Zane Grey Theatre (TV Series) The Unrelenting Sky (1956) User Reviews

Water: A Necessity

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 21 February 2010]

Water: a precious commodity, especially in the West were droughts made life really tough at times. Without water, none of us can live more than several days.

Here, a selfish man named "Beecher" (Walter Sande) wants it all for himself, refusing to share it with his three neighbors who beg the man to re-consider. They have kids and one has a pregnant wife. Water is running out. Their livestock is dying. The greedy man is stubborn.

What to do? After pleading with the man again, one of the neighbors comes up with an idea: "The only thing we can do is the kill the man." Will they go through with it? If so, who will be the killer? What happens at the end involves three major twists. One of them is corny and you'll go, "awww, come on," but the other two are kind of neat and definitely unexpected.

Famous actor Lew Ayers and somewhat-known Phyllis Avery play one of the ranchers and the wife who is pregnant. They are good but the star is Sande, who plays the villain. (Of course, the villain is usually more interesting on film)

Water in the west

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 13 August 2015]

Dick Powell's narration about water in the west sets the stage for this drama from the Zane Grey Theater about some very desperate settlers and what they'll do to keep from being driven off the land by drought.

Lew Ayres, Steven Geray, and Walter Sande are all small ranchers and a current drought is killing off their cattle. But it's worse for Ayres as his wife Phyllis Avery is expecting their child in a few months.

Willis Bouchey is a mean embittered old man who praises himself for having the foresight to divert a stream into some sustaining ponds which have kept him going, but left precious little for his neighbors.

Sad to say that the half hour format leaves little time to explore the issue and the ethics surrounding this question. But the ensemble cast give some great performances and Ayres surrenders to the better angels of his nature with a little help from possibly nature's God.

The Unrelenting Sky

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 14 August 2023]

If you were a rancher, water was precious in the wild west. Dick Powell explains the importance of water and how you go about looking for it in his opening introduction.

Beecher is a mean man, gone meaner since his wife passed away. He has water, lots of it. As he explains to his neighbours, he made sure there were reserves when it rained.

Beecher will not give access to his neighbours to his water. His word is final.

Clint Howard has a pregnant wife. Both he and his two neighbours are left looking at being ruined. They have pleaded with Beecher. Now they resolve to kill him rather than watch their cattle die.

Only Clint's wife is having nothing to do with murder. She is adamant that the rains will come and goes to stop her husband.

The story keeps things simplistic. Beecher had foresight and believes he is the right.

The others think Beecher is more than selfish, as the river in on his side of the land.

The ending is banal, it took a while for anyone to notice the rain!