Cow Country (1953) User Reviews

Beef and Beauty.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 4 June 2017]

Cow Country is directed by Lesley Selander and adapted to screenplay by Adele Buffington from Curtis Bishop's novel "Shadow Range". It stars Edmond O'Brien, Helen Westcott, Robert Lowery, Barton MacLane, Peggie Castle, Robert Barrat, James Millican, Don Beddoe and Robert J. Wilke. Music is by Edward Kay and cinematography by Harry Neumann.

Texas ranchers led by floating cowboy Ben Anthony (O'Brien) fight to save their land from crooked banker Marvin Parker (MacLane) and his hired thugs.

We are at the beef collapse of 1875 and this forms an interesting narrative backdrop. Pic is conventional, though, yet it never lacks for in efforts to entertain. There's a ready amount of chases, punch-ups and shootings, all laced with nefarious or heroic deeds, and although the ladies are beautiful, they unfortunately fall foul of under written romantic arcs - though we do get a quite glorious whipping sequence courtesy of Melba (Castle).

It's all very routine but there's enough here for the undemanding Western fan to enjoy, with good casting and performances helping things along. 6.5/10

Allied Artist Westerns -- a Step Up

[boblipton · 7/10 · 10 September 2012]

As Monogram Pictures morphed into Allied Artists, they tried to raise the quality of their projects. As the demand for their B westerns disappeared, they hired some good actors -- among them the incomparable Edmond O'Brien -- and produced this western, directed by long-time Western director Lesley Selander.

I wasn't expecting O'Brien to be convincing as a cowboy, but he is astonishingly good as an ex-cowpoke who is building an express business -- and given a huge oversupply of cattle, he's shipping an awful lot of tallow and hide, all the scrubs are good for. There's a lot more history intelligently explained here than is usual for a B western, the photography is crisp and clean and there are fine supporting actors carrying the roles -- John Millicam is particularly affecting in, for him, a large role.

Selander directs very efficiently -- you can tell that villain Barton Maclane shot his interiors in a block and the action sequences near Lone Pine, where Selander spent most of his professional career are handled to advantage.

The net effect is that everything is much better than a B western, yet the obvious economies make it at best a shaky A. Still, overall it is a superior effort and worthwhile for western fans and a surprisingly unexpected sidetrack for Edmond O'Brien.

a western with a back story

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 19 June 2023]

Period piece. It's the 1870s, and the market for cattle prices is dropping like crazy. The people of garnet basin meet to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, everyone is still looking out for their own best interest. The banker, the shipper, the farmer, the cattle men. When things escalate, people start turning up dead. Someone is rustling cattle and selling the hides on the sly. Ed o'brien is ben, who's willing to take on the rustlers. If only someone will help him stand up to the thugs. We know there's going to be a big showdown at some point. The sound and picture quality are quite excellent. After the big grand start, this ends up as just another western. It's good, with no hokey, drunk sheriff that never goes after the bad guys. From allied artists. It's your typical western, but a little better. Story by curtis bishop. Directed by les selander, king of the westerns. O'brien was part of some pretty big films.. liberty valence, barefoot contessa, white heat. He won the oscar for contessa!

Would stand a remake

[peteoliver-90845 · 7/10 · 19 July 2023]

Yes, it's pretty hackneyed themes but it's well done with a couple of twists. The villains were real villains and the goodies real heroes.

Edmund O'Brian has never struck me as a handsome leading man who gets the girl eventually and, for me, is out of place here. Others play there parts well and the story line is good enough to keep you watching. I particularly enjoyed the obligatory fist fight sequence although there were some obvious stunt men substitutions.

Am surprised it, like others have been, was not remade in color to enhance the scenery and the action. Would seem ready made for the likes of George Montgomery etc.

Sit back, relax and enjoy- if you like westerns you won't be disappointed.

