Shenandoah **** (1965, James Stewart, Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett) – Classic Movie Review 2047

Director Andrew V McLaglen’s exciting vehicle for the 57-year-old James Stewart, who was still a major star and box-office attraction in 1965, is a near-classic Western soap opera that mixes action and melodrama to good effect in its story of a Shenandoah, Virginia, dynasty during the American Civil War. The film’s strong anti-war and humanitarian ideas tuned into the era when American attitudes were turning against the Vietnam War.

Stewart gives an extremely powerful performance, exuding his trademark intensity and integrity as the widower-patriarch farmer Charlie Anderson, who cares more for his family than the war, which  he does not consider his fight. So Charlie does not let his six sons – Jacob (Glenn Corbett), James (Patrick Wayne), Nathan (Charles Robinson), John (Jim McMullan), Henry (Tim McIntire) and Boy (Phillip Alford)- join the army to fight in the Civil War and instead lives a peaceful life with them, his daughter Jennie (Rosemary Forsyth, in her film debut) and James’ wife Ann Anderson (Katharine Ross, also in her film debut).

Stewart may star, and he commands the screen, but this is an ensemble Western. And the star gets excellent support from Doug McClure (as Sam), Forsyth, Corbett, Ross, Alford and Wayne, as well as the notable long roster of fine Western character actors like Paul Fix, Denver Pyle, Harry Carey Jr, James Best as Rebel Soldier Carter, George Kennedy as Colonel Fairchild, Dabs Greer, Strother Martin, Charles Robinson, James McMillan, Tim McIntire and Eugene Jackson Jr.

Shenandoah is worthwhile just for the vintage cast, but also for its for its important themes and handsome production. McLaglen, showing here that he’s equally at home with the drama and the action, gives it all strong, compelling, controlled direction. James Lee Barrett’s screenplay is very neatly written and effective and William Clothier’s attractive and invigorating cinematography helps towards producing a gleaming-looking movie.

There were no awards, alas, but the film was nominated for a 1966 Oscar for Best Sound (Waldon O. Watson). Forsyth was nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female.

The American folk song ‘Oh Shenandoah’ features prominently on the soundtrack. Westerns may be out of fashion, but Shenandoah was turned into a hit Broadway musical in 1975, which won John Cullum his first Tony Award for Best Actor.

Wandsworth, London, born Andrew V. McLaglen, best known for his work on Westerns like Shenandoah and John Wayne’s McLintock!, The Undefeated, Chisum and Cahill U.S. Marshal, died at the age of 94 on August 30 2014.

James Best, renowned as bumbling Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane on TV’s The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-85), died on April 6 2015 of pneumonia, aged 88.

George Kennedy died on February 28, 2016, aged 91.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2047

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