Sierra ** (1950, Audie Murphy, Dean Jagger, Burl Ives, Wanda Hendrix, Richard Rober, Tony Curtis) – Classic Movie Review 13,031

The beautifully shot 1950 Technicolor Western film Sierra stars Audie Murphy, Wanda Hendrix, Dean Jagger, Burl Ives and then rising star Tony Curtis, who recalled: ‘I was getting all the action and nobody gave a shit about Audie Murphy.’

‘Adventure… raging to the very peaks of Excitement !’

Director Alfred E Green’s 1950 Western film Sierra stars Audie Murphy, Wanda Hendrix, Dean Jagger, and Burl Ives, with rising star Tony Curtis, and is attractively shot on Utah locations.

Young Ring Hassard (Audie Murphy) is raised in a secret Sierra mountain retreat by his dad Jeff (Dean Jagger), who was accused of a murder he didn’t commit. Helped by Lonesome (Burl Ives), they make a living selling wild horses, but then their cover is blown when lawyer Riley Martin (Wanda Hendrix) stumbles across their hideout and rustlers discover their herd. Dad Jeff is injured and son Ring battles the horse thieves and the law, while tomboy frontier lawyer Riley works to clear the father and son.

Perhaps there are no surprises in this middling but conscientious Western, based on the 1937 novel The Mountains Are My Kingdom by Stuart Hardy. But expert stalwart actors Dean Jagger and Burl Ives give it a lift by playing it to the hilt, easily outshining Murphy who is pretty dull here, though watchable as always. It is beautifully shot in Technicolor by Russell Metty, and is fairly lavishly produced by Universal Pictures, with attractive location filming in Kanab Canyon, Aspen Mirror Lake, Duck Creek, Cascade Falls, and Cedar Breaks in Utah.

Universal Pictures rising star Tony Curtis recalled: ‘I had to go work with some actors who really hated my guts. Audie Murphy was one. I played a minor role in a Western with him, but by then I was getting all the action and nobody gave a shit about Audie Murphy.’

It is Curtis’s eighth film, still billed as Anthony Curtis, playing Brent Coulter.

Release date: June 1, 1950 (US) and October 7, 1950 (UK).

Wanda Hendrix dated Audie Murphy from 1946 and it was her agent who got him an early small film role. They married in 1949 but divorced in 1951. They were still married while film was made, but were separated before it was released. Murphy was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which resulted in much distress and some erratic behaviour.

Wanda Hendrix is billed over Audie Murphy in the film’s credits though not on the poster.

The cast are Audie Murphy as Ring Hassard, Wanda Hendrix as Riley Martin, Burl Ives as Lonesome, Dean Jagger as Jeff Hassard, Richard Rober as Big Matt, Tony Curtis (billed as Anthony Curtis) as Brent Coulter, Houseley Stevenson as Sam Coulter, Elliott Reid as Duke Lafferty Griff Barnett as Dr Robbins, Elisabeth Risdon as Aunt Susan, Roy Roberts as Sheriff Knudson, Gregg Martell as Hogan, Sara Allgood as Mrs Jonas, Erskine Sanford as Judge Prentiss, John Doucette as Jed Coulter, James Arness  (as Jim Arness) as Little Sam, Ted Jordan as Jim Coulter, I. Stanford Jolley as Snake Willens, and Jack Ingram as Al.

Sierra is directed by Alfred E Green, runs 83 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Edna Anhalt and Milton Gunzburg, is shot in Technicolor by Russell Metty, is produced by Michael Kraike and Walter Kraike, is scored by Arnold Hughes, Walter Scharf and Joseph Gershenson, and is designed by Bernard Herzbrun and Robert F Boyle.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,031

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