Review: The Far Country

Surly Jimmy Stewart and his pal Walter Brennan are driving a herd of cattle to Dawson City, Yukon. In the town of Skagway, Alaska Stewart gets on the wrong side of bully-boy lawman Judge Gannon (John McIntire), the crooked self-appointed boss of the town. At some point, Stewart and Brennan get gold fever, whilst Stewart also has two women vying for his affections; one good (Corinne Calvet), one ‘bad’ (Ruth Roman). Jay C. Flippen plays the token drunk, who becomes a good friend/ally to Stewart and Brennan.

 

All of the westerns James Stewart made with director Anthony Mann (whose non-western films include “The Fall of the Roman Empire” and his best film “El Cid”) are worthwhile, even if none of them are great so much as consistently good (“The Naked Spur” is probably the best of them). This 1954 one scripted by Borden Chase (“Winchester ‘73”, “Bend of the River”) is certainly no masterpiece, but it’s a damn solid piece of western entertainment. I’ve always preferred guys like Jimmy Stewart, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Richard Widmark in westerns than the biggest name in the genre, John Wayne. Stewart in particular always seemed more human, fragile, relatable to me than The Duke ever did. I especially love what Mann brought out of Jimmy Stewart the on-screen icon in films like this and “The Naked Spur”. He’s the good guy here, as Jimmy Stewart always was the good guy. However, Mann always got a little bit of a dark side out of the man, a harsher edge and that’s what you see at times here. This guy is no George Bailey, Stewart seen pistol-whipping a guy in the first five minutes for starters. Stewart is very effective as a most reluctant hero indeed.

 

Long-serving character actor John McIntire gets to play a villain here, one who kinda looks like Abraham Lincoln (and has that great oratory voice too), interestingly. He’s an immediate scene stealer playing a real bastard of a villain who takes full advantage of being the lawman in town and the power that comes with it. What I love about him is that he says and does everything with a strangely folksy geniality, a faux respectability if you will. Existing somewhere in between the two men is the very classy Ruth Roman. Elegant-looking and possessing a Barbara Stanwyck-like strong will quality to her, Roman’s character is the more worldly, cynical opposite to the charming ‘good girl’ played by an adorable Corinne Calvet. The supporting cast is full of familiar character faces and names, with Walter Brennan in peak toothless form, Jay C. Flippen particularly excellent, and Robert J. Wilke having a great small part as a dangerous gunman. The cold-blooded, cruelly smiling Wilke probably gets a better showing than veteran cock-eyed henchman Jack Elam who plays McIntire’s chief enforcer. It’s impossible for the inimitable Elam to be invisible in a film, but it’s certainly not one of his more memorable roles.

 

A rock-solid western with a very well-chosen and effective cast, particularly flawed hero Stewart and scene-stealing villain McIntire.

 

Rating: B-