Cattle Drive (1951) - Once Upon a Time in a Western

Dean Stockwell is Chester Graham Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon who gets left behind when the train stops for water.

He interrupts cowboy Dan Mathews (Joel McCrea) as he tries to capture a black stallion and insists on being taken back to his father.

Mathews refuses, much to Chester’s astonishment, but agrees to take him along on a cattle drive to Sante Fe where he can be reunited with his dad. With no other option, Chester grudgingly tags along.

Mathews takes the youngster under his wing, trying to convince him of the value of a hard day’s work, the importance of playing fair and how to live up to responsibility.

Some of the lessons catch on quicker than others. When a fellow cowboy challenges Mathews to a horse race, Chester takes the other man’s horse for a long ride in the middle of the night to make sure his newfound friend will win.

There are other problems along the way: a dried up river, a cattle stampede, that prized wild mustang caught and lost again and just a touch of infighting among the cowhands, some of whom think young Chester Graham Jr. is just plain bad luck.

But by the time Chester reaches Sante Fe, he’s done quite a bit of growing up, and would rather grow up to be like Mathews than his very rich but business-obsessed father.

Joel McCrea as Dan Mathews, trying to help a spoiled youngster grow up in Cattle Drive (1951)

Dean Stockwell as Chester Graham Jr., spoiled brat turned aspiring cowboy in Cattle Drive (1951)

Review:

Standard family fare type Western in which Dan’s patience with young Chester seems endless, in which no one dies, even in the cattle stampede and in which even Chester’s dad learns the error of his ways, having neglected his son until their reunion near the fanciful end of the film.

Chill Wills plays the cook on this cattle drive and helps watch over Chester. Howard Petrie is Cap, the man heading the cattle drive, and Henry Brandon is Currie, the cowpoke constantly butting heads with Mathews.

The subplot has Mathews repeatedly trying to capture that black stallion to start a ranch of his own. And when the stallion follows the cattle drive to lure away other horses, he’s given 24 hours to do just that, otherwise Currie will have permission to shoot the stallion on sight.

Dean Stockwell was 15 when this film was made and had already appeared in more than a dozen films, including “Stars in My Crown” the year before, also starring McCrea.

Chill Wills as Dallas, the cattle drive cook who gets a helping hand, at first reluctantly, from young Chester in Cattle Drive (1951)

Bob Steele as Charlie Morgan and Henry Brandon as Jim Currie, hands on the drive in Cattle Drive (1951)

Directed by:
Kurt Neumann

Cast:
Joel McCrea … Dan Mathews
Dean Stockwell … Chester Graham Jr.
Chill Wills … Dallas
Leon Ames … Chester Graham Sr.
Henry Brandon … Jim Currie
Howard Petrie … Cap
Bob Steele … Charlie Morgan
Griff Barnett … Conductor O’Hara

Runtime: 77 min.

Leon Ames as Chester Graham Sr., the railroad tycoon whose spoiled son winds up on a cattle drive in Cattle Drive (1951)

Griff Barnett as O’Hara, a train conductor informing Chester Graham of his son’s bad behavior in Cattle Drive (1951)

Memorable lines:

Chester Graham Jr.: “Sante Fe? Two weeks? Why you’re crazy. I’ve got to get back to my dad right away.”
Dan Mathews: “Too bad, son. I’m a cow man, not a tourist guide.”

Dallas, as the cattle drive winds through windy and dusty Paradise Canyon: “If this is paradise, I think when I kick off, I’m heading in the other direction.”

Dallas, looking at his alarm clock: “What in the Sam Hill is the matter with you? Waking a fella when he’s just met up with the prettiest little squaw this side of the Rio Grande?”