Great Day in the Morning (1956)

Robert Stack is Owen Pentecost, who arrives in Denver just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. He’s from the South, and war tensions are already brewing.

Northerners — like Jumbo Means (Raymond Burr), owner of the Circus Tent saloon — greatly outnumbered Southerners, so it’s not surprising the Southerners welcome Pentecost with open arms.

When he wins the Circus Tent in a poker game, they’re even more eager to have his help.

There’s the little matter of $2 million in gold dug from nearby hills that they’d like to get back to the South to buy guns and ammunition for the war to come.

And Pentecost’s winnings just happen to include a warehouse full of freight wagon.

But Pentecost seems more interested in making money than war.

He’s also torn between two women — fair-haired dressmaker Ann Alaine (Virginia Mayo) and saloon girl Boston Grant (Ruth Roman).

And to make matters more complicated, Jumbo considers Boston as one of his possessions. Undercover Union agent Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol) has his eyes on Ann.

Meanwhile, Pentecost’s get-rich scheme of giving away all the mining rights Jumbo accumulated in return for half the gold found there goes just fine — until the orphaned son of a miner he killed for cheating shows up.

Pentecost takes young Gary Lawford under his wing, even though he knows the youth will someday learn the truth and hate him for it.

Review:

The film gets high marks for originality, both in terms of the script and some unusual details.

The Circus Tent, for instance, outgrew the tent. But the canvas is still wrapped around the front of the building. The bartender is known as Phil the Cannibal because he ate flesh — but just once. Those who don’t fear him called Jumbo Means “fat man,” which he hates.

The problem is, Robert Stack isn’t much of a leading man and his character isn’t very likeable. The film would have worked much better if Owen Pentecost was a man viewers cared about.

As it is, he’s merely less of a villain than Jumbo. And it’s hard to imagine the two prettiest gals in town falling for his boorish behavior.

Directed by:
Jacques Tourneur

Cast:
Robert Stack … Owen Pentecost
Virginia Mayo … Ann Alaine
Ruth Roman … Boston Grant
Alex Nicol … Stephen Kirby
Raymond Burr … Jumbo Means
Leo Gordon … Zeff Masteron
Regis Toomey … Father Murphy
Donald MacDonald … Gary Lawford
Carleton Young … Col. Gibson
William Phipps … Ralston
Mitchell Kowall .. Mower
George Wallace ::: Jack Lawford:
Peter Whitney … Phil the Cannibal

Runtime: 92 min.

Memorable lines:

Zeff Masterson: “I can smell a Southerner a mile off. A smell I don’t like. Know the breed. Ungodly, slave-trading, slave-beating Rebel secessionists. Not fit to live, none of you. Sorry we saved your worthless hide.”

Ann Alaine to Zeff Masterson: “You might wait for the war to start before you start fighting it.”

Phil: “You might as well know. They call me Phil the Cannibal.”
Preacher: “Don’t be scared. It was just once.”
Phil: “Man eats something he shouldn’t just once — right away, they start calling him names.”

Ann Alaine: “I’m in no mood for visitors, Mr. Pentecost. I’d hate to have to shoot you to prove it.”

Owen Pentecost: “Sure I’m loyal. I’ve got an undying loyalty to myself. And to no one else.”

Jumbo Means, to Denver residents eager to dig for gold on behalf of Pentecost: “He’ll rob you blind — him and that cheating woman of his. I know her like a book.”
Boston Grant: “You never got past the cover, Elephant Boy.”

Boston Grant: “Don’t try to be so superior.”
Ann Alaine: “I wasn’t even trying.”

Carleton Young as Col. Gibson, working undercover as a writer in Denver’s pre-Civil War days in Great Day in the Morning (1956)

Robert Stack as Owen Pentecost with Rogers (Dan White, left) and Ralston (William Phipps), two of the southerners in Great Day in the Morning (1956)

Peter Whitney as Phil the Cannibal, the Circus Tent bartender in Great Day in the Morning (1956)

Virginia Mayo as Ann Mary Alaine, shocked by a killing she witnesses in Great Day in the Morning (1956)