Fri 18 Dec 2015
A Western Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: TENNESSEE’S PARTNER (1955).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[7] Comments
TENNESSEE’S PARTNER. RKO, 1955. John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Ronald Reagan and Coleen Gray. Written by Milton Krims and D. D. Beauchamp, based on the story by Bret Harte (Overland Monthly, 1869). Photography by John Alton. Directed by Alan Dwan.
An elegant little Western: maybe a bit short on action, but fun nonetheless and even a bit poignant in parts.
Director Alan Dwan was in the movies almost since they started, with classics to his credit from Robin Hood (1923) to Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) with stops along the way for Shirley Temple in Heidi and the Ritz Brothers in The Gorilla, but he is perhaps most fondly remembered for a series of medium-to-low-budget films he did for producer Benedict Bogeaus in the 1950s of which Tennessee’s Partner may be the most charming.
Loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on a Bret Harte story, with the dubious charisma of John Payne and Ronald Reagan to carry it along, Partner moves a bit sluggishly at first; Payne is Tennessee, a cynical gambler who likes no one, and Reagan (looking a bit long in the tooth for the part) is a naïve cowpoke (that’s his name: Cowpoke) who likes everyone. When Cowpoke saves Tennessee’s life in a rigged gunfight and the two of them land in jail, they become unlikely friends and partners — hence the title of the piece.
The plot gels a bit when Cowpoke’s fiancée (Coleen Gray) shows up and Payne recognizes her as a mercenary little tramp … and proceeds to run off with her, leaving Reagan in the proverbial lurch and looking something of a chump. Payne quickly dumps Gray however, and returns to settle up with his partner, since he did it all for Cowpoke’s sake anyway.
So far so dull, and I think if I were a little kid at the movies in those days, I’d have been mighty restless by now. But then things pick up sharply, with a stolen gold claim, murder, a lynch mob out after the unpopular Tennessee, and enough chasin’ shooton’ and fightin’ to fill the quota of any B-Western.
I should especially note the rich Technicolor photography of John Alton, a painter-with-light whose work highlighted films across the spectrum from He Walked by Night to Elmer Gantry, and makes Tennessee’s Partner a joy to look at even when there’s nothing going on.
John Payne manages to inject a pleasing bit of rattiness into the character of Tennessee, and Coleen Gray, memorable in Red River and Nightmare Alley, makes a fine trollop, but the prize for Screen Presence here goes to Rhonda Fleming as Tennessee’s girlfriend and owner of the local brothel, an opulent establishment that advertises itself as a Matrimonial Bureau. When Coleen Gray enters and remarks, “I’ve never been in a place so beautiful!†Rhonda replies knowingly, “I think you’ll feel right at home!â€
December 18th, 2015 at 8:16 pm
Thank you for a good review!
I haven’t seen this in decades. But I love Allan Dwan. And see that this film is available again. Definitely am adding it to the re-watch list.
These 1950’s Dwan’s tend to have good color.
December 19th, 2015 at 12:47 pm
I know that this will sound terribly corny, but John Payne always acts like he’s in one and gives me one in the neck. Did Hollywood give him all the films rejected by the Duke? Seriously, what should I watch that’s a standout? Thanks.
December 19th, 2015 at 1:06 pm
I think his noir films are his best: Kansas City Confidential, 99 River Street, and Slightly Scarlet, though I haven’t seen any of them in years. (I seem to remember liking Slightly Scarlet more than the others.)
What I do remember seeing and enjoying John Payne in the most was his TV western series THE RESTLESS GUN.
December 19th, 2015 at 2:26 pm
I’d second Steve’s John Payne picks.
His Western “Silver Lode” is also decent.
Have never seen any of Payne’s TV work, including “The Restless Gun”.
Also, Payne had supporting roles in such creditable 40’s films as “The Razor’s Edge” and “Miracle on 34th Street”. They’re good movies, although hardly Payne vehicles.
December 19th, 2015 at 6:14 pm
Good Payne Westerns aside from those mentioned include EAGLE AND THE HAWK, EL PASO, and VANQUISHED as well as SANTA FE PASSAGE. He’s also good in TRIPOLI opposite Maureen O’Hara fighting the Barbary pirates and in one where he plays the pirate Redbeard. My favorite is CARRIBEAN where he conspires with pirate Sir Cedric Hardwicke to overthrow evil Francis Sullivan whose daughter, Arlene Dahl, doesn’t know she is really Hardwicke’s stolen child. A lot of his best films as the lead have a pulp quality to them. TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI had him as a spoiled Marine butting heads with Gunnery Officer Randolph Scott in the usual service drama of the pre war period.
Depending on your tolerance for them he did numerous good musicals with the likes of Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda throughout the late thirties and war years, often in color and usually with the plot of the good girl and the rat in showbiz. For a non singer he had a good career in musicals often either as a song writer or big band leader. They ranged from turn of the century nostalgia to big band fantasy.
One of his oddest films is a short he did where they remade Tom Mix film ME AND THE KING aka THE COWBOY AND THE KING as a Technicolor musical short.
I’m probably a little prejudiced because my mother dated him when she was younger so I saw a lot of John Payne movies growing up.
He is outstanding though in KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, 99 RIVER STREET, and SLIGHTLY SCARLET always at his best playing a hero who has a slight touch of the rat about him.
I have fond memories of RESTLESS GUN, and the episodes I have seen stand up well for half hour episodic westerns of the period.
TENNESSE’S PARTNER is actually a favorite of mine. I agree with Dan it is not a standard Western of the period and Reagan is a bit long in the tooth (though in all honesty that makes his naivety more affecting), as much a character study as action film.
This wasn’t a B though, but an A picture if not a big production. Credits and production values reflect that. I know what Dan means by B Western, but the last B film (a Wayne Morris western) was made a year before. Films like this did good box office and played as the feature in most theaters not second billed in a matinee. They may not have opened the big road show houses in the major cities, but they played as the main feature in thousands of theaters.
In any case in 1955 Payne would still have been a draw with a cast including Fleming, Gray, and Reagan. Dwan on the other hand was heading downhill from here.
December 20th, 2015 at 12:38 am
I was having a conversation with someone about “Miracle on 34th Street” and couldn’t remember the name of the male lead. I could remember Edmund Gwenn and Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood, but not John Payne. I knew it was John someone. After this discussion I should be able to remember (I hope).
May 15th, 2016 at 7:27 pm
I just watched the VCI widescreen DVD. If this is the best that they can do, then don’t expect to see Alton’s colors the way they were intended. The film itself is good enough, but while watching it I kept regretting that I spent money on it.