The Virginian

If you're a Joel McCrea fan, chances are you've already seen The Virginian, one of his famous westerns he made during his career. It's a faithful remake of the 1929 nearly silent movie, with Joel and Brian Donlevy as the rivals for Barbara Britton's affections. A simple story: the good cowboy, the bad cowboy, the virtuous schoolteacher, the loyal best friend. But simple stories are often the ones that stick the longest and stand the test of time.

If you're going to watch The Virginian, though, make sure you rent the remake. The original is far too dated. This movie is in Technicolor, actually has scenes with dialogue in it, and lets the scenes flow together well. Joel McCrea and Sonny Tufts have an easy, natural chemistry together that make you really believe their friendship. I prefer Randolph Scott westerns to Joel's in general, but even I can admit this is a good one.

This story, originally written by novelist Owen Wister is the granddaddy of the western genre. Western novels before that were usually about real life characters, Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp for example: that put them in these two dimensional heroic settings. Those things were nicknamed "Penny dreadfuls" and that they were.

Wister, who spent some time in the west, and was a good friend of cowboy president Theodore Roosevelt, developed his characters out of the people he met in the west. The strong silent hero, the demure schoolmarm, the cold hearted villain, all these appear in The Virginian and they're stock characters in westerns. But these are the original prototypes for thousands to follow. Owen Wister set the standard for folks like Zane Grey, Luke Short, Louis L'Amour,etc. to follow.

Joel McCrea was a fine actor, a combination of the best features of Gary Cooper(who did the role in an earlier version), Jimmy Stewart and a younger John Wayne. Nobody has done a better job in playing this character including Cooper. Brian Donlevy is the villainous Trampas and he never disappoints. Sonny Tufts probably has the best role in his career as Steve, The Virginian's friend who turns to rustling with Trampas. Barbara Britton is properly demure as the schoolmarm.

This novel, the play that Wister wrote based on it and all the versions to follow had the Presidential imprimatur. Teddy Roosevelt loved this book and recommended it to the youth of America. I remember a similar White House imprimatur for a western coming in my teen years. Back around 1965 the folks had CBS decided Gunsmoke had run its course and they were ready to pull the plug on the show. Well, up stepped Lady Bird Johnson to the plate and she declared that Gunsmoke was her favorite television show. That did it, the show ran almost another decade.

The crux of the story centers around the relationship with The Virginian and Steve. After warning him once, The Virginian catches Steve with stolen cattle and since there's no organized law in the territory, proceeds to hang him forthwith. The story then revolves on how The Virginian and others around him view the distasteful, but necessary duty he had to do.

I've often wondered how Theodore Roosevelt felt about that part of the plot and what he might have said to his good friend Wister. There is a famous story from his days in the Dakota Territory about how Roosevelt set out to trail some rustlers and caught up with them. There was no law within miles of where they were. But Roosevelt took them back to where there was a federal marshal and turned them over to the surprise of many including the marshal.

No doubt The Virginian was a great example of the manly virtues of the strenuous life that Roosevelt passionately advocated. But I often wonder what he and Wister might have talked about concerning this aspect of the story.

Remember folks if you see this and complain about clichés, remember the clichés started here.

Owen Wister, himself, is fascinating to me. The movie version of his book doesn't include the rather excellent banter between the schoolmarm and the hero, nor does it include the evidence of growth and maturity in the early antics of the hero and his friend, Lin. What great fun they had before falling for the schoolmarm. You have to read to get that.

Molly appears a bit ditsy in the '46 version and a bit underdeveloped in the book. Thank goodness for the remake with Bill Pullman and Diane Lane. Molly seems to have more depth with Lane playing the role.

The '46 version is great, the '99 version is great, but I hope you get to see both to fill in the gaps each seems to have.

Its a great plot, fabulous development of romance, and the ending is intense (more so in the '99 version though).

Like the 1929 version of the Virginian, this film goes through the highlights of the novel at a brisk pace, resulting in an eventful story but lighter on the character development when compared to the novel.

In just 17 years between the two movies, you can notice the evolution of the craft. Long gone are the mannerisms of the silent era that you could see in the 1929 version, which was a very early talkie. This 1946 version is in technicolor, a bit clean-cut as westerns from this period tended to be, but confident in the storytelling techniques of the medium.

It does not feel like a very big production, even though there are some nice exterior action shots. But there are no majestic sceneries with faraway horizons.

Joel McCrea is not bad in the titular role, but he is always kind of inexpressive, and this role might have benefited from some more dramatic range. Because of that, there wasn't too much chemistry in the romance. Barbara Britton had more of that range and I enjoyed her work as the young schoolteacher Molly Wood. Sonny Tufts as the Virginian's wayward friend and Brian Donlevy as the black-clad villain Trampas were quite good. In a smaller supporting role, Fay Bainter had some nice scenes interacting with Britton.

The Virginian is a great story, and here you can enjoy it without any time to get bored, but I wouldn't have minded twenty minutes more, allowing for some respite from the action.

That's a good western from Paramount Pictures, starring a Joel Mc Crea at his peak in a role that has been his standard for decades. So, do not expect any surprise, only expect what you precisely expect: good cow boy fighting an evil one, a true villain, such as for instance a Brian Donlevy wearing a black suit....and you will obtain what you searched for. I have seen hundreds of this kind all over decades too, since my childhood, and now it bores me a bit. However that doesn't remove anything from the genuine quality of this film. It remains a great classic, starring a great western star. The usual good stuff, period.