THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936)

Way up in the mountains of Kentucky, the Falins and the Tollivers have been feudin' for so long nobody even remembers what for.  They just know they hate the hell out of each other and will shoot to kill on sight.  Jesus!  In the middle of this madness walks Fred MacMurray.  He works for the coal company and he wants to buy land from both the Tollivers and the Falins.  And while he's at it, he might just take a fancy to Henry Fonda's main squeeze...his own cousin!  Double Jesus!!

For 1936 I was really impressed by the colour photography.  Supposedly this was the first movie to use Technicolor for the outdoor sequences and they look great.  The story on the other hand...ehh, it was just alright.  The tension between the hillbilly Fonda and the city slicker MacMurray is pretty predictable and outside of just a few minor skirmishes, we never get to see the Falins and the Tollivers feudin' for really.  I wanted to see some straight up badass gunfights, but it never happened.  Also Fonda, even this early in his career, deserved better than playing some backwoods hick who hates sophisticated outsiders and their highfalutin book learning so much that he throws his young cousin's colouring book in the fireplace.  Even with such a one-dimensional character he still turns in a good performance.

One aspect that wasn't captured, would have been instead of Fonda wanting to marry his own cousin, is to have Fonda (before MacMurray shows up) having a secret courtship going with a Falin girl, but then when Fred shows up, he throws a monkey wrench in the works and stirring up the feud even more.  Just a thought.  Over an hundred years too late (the novel was written in 1908), but I think it would have liven things up a bit.  As it is though it's an alright classic Hollywood timewaster that's interesting thanks to early performances by MacMurray and Fonda.

DONOVAN'S REEF (1963)

I love John Wayne, but I don't love him enough to be a fan of this movie.  Told with the utmost sentimentality, the story is about three WWII soldiers who after the war stayed on the French Polynesian where they had been fighting.  The first guy (Jack Warden) is a saint among men.  He's a doctor and has a church and a hospital complete with nuns on his property.  He also has three young children, their mother (a island princess) died during childbirth.  The other two fellows are the hard-living John Wayne and Lee Marvin who spend most of their time fighting each other.  And when I say fighting, I mean fighting, these dudes aren't just wrestling around grab-assing, they're bashing each other in the head with bottles, chairs, boards, whatever they can get their hands on.  Kicking each other in the face, I don't see how either one of them is even alive!

Anyway, the drama comes when word gets around that the saintly doctor is lined up, due to a death in the family, to be the majority stockholder in the family's shipping company.  The catch is he has to be of high moral standing and since he has three children of mixed heritage then, of course, he's a sinner that's gonna burn in Hell for all eternity.  To get around this, John Wayne steps in to act as the children's father while the auditor is visiting.  Trouble is the woman who's sent to determine Doc's moral standing is also his estranged daughter from before the War!  She also, naturally, falls for Wayne, but is emotional conflicted by her love versus the fact he has three children out of wedlock!

I dislike movies about children and if I had known this movie prominently featured kids I wouldn't have watched it.  But I did and I didn't like it at all.  Wayne himself was fine, but the script was way too feel-goodie for my taste, Lee Marvin was completely wasted, the Christmas church service was painful to watch, the priest was annoying, the nuns were annoying, the main actress was annoying, the kids were horrible...but man the scenery was beautiful!!  Wow.

Most people will probably like the film, but based off the poster and setting I was expecting a rough and tumble action-comedy that was actually funny, like NORTH TO ALASKA but on a tropical island instead.