Cattle wars

[searchanddestroy-1 · 7/10 · 31 July 2022]

Nothing special in this western speaking of a topic so common in this genre: war between cattle owners. It is so predictable that you can't expect any surprise, only watch it to waste time. Edmond O'Brien does his job, a good job as usual. Lesley Selander was a prolific western specialist and this feature will not be a milestone in his career.

Slightly Above Average

[januszlvii · 6/10 · 7 April 2023]

I saw Cow Country today on ok.ru, and while it is not a bad movie, it was disappointing. The best thing about the movie was the star Edmond O 'Brien ( Ben Anthony). Anyone who has ever seen O 'Brien knows he was a great actor who could do anything (especially crime and western movies which are my personal favorites). Here he plays a cowboy who is very successful in Texas who is not only tough but very smart. The problem with the movie, is no one else was on his acting level. The women Peggie Castle ( Melba Sykes) snd his love interest Linda Garrett ( Helen Westcott ( new to me)), are pretty ( especially Peggie as a brunette), but everyone else is predictable as is the ending. Spoilers ahead: With O'Brien killing the 3 bad guys and ending up with Linda. Slightly above average because of O'Brien and looking at Peggie Castle. 6/10 stars.

Despite some decent acting, the film is too clichéd to recommend it.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 24 January 2013]

1875 crash in meat market usual cliché--the hidden (but obvious) baddie trying to take over; also the familiar cliché of the hot-headed boss and the loyal guy for no discernible reason.

This film is set in 1875 and apparently the market for beef has crashed. All the ranchers are in dire financial straights because of this. And, like about 75% of the westerns of the era, there is an evil boss-man who is trying EVERYTHING to destroy the ranchers. And, typical of this far over-used cliché, he has a private little army of thugs who steal cattle and kill in. Heck, before any of this occurred, I KNEW what was going on, as the baddie is Barton MacLane--who is almost ALWAYS the evil boss!!

"Cow Country" also has another cliché--not as over-used but still too familiar. There is the strong-willed rancher who won't listen to anyone (Robert Barrat). And, typical of this cliché, there is a nice guy who, in spite of this rancher's pig-headedness, is still very loyal and will do anything to help him (Edmond O'Brien).

Now if you haven't seen hundreds of westerns before, you may not notice these as very familiar characters. In this case, the film will probably be a lot better. All I could think was that I've seen most of this before (apart from the crash in the beef market). It's a shame, as O'Brien and Barrat were fine actors and were, frankly, better than the material they were given.

Slow, dull, talky dud not worthy of its cast

[fredcdobbs5 · 2/10 · 27 August 2014]

"Cow Country" has a good supporting cast of western veterans--Robert Lowery, James Millican, Robert J. Wilke, Robert Barrat, Peggie Castle, among others--a writer (Adele Buffington) who had been turning out western screenplays for years and a director (Lesley Selander) who specialized in making efficient, fast-paced westerns and did a lot of them, but they all must have had an off day because this is one of the slowest-moving, talkiest, cheapest-looking snorefests I've seen in a long time.

Star Edmond O'Brien must have been short on his mortgage payment when he agreed to make this, because that would be the only possible explanation for his being in it. It certainly couldn't have been the script, which is awful and sounds like Buffington slapped it together from pieces of the innumerable westerns she'd written before this. There's no connection at all among any of the characters in this film; everybody just seems to be standing around waiting for their cues so they can recite their lines. The few "action" scenes are very poorly done (Selander's action scenes were usually far, far better than what we see here). Production values are, to be charitable, minimal. even for Allied Artists. The film has the look of a particularly cheesy episode of the old "Lone Ranger" TV series.

As mentioned, even the good cast can't save this mess. O'Brien tries hard, and Wilke puts in his usual good job of villainy, but nothing really works. For some odd reason it was decided to make James Millican, who had one of the smoothest and most recognizable voices in the business, a German immigrant, and he's embarrassingly bad at it; he makes almost no effort at a convincing German accent, mostly substituting "v" for "w" ("Vhere are you going? Let's go that vay") and it's extremely annoying.

