Along the Great Divide *** (1951, Kirk Douglas, Virginia Mayo, John Agar, Walter Brennan, John Agar, Ray Teal) – Classic Movie Review 9072

Director Raoul Walsh’s 1951 romance adventure Western movie Along the Great Divide stars Kirk Douglas as the new federal lawman Marshal Len Merrick, who saves old Tim ‘Pop’ Keith (Walter Brennan) from the noose in an attempted lynching by the Roden clan, and finds the territory’s real murderer, local cattle baron and lynch-mobster Dan Roden (James Anderson). It is notable as Douglas’s first Western.

Along the Great Divide motors on a typical strong, upstanding Douglas performance and on typical Walsh direction of sandstorm and desert scenery, bringing them into the movie as extra characters. It is crisply and sharply shot in black and white by Sid Hickox on California (Alabama Hills, Sierra Madre Mountains) and Arizona (Yuma, Mojave Desert) locations, as well as in the studio at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California.

The yarn, written by Walter Doniger (story and screenplay) and Lewis Meltzer (screenplay), is a bit over-familiar and occasionally plodding, but it gets there.

Along the Great Divide is directed by Raoul Walsh, runs 88 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Walter Doniger and Lewis Meltzer, is shot in black and white by Sid Hickox, is produced by Anthony Veiller and is scored by David Buttolph, with Art Direction by Edward Carrere.

Also in the cast are Virginia Mayo, John Agar, Ray Teal, Morris Ankrum, Hugh Sanders, Charles Meredith, Kenneth MacDonald, Lane Chandler, Sam Ash, Zon Murray, Guy Wilkerson, Jack Montgomery, Carl Harbaugh, Al Haskell, Al Ferguson, Steve Clark and Steve Darrell.

Morris Ankrum plays Ed Roden in Along the Great Divide and the remake, Cheyenne: The Travelers (1956). Ankrum and Kenneth MacDonald (who plays rancher Crowley) both played recurring judges on TV’s Perry Mason, though it is Charles Meredith who plays the judge here.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9072

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