responsible for the death of his father. As the young man, Jeffrey Hunter deserves credit for lending credibility to a character whose actions are anything but credible. He did the same miraculous job in "Red Skies of Montana." If anyone thinks Hunter was just a pretty face, his subtle work in these films should prove he had much more to offer.The rest of the cast in "The Proud Ones" is also excellent, helping to make this one heck of a movie. Unlike its also good predecessor, this "remake" is a western. The genre was obviously chosen to make it seem different from the original. But make no mistake, the two movies are essentially the same. Watch them both and enjoy!