The film has virtually nothing to recommend it. I gave it two stars, but that's mostly for the presence of so many good western actors who got stuck in this thing. Otherwise, it's not worth your time. Skip it.

Not many big names, but plenty of huge talent

[morrisonhimself · 9/10 · 10 September 2012]

On Edmund O'Brien's birthday, 2012, Turner Classic Movies presented this movie hitherto unknown to me.

This is an astonishingly good movie, and for several reasons: It assembled some of the most talented actors in Hollywood; they were all good to even great actors (Mr. O'Brien, for example, is one of those rarities who is believable in any role, and anyone who is a good cowboy is, to me, at the top of his profession); the characters, except, of course, for the bad guys, were likable and often admirable; even the bad guys were well-rounded and believable.

There are two female leads, and both of them are good horse riders; both even know how to mount a horse, even in long skirts, as if they had been riding for years (and might have been; unfortunately, I haven't read their bios to know for sure). That is important for characters who are supposed to be natives to the West.

Don Beddoe has not only one of his best roles, he handles it beautifully. He shows he was an actor who deserved even more and even better roles.

Raymond Hatton was a veteran of movies back to the silent days. He too gives one of his best performances.

Robert Wilke also has one of his best roles, and also handles it beautifully. So often all he is allowed to do is walk on and get shot. Here his character is very integral to the entire plot. And, again, he shows he was very capable of more and bigger roles. (In our one conversation, he never expressed any regrets about his career. He might have been content or even happy. His auto license plate read, if I have the spelling right, "VILLEN." He was one of the best and one of the busiest of them.)

The writing and directing were good, if not perfect, and the only criticism I have is of the costuming. Even most of that was good, but one of the characters wore a Fredericks bra, which was popular in that era of film-making but actually deformed the female figure. (Just imagine Madonna as she so often appeared on stage.)

Otherwise, well, "Cow Country" is good enough for me to rate it a 9. I highly recommend it.

Where's The Beef?

[ProfessorEcho · 5/10 · 9 June 2023]

Though it's ingrained in me to love tiny westerns that ably coast on tropes and cliches, the more the better, this one just didn't get there. The novel idea of cattle men fighting amongst themselves was fascinating and held my interest to a degree, but it started to drag in subplots and one dimensional characters. Normally a real fave of mine, I found Edmond O'Brien uncharacteristically low key in this and absent for long stretches of the story. The three Roberts, Barrat, Lowery and especially Wilke steal the picture right out from under him. Barrat plays a wealthy entitled cattle baron and though he's supposed to be one of the ostensible good guys when all is said and done, he's nearly as reprehensible in his actions as Wilke's character who is typically cast as evil incarnate. Plus I was really bothered by a scene of our hero shooting someone in the back. Had this been an Anthony Mann western or a later Spaghetti or New Hollywood western, that could work, but in a 1953 low budget oater, it seemed out of place. Not that I don't mind defying genre conventions, but it just didn't sit well with me this time. Normally these films pass the clocks with ease on a lazy weekend afternoon, but I got antsy watching this one and felt encouraged to nitpick.

An okay time killer

[pmtelefon · 5/10 · 14 June 2023]

"Cow Country" ends up being a pretty good western but I'm not sure I'm going to remember it for very long. It has a good story and a strong cast but it don't have enough to separate it from all of the other B-westerns made around that time. I enjoy a lot of those westerns but some of them don't really standout. "Cow Country" doesn't really standout. Edmond O'Brien does a nice job. His supporting cast is fine including the dreamy Peggie Castle. "Cow Country" was an enjoyable enough movie but with the exception of a great whip beatdown, there's nothing that memorable about it. (IMDB has a 600 character minimum.)

Surprise watch.

[frank-ravlen · 9/10 · 7 February 2021]

Agree with most of other reviews. My concern was no reference to use of a Grieg melody with musical director not acknowledging the fact.