Sierra (1950)

Hiding in the mountains from the law, father and son break wild horses until a lost female lawyer joins them to help clear their name, but some would rather see them dead.

Director:

Alfred E. Green

Writers:

Stuart Hardy (novel), Edna Anhalt

Stars:

Wanda Hendrix, Audie Murphy, Burl Ives

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Wanda Hendrix	...	Riley Martin
Audie Murphy	...	Ring Hassard
Burl Ives	...	Lonesome
Dean Jagger	...	Jeff Hassard
Richard Rober	...	Big Matt Rango
Tony Curtis	...	Brent Coulter (as Anthony Curtis)
Houseley Stevenson	...	Sam Coulter
Elliott Reid	...	Duke Lafferty
Griff Barnett	...	Dr. Hank Robbins
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Aunt Susan
Roy Roberts	...	Sheriff Knudsen
Gregg Martell	...	Tom Hogan
Sara Allgood	...	Mrs. Jonas
Erskine Sanford	...	Judge Prentiss
John Doucette	...	Jed Coulter

Storyline

Ring Hassard and father Jeff, wild horse breakers, live in a hidden mountain eyrie because Jeff is wanted for a murder he didn't commit. But things change when they take in a lost young lady, Riley Martin, who finds that Ring has "never seen a woman close up." Jeff is injured, Ring runs afoul of horse thieves and the law, and Riley (who turns out to be a lawyer) labors to clear the Hassards; but others would prefer them dead.

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Plot Keywords:

sierra vista arizona | arizona | arizona territory | territory | clifton arizona | 

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Taglines:

Adventure ... raging to the very peaks of Excitement !

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bandidos en la sierra

Filming Locations:

Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On September 29, 1949, four horses were injured and two killed while shooting a horse stampede scene. That same day, a 30-minute rainstorm caused a flash flood, which ruined about $10,000 of Technicolor photographic equipment. Hendrix came to the filming with a still-painful broken foot she had suffered earlier. She had nosebleeds and shortness of breath from the altitude in Utah, and in one scene, she was stung on the neck by yellow jackets. Murphy, already troubled with ulcers, nightmares, and PTSD from his war experiences, had severe cracked and blistering on his lips from the sun and literally could not smile due to the pain. Because Universal felt this was too noticeable on screen at times, after main production ended, a few of his scenes were re-shot later at Universal Studios. Main filming ended on October 3 and the next day, back in Hollywood, Hendrix announced that she and Murphy were separated.

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Goofs

The herd of 500 horses is barely even 100 horses.

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Connections

Featured in Biography: Audie Murphy: Great American Hero (1996)

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Soundtracks

BLACK ANGUS MCDOUGAL
Music by Arnold Schwarzwald (as Arnold Hughes)
Lyrics by Frederick Herbert
Performed by Burl Ives

User Reviews

Fugitive mustangers

Sierra is an unpretentious little western that paired Mr.&Mrs. Audie Murphy at the time, Audie and his leading lady Wanda Hendrix. Audie is cast in the first of many roles as a callow western youth who was raised by his father Dean Jagger who is a fugitive from the law.

Way back when Jagger was charged with the murder of Sara Allgood's husband and fled to the high Sierra country where he raised his son and now both make a living catching young wild mustangs of which there are plentiful in the Sierra foothills.

Hendrix is a rarity for the time, a female attorney who might gain acceptance back east, but in the rough and testosterone driven west is finding it hard to get clients. Audie and Dean might be the way to break into the man's world of the court, but both them are fighting their own sexist nature and don't take her advice.

There's a nice part in Sierra for Richard Robert who would die two years later in an automobile crash cutting short a promising career as a film villain. Tony Curtis has a small role as the son of another fugitive whose family teams up with Murphy and Jagger.

In his memoirs Tony Curtis says that soon afterward the tempestuous two year marriage of Murphy and Hendrix broke up. He tried to date Hendrix but Murphy was a jealous man with a bad case of post traumatic stress courtesy of the late World War and all the action where Audie Murphy became our most decorated soldier. Curtis describes himself as young and stupid and thinking not with his brain. He made it a point to avoid Audie for years afterward.

Best of all is Burl Ives, a hermit who lives close to Murphy and Jagger and who has some nice ballads to sing in Sierra.

Sierra is a nice western, made better with Burl Ives and his singing.