IMDb > Stand Up and Fight (1939)

Stand Up and Fight (1939) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   93 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
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Director:
W.S. Van Dyke
Writers:
Forbes Parkhill (story)
James M. Cain (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
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Release Date:
6 January 1939 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | History | Romance | Western more
Plot:
This western starring Beery and Taylor as rivals is one cackling western. It involves the kidnapping and reselling of free slaves... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
Remarkable subtlety more (3 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Wallace Beery ... Captain Boss Starkey

Robert Taylor ... Blake Cantrell
Florence Rice ... Susan Griffith
Helen Broderick ... Amanda Griffith
Charles Bickford ... Arnold
Barton MacLane ... Crowder
Charley Grapewin ... 'Old Puff'
John Qualen ... Davy
Robert Gleckler ... Sheriff Barney
Clinton Rosemond ... Enoch
Cy Kendall ... Foreman Ross
Paul Everton ... Allan
Claudia Morgan ... Carolyn Talbot
Selmer Jackson ... Whittingham P. Talbot (scenes deleted)
Robert Middlemass ... Harkrider
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
97 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:
Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #4870) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)
Filming Locations:
Butte Meadows, California, USA more
Company:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) more

Fun Stuff

Movie Connections:
Referenced in Electrical Power (1938) more
Soundtrack:
Turkey In The Straw more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful.
Remarkable subtlety, 12 September 2004
8/10
Author: Michael Bo (michael.bo@pol.dk) from Copenhagen, Denmark

Cynical Southern gentleman Blake Cantrell (Robert Taylor) is forced to sell his plantation and seek employment with a stagecoach company run by Captain Starkey (Wallace Beery) and owned by lovely Susan (Florence Rice). But is the company actually illegally transporting slaves? And can a leopard, the cavalier Blake, actually change its spots?

I didn't expect much from this movie, and was thoroughly and positively surprised by the sharp writing and ebullient acting, and contrary to many A-movies of its day its aim is no way an aesthetic 'arty' one. Made in 1939, this movie addresses all sorts of controversial issues, and they have a way of taking you by surprise along the way. The movie is really about abolitionism and treats its subject with remarkable subtlety, although why and how the lynch-mob, the one that we encounter in the last third of the film, goes after white man Starkey is never made quite clear. Cantrell's gradual moral reform is well-explained and plausible, not least because of Taylor's warmth and humanity in the part. Yes, he is handsome, but here it is almost besides the point. Wallace Beery has a field day with the larger-than-life captain, very cleverly balancing on the edge of buffoonery but with plenty of edge and ambiguity.

See it, it makes a deep impression.

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