Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]
by Henry Hathaway
![Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]](/images/Shepherd-of-the-Hills-VHS-078321541X-L.jpg)
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Product details
Actor: Betty Field, Beulah Bondi, Harry Carey, James Barton, John WayneDirector: Henry Hathaway
Cinematographer: Charles Lang
Cinematographer: W. Howard Greene
Editor: Ellsworth Hoagland
Producer: Jack Moss
Writer: Grover Jones
Writer: Harold Bell Wright
Writer: Stuart Anthony
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
Release Date: 1998-02-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios
VHS Movie Reviews of Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]
Movie Review: Ignored but Worth Viewing
Summary: 5 Stars
"Shepherd of the Hills" is such a good film it's surprising that most people have never heard of it. It's even more surprising since the cast is outstanding - John Wayne, Harry Carey Sr., Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Marjorie Main, Marc Lawrence, John Qualen, and Fuzzy Knight. Moreover it's directed by Oscar winning director Henry Hathaway. One can only conclude that its appearance in 1941 and the unusual nature of the content conspired to keep this film a secret.
The film takes its title (but little else) from the 1907 novel by Harold Wright. It was adapted to the screen by Stuart Anthony who wrote several westerns as well as Ozark films (e.g., "Girls of the Ozarks", 1936) and Grover Jones who worked with director Hathaway on previous projects (e.g., "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine", 1936). Fans of the novel need to put it aside and look at the film as a separate piece of work.
The novel was put to film in 1919 with the collaboration of Harold Wright. It was originally scheduled to be filmed in Branson, but cost factors made the decision to shoot in California. The original was closer to the novel than the 1941 version.
The film focuses on 3 people - John Wayne (who plays the son of a woman who was abandoned by her husband), Betty Field (his girlfriend), and Harry Carey Sr. (a stranger to the Ozarks who buys the land on which Wayne's mother is buried).
John Wayne was a bankable box office draw at the time. He'd made nearly 100 films by 1941, although most of them had been forgettable B westerns. Then in 1939 he made "Stagecoach" with John Ford, and his new career as a major star began. Stagecoach earned 5 Oscars including Best Picture. Wayne followed up with "Dark Command" (1940) directed by Rail Walsh, and then a series of war movies (e.g., "Flying Tigers" in 1942, "The Fighting Seabees" in 1944, "Back to Bataan" and "They Were Expendable" in 1945) and his classic westerns including "3 Godfathers" (1948), "Fort Apache" (1948), "Red River" (1948), "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949, "Rio Bravo" (1959), and "The Alamo" (1960) . Wayne was nominated for Best Actor for "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949) and he would finally earn an Oscar for "True Grit" (1969), which was directed by Henry Hathaway who directs this film.
In "Shepherd of the Hills" we get to glimpse the last vestiges of the old Wayne. He is on his way to big time movie stardom, but we get can still see the old B actor in many scenes. It's quite charming and nostalgic.
Harry Carey Sr. was one of the first western stars of the silent film era, and we have him to thank for getting John Ford his first few jobs. Over a 40 year career he appeared in more than 200 films and was nominated once for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939). Carey was a hero to the young John Wayne, and Carey's son, Harry Carey Jr., was virtually adopted by the Duke and appeared in dozen of Wayne's films beginning with "Red River" (1948). Carey's wife, Olive, also appeared in several Wayne films, most notably in "The Searchers" (1956) that also prominently featured her son.
With powerful actors since as Wayne and Carey, it's remarkable that young Betty Field steals the show. Field is best remembered for her body of work on Broadway, but she made more than a dozen films including Mae in "Of Mice and Men" (1939), incest victim Cassandra in "Kings Row" (1942) and Nellie in "Peyton Place" (1957).
If Betty Field is a standout as the well meaning good hearted girl, Beulah Bondi shows her chops as an evil elder with nothing but venom in her heart. Bondi was nominated twice for Best Supporting Actress ("Of Human Hearts" in 1938 and "The Gorgeous Hussy" in 1936) and won an Emmy in 1977. She is best remembered for playing Granny in 1948s "So Dear to My Heart" in which she plays the polar opposite of her role as Aunt Mollie in this film.
Ward Bond was a football player at USC with his life time friend, John Wayne, and together they appeared in nearly a dozen films including "They Were Expendable" (1945), "Fort Apache" (1948), "3 Godfathers" (1948), "The Searchers" (1956), "Wings of Eagles" (1957), and "Rio Bravo" (1959). Without Wayne, Bond was also a staple in Ford's stock company and appeared in "Young Mr. Lincoln" (1939), "Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)", "My Darling Clementine" (1946), and "The Grapes of Wrath (1940) among the 25 films they made together. He's probably best remembered for his role as Major Seth Adams on the TV series "Wagon Train" (1957 - 1961), based on the 1950 film "Wagon Master" in which he appeared. Bond was in more Top 100 AFI films (7) than any other actor, and appeared in 11 films that were nominated as Best Picture. His part in "Shepherd" is small: he plays Wayne's cousin and the two have a big fist fight in the middle of the film.
