The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

Seen a good Western lately? It's tough these days. They just don't make `em anymore. Frequent readers already know of my love affair with Roy Rogers movies. Well, I'm afraid I have to admit that it extends to all Westerns. I'm just a sucker for them. But, as I say, they don't make very many of them these days. Fortunately, Hollywood has a rich history of Western movie making and a plethora of Westerns worth watching. And The Sons of Katie Elder is one of the best. Directed by Henry Hathaway, it tells the story of four brothers who come back to their home town of Sweetwater, Texas, for their mother's funeral. John Wayne plays John, the eldest, a gunslinger wanted in several states. Dean Martin plays Tom, the next in line, who went off and became a gambler. Earl Holliman plays number three son Matt, and Michael Anderson, Jr., plays the youngest brother, Bud, who their mother was intent on sending to college. Once there, they discover to their shame that their mother was destitute the last years of her life, living on the kindness of strangers. The brothers set out to determine who murdered their father 6 months prior to Katie's death, and they uncover a trail of deceit and treachery that leads back to a shifty gun-smith who cheated their father out of his ranch. The sheriff is murdered and the brothers are arrested. As they're being sent to Laredo for trial, they're ambushed. Much gun play ensues. Some dynamite is employed. Matt gets himself skewered. Bud gets shot. So does Tom. But in true Western fashion, the weaselly-eyed varmint what caused all the commotion gets his come-uppance in the end.

I first saw this movie when I was about five years old, and it's one of those films that has formed a part of my world view. In late-era Westerns like The Sons of Katie Elder, there's good and there's bad like in all of the best Westerns (movies not motels), and then there's the bad that sometimes does good for all of the right reasons. The Sons of Katie Elder is, at heart, a redemption movie, a story about how a bunch of boys who all went South can turn their lives around and do something good, even if it is just getting one of them through college and into a decent life. In this film, the Duke plays - well - the Duke. That's all there is to it. And Dean Martin pretty much plays the same character he always played, only this time he's wearing a cowboy hat instead of a tuxedo. Earl Holliman - several years away from Police Woman fame but several years beyond Forbidden Planet, puts in a serviceable portrayal of Matt. The weak link is Michael Anderson, Jr. - he overacts to the point of inanity. The rest of the cast is pretty incredible: George Kennedy as the evil gunslinger Curly; James Gregory as the bad guy, Morgan Hastings; Denis Hopper as Hastings' whiny son, Dave; even the squeaky-voiced Percy Helton as the local store owner. The film was shot on location in Mexico and Colorado, and the scenery is breath-taking - first clue that we're not in Texas. "Those are my favorite mountains in Texas," I said to my wife. But who cares. The geography of the cowboy movie has never been faithful to the true American west. Roy Rogers fought North Dakota bad guys on the same SoCal rock formations that James Kirk fought space aliens on decades later. It doesn't matter. If you're making a movie about cowboys and gunslingers and such, you've gotta have craggy rocks and mountains looming in the distance, even if you are in North Dakota. Or Texas. Or wherever. If you're in the mood for a good shoot-em-up Western, check this one out.

The Sons of Katie Elder is rated G. It's filmed in widescreen Technicolor and has a running time of 122 minutes.