Two Rode Together

I have just watched John Ford's Two Rode Together for the first time in many years.  One of Ford's later Westerns (only The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Cheyenne Autumn came after it), it is not one of his best - but even a sub-standard John Ford western is better than most other people's best.
It starred James Stewart and Richard Widmark and follows a similar theme to Ford's own classic The Searchers - rescuing white captives from Indian tribes.  Stewart and Widmark are sent by the army to negotiate the release of a number of white captives from the Comanche.
The film is uneven in pace and style lurching from moments of broad comedy provided by Andy Devine's hugely overweight cavalry seargeant to moments of dark intensity as the families of captives react angrily to the young man and woman rescued from the Indians.  It is in the darker moments that the film works best as it questions the difference between the Comanche and the whites and asks who is more civilised.  As usual Ford portrays the Indians (particularly the men) as savage brutes but does acknowledge the dignity of Indian women and at times the film is a precursor to his much more forcefully pro-Indian Cheyenne Autumn.
The best performances come from Stewart enjoying his amoral role; Linda Cristal as the white girl rescued from the Comanche and Shirley Jones who blames herself for the abduction of her 8-year old brother by the Indians.  The biggest disappointments are Widmark who's role is too strait-laced (he is always better when there is a sense of danger and ruthlessness to his character), Woody Strode is wasted as a Comanche despite having a fantastic Mohawk and there is surprisingly little action for a Ford western - only 1 short gunfight and a brawl which is played more for comedy.  This is a shame because the film needed a big dramatic set-piece to lift it up higher and make it live longer in the memory.
Two Rode Together isn't a bad movie - it just isn't as good as it could have been.  Maybe Ford's best days were behind him by 1961 -only The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance really stands out of the films ahead of him.  The film does have 1 fantastic line in it though.  Annelle Hayes playing Stewart's lover at the start of the film says to him: "I can read men's minds (pause) - it's not that hard and it doesn't take too long!"

Shalako

Rewatched one of my all-time favourite Westerns this week: Shalako from 1968. This had a cast which certainly defined 'eclectic': Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Jack Hawkins, Honor Blackman and, most bizarrely of all, Eric Sykes. With a cast like that you could be forgiven for dismissing the film as merely a curiosity as many critics have
- but I think it stands up as a really good, and surprisingly gritty, adventure. Connery fits the title role well and comes across as a believable cavalry scout (even if his Scottish accent remains unexplained). I always liked the basic premise of wealthy Europeans 'on safari' in the Wild West and coming unstuck through their own arrogance. The best of these Europeans is undoubtedly Honor Blackman, thoroughly enjoying her role as the no-good wife of Jack Hawkins. The one disappointment is that having reunited the stars of Goldfinger, Connery and Blackman share almost no screen time - a shame given their thrilling chemistry as Bond and Pussy Galore.
Woody Strode is a menacing Chato and I was fascinated to learn recently that he was part Blackfoot and Crow.
The pace moves along well in this movie and there are some good interactions between Connery, Bardot and Peter van Eyck as the leader of the aristocratic hunting party.
I will have to hunt out a DVD version of this though. The version I saw this week was shown mid-afternoon on a Sunday so Honor Blackman's gory murder at the hand of the Apaches (forced to swallow her own pearl necklace) was cut entirely.
The film isn't perfect but I still love it - partly it reminds me of late-night treats as a kid when my dad would let me stay up late with him on a Friday or Saturday to watch stuff like this or the Dirty Dozen.

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