The Silver Screen Oasis

I like how they make Katie a real character in the film.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Though Katie has passed on, she is a very real character in the film. I imagine Olive Carey every time one of her boys or one of the good townsfolk talk about her.

We had an older poster at TCM City about two years ago who worked for Henry Hathaway as his secretary and as I recall she said he could be a holy terror which is in keeping with what Robert O was saying about him in the outro, especially in connection with Wayne's health issues during filming.

It wasn't until it was over that I realized that it was shot in Mexico. It looked very similar to southern Arizona and made me think that some of it had been shot at Old Tucson, but no, it was shot in Durango, Mexico, which was a very popular filming locale back then.

I really enjoyed the brothers. I adored Michael Anderson, jr when I was a pre-teen. He didn't have much of a career but he was on that TV show, The Monroes and in one of the Disney films, maybe with Hayley Mills?

Dean Martin and Wayne together are really a good team and Earl Holliman certainly holds his own. Martha Hyer looks old enough to be Wayne's love interest and any film that includes Paul Fix is aces in my book.

Dennis Hopper is amusing in the film and George Kennedy's speech pattern made me think we were supposed to think that Curly was just a tad touched in the head as they used to say.

Loved the conversation between John and the undertaker and even Jeremy Slate was passable as the deputy but John Qualen stole every scene he was in with Slate.

I wish Hawks had directed it instead of Hathaway. Hawks had a good feel for characters and the characters in Elder are more archetypes than real flesh and blood characters but that's okay, I love this film.

This is another one on the list of Westerns I've never seen and need to watch.

Lynn;

I think Katie is maybe the best defined character in the film. Every turn is filled with stories from friends about how wonderful she was and things she did for others. One thing it does do is draw a clear comparison to what her sons have become (or more properly have not become.)

The brothers have a fine chemistry. (Once again Duke's real age becomes bothersome but it just has to be ignored.)

I had hear the same thing about Hathaway and his treatment of Duke but I also heard Duke didn't want any favors. Hathaway (according to Robert's notes) was a cancer survivor as well and maybe wanted to show they could keep up with the healthy people.

One thing that has a familiar ring to it is that Wayne calls his parents by their first name. Some of my dad's brothers used to do that with their father so it is not so rare as it might seem.

This film has a really good supporting cast. You've mentioned a few but James Gregory is a first rate jerk.

SPOILER

One thing that was kind of cheesy was the part where Hopper is shot. Gregory shoots through a window to hit Martin but when they come to the barn he punches out the glass to inadvertently give a warning to Wayne. But you can't have Wayne getting hurt here.

Bud's a college boy and Matt, a store owner. That sounds like they were doing okay.

Martha Hyer is certainly old enough to play Duke's love interest, but not to the extent IMHO that they would have been children together as the film seems to suggests. She also appeared to have something going on with Deputy Ben, who was more in her age range. Funny though I used to think Martha looked quite young in the 60s and was surprised to discover she was playing adult roles in the late 40s.

What about Jane Darwell as Katie

Their age is only a problem for me compared to Bud's. From a personal note my grandmother was 49 when my dad was born and had several brothers and sisters in their twenties when he was born so the difference in Wayne and Anderson seems a stretch even for me.

Anyway, I've always thought Matt was the normal one in the group. Being a store owner is nothing to make light of but Bud's college was forced on him. Remember, Katie and someone rigged the stolen horse deal to make him go or "face" jail. Besides he used the word "clumbed" but overall I don't see him old enough to be in the same league as Martin and Wayne's life successes or failures. He is, to a degree, what most teens are - annoying. At least that is the way I see him being treated by Wayne and Martin.

How bad is it for Earl Holliman that with eight solid years in the movies he gets billed under Anderson, Jr.?

Fine choices of the ladies as Katie. I've always thought it a novel approach that there really isn't an on screen character for her.

Earl Holliman sure fared better as a son of Bass Elder than he did as an elder sibling of Robert Wagner in Broken Lance, another film about a quartet of Western brothers.

I'll add that Earl Holliman is another of Hollywood's unsungs, who I can't recall ever giving a bad perfomance. Because of the kinds of roles he generally played (varying degrees of goofy male ingenues and hapless younger brothers, The Big Combo notwithstanding), and because he made it look so easy and natural, he never really got the notice he deserves.

He of course has played authoritative figures, and very well, too, but I prefer his naive rustics, who are always smarter than they seem, very endearing, and entirely believable.

What about Jane Darwell as Katie

Good choice but she may have been too old by then. She looked very old in Mary Poppins as the Bird Lady but that may have been make-up.

Another thought I've had through the years is Lillian Gish.

Anne,

I have no idea if this happened or not but I can imagine Wayne and Martin, having worked on Rio Bravo together, ganging up on Holliman and Anderson,jr as older brothers and trying to tell them how to do things.

They would be less hard on Holliman who had some films under his belt vs Anderson who was at the time, the new kid on the block.

Pure speculation on my part but I could see it happening on the set.

Wayne used to wind up James Caan in Elderado

Imagine the thrill of seeing Elmer Bernstein himself conduct a concert orchestra playing the Katie Elder theme. Well I did! Unforgettable!

Vienna:

That would have been great to see. I wonder if film score music may be a more common billing on concert venues. There is plenty to be mined for a live audience.