Montana (1950)

Director:

Ray Enright

Writers:

James R. Webb (screenplay) and
Borden Chase (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 January 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance | Western

Plot:

An Australian sheepman comes to Montana looking for grazing space, is opposed by local ranchers and a wealthy cattle-woman.

Plot Keywords:

Sheep | Montana | Ranch | Accent | Grazing Land

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Morgan Lane
Alexis Smith	...	Maria Singleton
S.Z. Sakall	...	Poppa Otto Schultz (as S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall)
Douglas Kennedy	...	Rodney Ackroyd
James Brown	...	Tex Coyne
Ian MacDonald	...	Slim Reeves (S&A foreman)
Charles Irwin	...	MacKenzie, Sheep Herder
Paul E. Burns	...	Tecumseh Burke
Tudor Owen	...	Jock
Lester Matthews	...	George Forsythe

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Warner Ranch, Calabasas, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Filmed in 1948.

Soundtrack:

Reckon I'm in Love

"Reckon, I'm In Love"

Montana with a running time of only 77 minutes has to be some kind of record for Errol Flynn while he was Warner Brothers for shortest feature film. Some of the B westerns with Dick Foran back from the Thirties had longer running times than Montana.

My suspicion is that Montana is nothing more than a pumped up B film, it certainly does not have as expensive a look to it as say The Adventures of Don Juan which Flynn did the year before.

The plot is a simple one and it's the only time that Errol Flynn actually played someone of his nationality which was Australian. Flynn for reasons left unexplained by the film has decided to leave Australia and homestead new country for sheep raising in the Big Sky country of Montana territory.

Naturally this upsets the local cattle ranchers and two of the biggest in the area are Alexis Smith and Douglas Kennedy who are about to make a personal and business merger. But once Flynn gets into the picture he certainly makes Alexis see the error of her ways about him and about sheep in that order.

As a film, Montana relies heavily on the considerable charm of Errol Flynn to bring it off. Bring it off he does, but Montana certainly will not rank high in the best of Errol Flynn list anyone compiles.

But someone out there was really impressed with the film. Back in the day when I lived in Brooklyn there was a judge who must have loved this film as a lad. He thought Errol's character name of Morgan Lane had character so he changed his own name to Morgan Lane from some Jewish sounding ethnic name. Of course that was before he became a lawyer and eventually a judge.

The second thing Montana is known for is a nice little cowboy duet that Errol and Alexis sing called Reckon I'm In Love. It's nice little ditty and one of only a few times Mr. Flynn got to sing in films. I recall he sang in Thank Your Lucky Stars and in Let's Make Up and that's about it in the vocalizing department.

You might watch Montana for entertainment, but who knows if it will actually move you to change your name.