Way of a Gaucho (1952)

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Herbert Childs (novel)
Philip Dunne (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 October 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance | Western

Plot:

Set in the Argentina of about 1875 in which a customary punishment for killing was a sentence to army service...

Plot Keywords:

Male Female Relationship | Deception | Mountain | Surrender | Husband Wife Relationship

Cast

Rory Calhoun	...	Martin Penalosa
Gene Tierney	...	Teresa Chavez
Richard Boone	...	Major Salinas
Hugh Marlowe	...	Don Miguel Aleondo
Everett Sloane	...	Falcon
Enrique Chaico	...	Father Fernández
Jorge Villoldo	...	Valverde
Ronald Dumas	...	Julio
Hugo Mancini	...	Army Lieutenant
Néstor Yoan	...	Army Lieutenant

Runtime:

USA:93 min | Spain:88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #15888) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Argentina

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

By the time the shooting of this film was completed in Argentina, Eva Perón had died. For that reason the crew remained in the country, by a request from the government, in order to film the funeral proceedings in Technicolor.

The fantastic beauty of wild Argentina and the splendor of Gene Tierney

"Way of a Gaucho" was filmed in the wild Argentina of 1950. The beauty of the locations is fantastic and alone makes the movie worth a view. Not only the endless Pampas and the awesome Andes are breathtaking, also the towns and farms, with their ancient, decadent, cracking Spanish-style buildings and churches are incredibly evocative.

The photography is accurate, the colors are magnificent. The story is quick and entertaining, but perhaps too melodramatic. The dialogue is somewhat declamatory. The characters of Martin - Rory Calhoun and Salinas - Richard Boone are not fully realistic: one is too sullen and gruffy to be a youngster, the other is over-bad.

Then, of course, there is Gene Tierney, as Teresa. Her unparalleled splendor wins the beauty of Argentine landscapes (I admit I'm not a fair judge in this matter). At first we see a dishevelled Gene with her shirt torn on a shoulder (she has just been abducted by an Indio, you know). How I like these old-fashioned, good-taste erotic touches! Martin has the incomparable luck to save her. Follows a long ride together in the Pampas, with a pair of my most favorite romantic scenes: Gene sleeping on the high grass, close to a pond with exotic birds, then waking up and looking for her rescuer, with a dreaming look; later, at sunset, Gene resting in the shade of one of those lonely, huge, marvellous trees of the Pampas, silently contemplating Miguel. Love is sprouting: how beautifully romantic.

Let me remark a theme of the movie, much creditable in rendering the climate of the 19th century. Teresa is pregnant, and Miguel repeatedly endangers his life to get to a church, trying to marry her, in order that the coming child could have a "real, legitimate father". The necessity to face death, to get a legal wedding, for both Teresa and Miguel is utter matter-of-factness: another option is inconceivable. This was the actual way people were in the 19th century! By contrast, how preposterous is the show of anachronistic feelings (such as feminist ideology, dislike for religion etc.) in many current movies placed at that epoch.

"Way of a Gaucho" is a good way of spending 90 minutes for everybody, and, of course, a must-see for Gene Tierney's fans.