Devil's Doorway

Post Reply
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Devil's Doorway

Post by mrsl »

.
This just ended on TCM. I saw it probably 30 years ago while my 50's teen aged brain was still under the evil control of most western directors, but for the adults in the audience, along came Anthony Mann with his honest, and forth right non-fiction application of facts. I honestly remember wondering why the Captain saluted Lance Poole as they walked towards each other, at the end. Since my Dad didn't know, I asked my uncle who had been overseas, and he explained.

Lance Poole (Robert Taylor), is a full blood American Indian who has been away fighting for the North in the Civil War. Not only did he fight, but he was at Antietam, and Gettysburg, to mention a few. During the process, he managed to acquire himself a Congressional Medal of Honor, thus the salute. Also while he was away, Louis Calhern arrives in his home town somewhere in Wyoming, to play as he often does, the sleaze bag of the century, convincing people that Indians should not be in control of the beautiful valley and lake just the other side of the Devil's Doorway, a passage through the mountains, which Lance Poole's father has made into a lovely homestead. Well, Lance finds himself a lady lawyer (Paula Raymond), to help in his fight, but unfortunately, there is little she can do because Calhern is within government protocols, not necessarily humanities though.

As said earlier, Anthony Mann's hand is visible here, giving us not only a good shoot-em up western that the kids would have loved, but a great plot for the adults to watch with interest, instead of boredom, as well as westerns beginning to tell the truth about the plight of the American Indian. Actually, this was pretty early being 1950.

Did anyone recognize James Mitchell of As the World Turns and/or the dream Curly in Oklahoma, playing Red Rock, Poole's Indian side kick? Marshall Thompson also had a mediocre role as one of the sheepmen who wanted to farm the land. In all I would say this is worth more than just a rainy Saturday afternoon, it's good for the whole family to enjoy together.
.
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
User avatar
ken123
Posts: 1797
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 4:08 pm
Location: Chicago

Re: Devil's Doorway

Post by ken123 »

mrsl,
I was amazed by this film, which I had never seen before, IMHO its almost on a par with Broken Arrow as a " pro Indian " film. I guess the reason that I have never watched it was because I avoid Robert Taylor films. My eyes have recently been opened. :D
Last edited by ken123 on April 14th, 2010, 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Re: Devil's Doorway

Post by mrsl »

.
Ken:

Mine Too :!:
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
User avatar
sandykaypax
Posts: 490
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:15 pm
Location: Beautiful Ohio

Re: Devil's Doorway

Post by sandykaypax »

Ann, James Mitchell played Palmer Courtland for many years on the soap All My Children, not As the World Turns. Hope you don't mind my correction--I was a big All My Children fan back in high school. I love seeing James Mitchell in his younger days in film--I love his dream Curley in Oklahoma!--one of my all-time favorite musicals.

Sandy K
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Re: Devil's Doorway

Post by MissGoddess »

I love Devil's Doorway, a wonderful movie that deserves more attention among Mann's cannon of films.

Another, much earlier film, 1925's The Vanishing American, for example, depicts the realities faced by the Native Americans....and at the same time employed a large cast of them, allowing them to earn money to feed their famililes in the bargain. There were probably earlier ones than that, but most of those films are lost.

Happily, you can see (or record) The Vanishing American on TCM, May 18th at 4:30 a.m. EST. I am saddened that it's airing at such an obscure
hour, though, because despite a conventional romantic subplot, it has a fascinating patina of authenticity which later films cannot quite capture,
probably because Hollywood in the twenties still employed enough people who were old enough to have lived through the last days of the frontier
and who could impart an aura of greater, grittier reality.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Re: Devil's Doorway

Post by mrsl »

.
Sandy K:

So good to hear from you, you can correct me all day long if you like. I haven't watched a day time soap opera since before my youngest daughter was born and that is 42 years ago, so I do get them mixed up now and then. One of these days I'll learn to look things up on imdB before posting from memory, but then nobody would have any reason to respond to me. :cry:

He shows up so often in movies that when I sight him I feel like I've caught the golden ring on the Merry Go Round. Watching Stars in My Crown the other day, there he was as the young doctor. I think I might have watched him in his soap opera just to have a chance to drool every now and then, he was a cutie as a younger guy, and very distinguished later in life, wasn't he?

Miss Goddess: I'm so glad you posted the date and time for The Vanishing American because with this TV system, I can set my timer weeks ahead of time to record. Sometimes the little red light goes on and I have to look up Scheduled Recordings to see what is being recorded.

.
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
Post Reply