Great Day in the Morning ** (1956, Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr) – Classic Movie Review 10,214

There are deep divisions down in Denver as both sides in the US Civil War try to get the gold, in Jacques Tourneur’s 1955 Great Day in the Morning, an over-serious Western that is full of interest but doesn’t really come alight.

This outdoor action adventure drama stars Robert Stack as Confederate card game drifter Owen Pentecost, who is on the side of the Southerners, opposed by secret agent Captain Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol). Town new arrival Ann Merry Alaine (Virginia Mayo) and saloon gal Boston Grant (Ruth Roman) are soon falling over Owen Pentecost (Stack), who has become the owner of a Denver hotel-saloon that he wins at poker. Pentecost is isolated by the majority Union sympathisers as the Civil War starts, and he has a lot on his plate with them, his two admirers, Southern gold miners and an orphaned boy.

The film’s main rival attractions are Raymond Burr as Jumbo Means (!) and the Technicolorful Colorado scenery, attractively shot in Technicolor and SuperScope at Silverton, Colorado, by William Snyder. Talented writer Lesser Samuels seems a bit weary, alas, delivering an uninspired screenplay based on the novel by Robert Hardy Andrews, but there is plenty going on, and director Tourneur stages some good fight scenes and keeps the actors lively.

Also in the cast are Regis Toomey, Leo Gordon, Carleton Young, Donald MacDonald, Peter Whitney and Dan White.

Great Day in the Morning is directed by Jacques Tourneur, runs 92 minutes, is made by Edmund Grainger Productions, is released by RKO Radio Pictures (1956) (US) and (UK), is written by Lesser Samuels, based on the novel by Robert Hardy Andrews, is shot by William E Snyder, is produced by Edmund Grainger, is scored by Leith Stevens and Constantin Bakaleinikoff (musical director), and is designed by Jack Okey.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,214

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