Marc Lawrence plays against type as a simpleton who lost his voice when struck by lightening. Pock faced Lawrence was best known for his gangster roles in films like "This Gun for Hire" (1942), "Dillinger" (1945), "Key Largo" (1948), and "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950). He was victimized during the McCarthy era and his film roles shrunk.
John Qualen was part of the Wayne/Ford stock company. He made nearly 200 films, 9 of them directed by John Ford and 4 with Wayne but not Ford - "Shepherd of the Hills", "The High and the Mighty" (1954), and "North to Alaska (1960) directed by Hathaway, and "Donovan's Reef" (1963). My favorite John Qualen role was as Lars in "The Searchers" (1956). Qualen has a small role as one of the mountain people.
Fuzzy Knight made nearly 200 films, many of them as the comic sidekick in westerns, often with Tex Ritter or Johnny Mack Brown, although he was also utilized by such comedy stars as Mae West and W.C. Fields. He used a characteristic stutter to gain comic edge, but in fact he had no stutter and had a beautiful singing voice which is on display in this film (reminiscent of another Wayne favorite, Ken Curtis). Fuzzy has a small part as a mountain man. This was his only film with Wayne, as Wayne rarely used sidekicks.
Marjorie Main has a brief role as a blind woman whose sight is restored. We know her best as Ma Kettle from the "Ma and Pa Kettle" film series (1947 - 1957). She was nominated for an Oscar for "The Egg and I" (1947) and a Golden Globe for "Friendly Persuasion" (1956) and appeared in more than 50 films as diverse as "Dead End" (1937) and "The Harvey Girls" (1946). Her role is small, but she does a terrific job, and the key plot point belongs to her.
Henry Hathaway directs. Hathaway and Wayne worked together on several films, including "North to Alaska" (1960), "Sons of Katie Elder" (1965) and "True Grit" (1969). Hathaway specialized in westerns from his earliest films - "Heritage of the Desert" (1932), "Wild Horse Mesa" (1932) - to his later films - "Shootout" (1971), "5 Card Stud" (1968), yet curiously enough his only nomination for an Oscar was for "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" (1935), and his best known films are non-Westerns (e.g., "Of Human Bondage", "Call Northside 777", "The Desert Fox"). He once said "To be a good director you've got to be a bastard. I'm a bastard and I know it."
"Shepherd" is a follow up to Hathaway's earlier Ozark film, "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (1936), which was also in Technicolor (in fact, Hathaway won an Oscar for his use of color). The earlier film was co-written by Grover Jones who co-wrote "Shepherd" and features Beulah Bondi and Fuzzy Knight, both of whom are in this film. Many of the supporting actors (e.g., Samuel Hinds, Hank Bell, Jim Corey, Charles Middleton) appear in both films. Both films had principal photography in Big Bear and Cedar Lake. "Shepherd" also shot in Branson Missouri.
This was Wayne's first Technicolor film and the photography by Charles Lang is beautiful. Lang was nominated more times for an Oscar than any other Director of Photography (18 times), but won only once - "A Farewell to Arms" (1934). The nearly 150 films he photographed differed in content and style, as Lang was an eclectic. He lensed such diverse films as "Wait Until Dark" (1967), "How the West was Won" (1962), "Some Like it Hot" (1959), "The Big Heat" (1953),"A Foreign Affair" (1948), "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947), and "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" (1935).
See this film. Fans of Wayne will enjoy it thoroughly. The acting from everyone is superb throughout, the photography is breath taking, and the direction is taut. This brief peak at the life in the early 20th century Ozarks is really instructive.
Summary of Shepherd of the Hills [VHS]
Director Henry Hathaway never hesitated to return to a picturesque location that had served him well. There's no more striking example than his sequel-in-spirit to the enchanting early-Technicolor Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936). This time, the enchantment is darker, just as Charles Lang Jr.'s stunning cinematography represents a quantum leap in sophistication over Trail's pleasant pictorialism. The long-running Appalachian feud of the earlier film is replaced by a spooky familial curse that has almost literally poisoned one Ozark household and could perpetuate a tragic cycle of violence and vengeance in another.John Wayne would win an Oscar under Hathaway's direction three decades later (for True Grit), so it's all the more noteworthy that his performance in this singular yet neglected film--as a son sworn to kill the father he has never met--was his most complex to date. Perhaps Wayne was challenged by the company he was keeping, including New York stage veterans Betty Field (as his tomboy love), James Barton, and Marc Lawrence (cast against type as the mute, lightning-struck cousin who dotes on Wayne's every move). Or maybe it was the prospect of sharing the screen with that old lion and premier Western role model, Harry Carey. There's also powerful work by Beulah Bondi, who as a matriarch from hell all but gives off sulfur fumes, and by the amazing Marjorie Main, playing a blind woman who sees for the first time on a mountaintop above the clouds. Get ahold of this movie, and it will get a hold on you. --Richard T. Jameson
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