if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Tycoon (1947)An appealing role for John Wayne, rugged but not quite a western archetype. This RKO Technicolor big budget film is unusual for that studio (it was their biggest movie to date), and they snagged Wayne along with Anthony Quinn. Somehow, as good as it is in many ways, it lost a million dollars (a whole lot for the time). It's good, however, and watchable, if still a bit contrived within its wild Andes excess.Though set in the mining roughneck edge of the mountains, this is a romance. Wayne, a savvy worker and engineer, falls in love with the mine owner's daughter. That never goes well, and it yet it goes very well at times. The love affair is sweet and innocent, due both to Wayne's scruples and to the leading woman's equally good intentions. This is Laraine Day, a good Nixon Republican who was faithfully Mormon her whole life. She's charming and truly attractive in the movie star mould of the day, and was an MGM star of some importance during these years. I think Wayne and her have an odd, believable consonance, and since they make so much of the movie, they hold it all together well.The larger plot is about a conflict in how to manage building he railroad. This sets up the structure for the different social strata of the leading characters (Wayne and the mine owner), but it distracts somewhat from the other, deeper plot. The scenery vibrates, the music pulses, the romance is intense. Whatever the general predictability of the plot, the story is well enough done, and warm enough (it's not a gritty tale, whatever the dirty environs), it makes you want to watch. There might be a social message in here somewhere about individualism and hard work, about true love in the face adversity, about the ruthless power of money, about the folly of building things without getting permission first (actually), and so on. But it's not convincing enough on any level to quite take it so seriously. Why did the movie fail so miserably? For one it's a kind of grandiose movie that audiences were probably a little familiar with. For another, this was the total height of the film noir boom, which is essentially the opposite kind of film. And for another, the female star was not a particular draw, and Wayne was so completely known by this point as a cowboy, the casting might have doomed it from the start.In the end, after fighting the elements of the hot mountain desert, the mine owner sells it all and goes, with his woman, to what he calls paradise. Where? Vermont.

Forgettable romantic drama about engineer John Wayne trying to build a bridge while falling for millionaire Sir Cedric Hardwicke's daughter, Laraine Day. Daddy isn't too pleased. A huge flop for RKO at the time and it's easy to see why. Other than some nice location scenery and a couple of decent action scenes, it's nothing special and it goes on way too long. Duke is solid. Day looks stunning in technicolor but this is a part anybody could have played and she doesn't have the best chemistry with Duke. Hardwicke rarely offers a bad performance and this is no exception. His character has a rather long stick up his you-know-what. James Gleason is Duke's sidekick. He's great as always. Anthony Quinn and Judith Anderson offer good support, though this is hardly a part Quinn would brag about. Not the best John Wayne movie or even in the top thirty but it's watchable and there are some good moments.

Tunnel blaster boss John Wayne defies the big money man Cedric Hardwicke by falling in love with his daughter, Laraine Day. Hardwicke is vindictive and pulls out his financing which creates all sorts of problems in getting a much needed train tunnel through the mountains. Colorful photography but slow pacing makes this film less than great, but in the hands of professionals, it's a notch above what it could have been. Judith Anderson is memorable in a rare sympathetic role as Hardwicke's secretary who helps Wayne and Day in spite of her own love for Hardwicke who takes her for granted. Anthony Quinn plays the man Hardwicke would rather see his daughter with; James Gleason is amusing as always as Wayne's pal, and young Fernando Alvarado is fine as the young boy who hangs around Wayne and Gleason. Under the direction of Richard Wallace (a name forgotten today, but with a list of impressive, if not spectacular credits), "Tycoon" has some long dull patches, but all of a sudden, the action explodes into excitement. This seems to be a variation of the type of film Cecil B. DeMille was making a few years before (with many people in the cast he would work with), and perhaps it needed someone of DeMille's stature to make it more than average.

This movie was terrible. John Wayne is a brutal actor at times. The lead female playing the role of "Maura" did a good job and tried her best to make scenes believable despite Wayne's inept, one dimensional, over acting. Seriously, did you see him when he was supposed to be talking in his sleep? Ridiculous. And his character became such an awful person in the second half of the movie and then did nothing to atone for his behavior and is still forgiven by everyone including his arch nemesis without even so much as a 'sorry'. The story was completely implausible. We were supposed to believe that two grown men, both tremendous successes in their respected fields, would sabotage a job and risk the lives of innocent men simply because they disliked one another? YOu can pretty much randomly select any scene and it will probably leave you shaking your head in disbelief that someone paid money to have this film made. Its too bad because the only other Wayne films I've seen are the shootist and rio bravo, which were both great movies. Unless you're being paid don't bother watching this one.