Wed 1 Jul 2020
A Western Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: FOUR FACES WEST (1948).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[5] Comments
REVIEWED BY DAN STUMPF:
FOUR FACES WEST. MGM, 1948. Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calliea, and William Conrad. Screenplay by C. Graham Baker and Teddy Sherman, from the story “Paso Por Aqui†by Eugene Manlove Rhodes. Produced by Harry Sherman. Directed by Alfred E Green.
“Pop†Sherman’s last Western is a gentle affair, maybe too gentle, but a fitting coda for the man who brought Hopalong Cassidy to the screen.
Joel McCrea stars as a wandering westerner who rides into town and robs the bank while Marshall Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) is giving a speech a few blocks away. A chase ensues. And ensues. And goes on… and on…. And about the time I’d had enough, the story takes a turn that brings things to a worthy, if tame, ending.
Aye, there’s the rub. I’m not going to put in a ((SPOILER ALERT!)) here because it’s pretty obvious early on that nothing very bad is going to happen here. And when the viewer figures that out, the film forfeits a certain amount of interest. Much as we like the characters, it’s hard to care about them when we can see a happy ending galloping across the screen with every shot. And speaking of Shot, nobody gets killed in Four Faces. Hell, nobody even gets shot much. There’s not even a decent fist-fight in the whole film, and at a certain point we no longer expect one, so there’s no need to add ((END OF ALERT!)) here.
For viewers accustomed to seeing a certain amount of action in their oaters — even a pacifist Western like Angel and the Bad Man — this can be off-putting. Four Faces compensates with a literate script, strong performances (Charles Bickford embodies everything I’d like to think Pat Garrett really was) and lustrous photography, and I’d like to think this was what Sherman wanted his Hoppy series to be.
I’m just glad it wasn’t.
July 1st, 2020 at 10:32 pm
I liked the four leads; all good company, but Joesph Calleia and Frances Dee appealed, to me, most. From a sentimental point of view, mine — I saw this at the Rivoli theatre in Rutherford, New Jersey upon its initial release with a darling old lady, Anna McKee. So, in addition to being a good picture, it is a souvenir, something they all should be.
July 2nd, 2020 at 7:23 am
I prefer Brian Garfield’s assessment: “It’s a splendid example of what a low-budget Western can be: its excellence is such that it can make you feel as if you’ve never seen a Western before.â€
July 2nd, 2020 at 8:58 am
I’m actually happy to know others have a higher opinion than I did, because it is as well-done as it is well-intentioned.
July 2nd, 2020 at 8:17 pm
Horse races and all that, but I come in with Brian Garfield on this one. The novella by Eugene Manlove Rhodes, which first appeared in two issues of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, was written in part as a tribute to Pat Garrett, who despite gunning down Rhodes friend Bill the Kid, was a good man Rhodes felt had been unfairly treated for disposing of Billy like the mad dog he was (few who really knew the Kid blamed Garrett for putting him down like a mad dog).
It is one of the most elegaic Western novels ever written, closer to MONTE WALSH than standard Western fare, which the film captures. The key scene in film and book is when Calliea’s character explains the meaning of Paso Por Aqui to the stage passengers pre saging the theme of the film and book.
Despite their titles there is little of the standard Westeern in Rhodes novels, not even in his book about outlaw Bill Doolin. His books tend to be about the kind of men he met on the frontier, not gunfighters, but ranchers, cowboys, settlers, and even a few outlaws, men mostly of good spirit and decent natures.
Granted though, anyone expecting a standard Western is going to disappointed by his books and any film accurately based on them.
July 2nd, 2020 at 9:46 pm
Billy the Kid was a mad dog but he was Eugene Manlove Rohdes’ friend? Now, where does that take us?