Pretty Good

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

hyped garbage

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I generally like westerns, which is why I was attracted to watching this one when it popped up on Turner Classic Movies. But because I have watched so many westerns before this one, I have to confess I didn't find much that was new and/or energetic with this one. It does have some nice background scenery, though its full impact is a bit muted by the fact that it's photographed in black and white instead of color. (I'm not prejudiced against black and white movies - I just think THIS particular one would be better in color.) The performances by the cast are adequate; Douglas does pretty well as the stubborn (but all the same conflicted at times) marshal. But the script, while it may have been somewhat original back in 1951, will seem very familiar today to people, even among many who are not fans of westerns. It's painfully clear who is actually guilty of the murder that's at the heart of the movie (and why), and the struggle to bring the accused party to justice (which takes up most of the movie) just brings up one familiar plot turn after another, from lack of water to the feisty lone female. While all this is professionally staged and executed, I think the only people today who might be really entertained by the movie would be those who have seen no westerns before in their lives.

It's one of those "journey" stories in which a group with mixed motives must cross dangerous territory to reach their goal. In this case, the territory is a desert, as it was in so many other Westerns -- "They Came to Cordura," "Three Godfathers", and the rest.Nice cast, too, with performers that are either reasonably good, like Kirk Douglas in the lead role of a US Marshall who must get his prisoner, Walter Brennan, to San Loma without his being lynched, or else merely seasoned, like Roy Teal, or at least no worse than we've come to expect of them, like Virginia Mayo and John Agar.The script wastes little time on meanders. It's tightly drawn, even though the script lacks the folk poetry of the Westerns that Burt Kennedy wrote for Budd Boettiger. That is, the dialog is functional but nobody says anything like, "Ma'am, if you was my woman I'd have come for you even if I'd of died in the doin' of it." The location shooting is quite good. The desert is convincingly captured, even though the movie really deserves color. The director, Raoul Walsh, knows how to shoot a movie and maintain pace and complexity. What a craftsman! In outlining the more admirable features of the film, I've thrown in a lot of qualifications, and for a reason. Overall, it resembles a story left over from some B Western of the 1930s, starring John Wayne or Wild Bill Elliot or Bob Steele. They had names like "The Star Packer" and "Melody Ranch" and "Shadows on the Sage." Everyone did his job but brought nothing extra to the production. It begins with the generic Western title: "Along the Great Divide." The great divide has nothing to do with it. The story moves along efficiently and without much soul.Douglas is fine, Brennan is okay, and Jim Anderson, the real villain, is as abrasive on film as he was in real life. He was the redneck who spit on Gregory Peck's lawyer in "To Kill a Mockingbird." He may have enjoyed the chance because he and Peck hated each other. Virginia Mayo as Brennan's dusty daughter is surprisingly okay, despite falling deeply in love with Douglas after a two-minute chat behind the joshua trees. Douglas gets to fix the self-inflicted wound on her trim calf. Lucky Kirk.

Along The Great Divide marked Kirk Douglas's western debut. Fortunately he made several more and they were a whole lot better than this one.Douglas is a federal marshal who with his deputies John Agar and Ray Teal breaks up a lynching of Walter Brennan who is accused of rustling and killing the son of cattle baron Morris Ankrum. Douglas arrests Brennan and brings him back for trial. It's the journey back across the desert that's marked by ambush and betrayal with Brennan maintaining his innocence in the homicide. Along for the ride is Brennan's daughter, Virginia Mayo.Kirk Douglas proved to be a natural western star and he's cast well as the determined federal marshal. Unfortunately he's hampered by an extremely improbable script as is the rest of the cast. Some of the B westerns of Tim Holt or Roy Rogers make a lot more sense than this one.I won't give away the plot or the incidents involved, but Kirk should have died on the desert and Walter Brennan should have made it to Mexico.

This was Kirk Douglas' first western and he did so well, that he could not stop making them after. Virginia Mayo, who used to be just another pretty woman, here, as in Colorado Territory, has a chance to show her talent and does very well, she still looks modern, when you see the film today. The story is about Kirk saving Walter Brennan from a lynch mob, and trying to get him to the nearest town without being caught by the mob. He chooses to go through the desert and falls in love with Brennan's daughter(Mayo). Raoul Walsh feels at home directing this film, he is as good as always. What I did not like about the film is the song that Douglas does not want to hear, and Brennan keeps singing, it's too sentimental and just one step from being ridiculous. Apart from that, this is an above average western