Was How The West Was Won Debbie's best all-round performance
Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 12:29 pm
Spoiler Alert
If you were to ask what Debbie Reynolds best film was you might say Singing In The Rain, which IMO was the best movie she was involved with.
Others might say The Unsinkable Molly Brown was her best performance in a musical.
In my opinion Debbie's greatest performance came in the western How The West Was Won, because not only was she stretched as an actress, she had to play a music hall entertainer, who makes 3 trips out west.
Firstly as a young woman, who came out west with parents Karl Malden, Agnes Moorehead with Carrol Baker as her sister Eve. When her parents died when their raft fell over a rapid waterfall, Debbie's Lily Prescott headed back east, leaving her sister and brother, who along with James Stewart build a farm, not far from where her parents perished. (I never did find out what happened to the brother as the story went on. He was ill and could have died, but there was no headstone in the family grave to confirm it)
Lily made a living as music hall entertainer, singing her own songs, when she discovers she's inherited a goldmine out west. With difficulty she persuades Wagon-Master Robert Preston to let her travel on his train, partly because as he said 'Her sturdy body' and as a partner for older single woman Thelma Ritter. Lily also attracted the attention of Cleeve, a gambler, played by Gregory Peck, who saw a way of making a fast buck.
After fighting of an Indian attack Lily finds that her goldmine has gone bust and is abandend by Cleeve. So she resumes her career, singing her's and the films theme song Home In The Meadow, on a riverboat, when she meets up with Cleeve, who proposes marriage and expresses a desire to build a railroad, which he does.
Yrs later after Cleeve and Eve are dead, the once wealthy Lily, apart from a ranch, is broke. I'm not sure if she's in her 60s or 70s, but she decides to make a final and permanent trip out west to live on her ranch with her nephew Zeb, a retired sherif, played by George Peppard, and his family.
Debbie gives a great acting performance, sings her songs just as well and she has to age about 40-yrs or more over the course of the film
If you were to ask what Debbie Reynolds best film was you might say Singing In The Rain, which IMO was the best movie she was involved with.
Others might say The Unsinkable Molly Brown was her best performance in a musical.
In my opinion Debbie's greatest performance came in the western How The West Was Won, because not only was she stretched as an actress, she had to play a music hall entertainer, who makes 3 trips out west.
Firstly as a young woman, who came out west with parents Karl Malden, Agnes Moorehead with Carrol Baker as her sister Eve. When her parents died when their raft fell over a rapid waterfall, Debbie's Lily Prescott headed back east, leaving her sister and brother, who along with James Stewart build a farm, not far from where her parents perished. (I never did find out what happened to the brother as the story went on. He was ill and could have died, but there was no headstone in the family grave to confirm it)
Lily made a living as music hall entertainer, singing her own songs, when she discovers she's inherited a goldmine out west. With difficulty she persuades Wagon-Master Robert Preston to let her travel on his train, partly because as he said 'Her sturdy body' and as a partner for older single woman Thelma Ritter. Lily also attracted the attention of Cleeve, a gambler, played by Gregory Peck, who saw a way of making a fast buck.
After fighting of an Indian attack Lily finds that her goldmine has gone bust and is abandend by Cleeve. So she resumes her career, singing her's and the films theme song Home In The Meadow, on a riverboat, when she meets up with Cleeve, who proposes marriage and expresses a desire to build a railroad, which he does.
Yrs later after Cleeve and Eve are dead, the once wealthy Lily, apart from a ranch, is broke. I'm not sure if she's in her 60s or 70s, but she decides to make a final and permanent trip out west to live on her ranch with her nephew Zeb, a retired sherif, played by George Peppard, and his family.
Debbie gives a great acting performance, sings her songs just as well and she has to age about 40-yrs or more over the course of the film