Burt Lancaster is Elias Wakefield, who’s headed to Texas with a hound dog, a trumpet and a son, Little Eli.
He’s decided things are getting a little too crowded in Kentucky. Plus there’s the Wakefield family’s feud with the Frome family to get away from.
Father and son are sidetracked when Elias decides to use his “Texas money” to rescue a pretty indentured servant named Hannah (Dianne Foster).
Eli figures he can make the $200 back by working for his brother; Zack Wakefield (John McIntire) sees this as the perfect opportunity to teach his brother the value of settling down as a businessman.
Eli takes to those lessons — and to a school teacher named Susie Spann (Diana Lynn) — better than Little Eli hoped. He treasured his father’s dream of a life in the wide-open West. And he’ll take Hannah’s worldly knowledge over Susan’s piano playing any day.
Review:
This marked the only film for which Lancaster has sole directing credit and it’s a pretty well done Western, with a welcome focus on character instead of action.
That said, when the action starts, it’s not your normal Western fare — like an extended attack on Elias with a bullwhip, and his all-out charge on a man frantically preparing to fire his muzzle loader.
Both female leads spent more time in front of a TV camera than on film, though Dianne Foster also starred in three other 1950s Westerns — “Three Hours to Kill” (1954), “The Violent Men” (1955) and “Night Passage” (1957).
This marked the film debut for Walter Matthau, who plays a whip-wielding tavern owner and Hannah’s new boss.
Directed by:
Burt Lancaster
Cast:
Burt Lancaster … Elias Wakefield
Dianne Foster … Hannah Bolen
Diana Lynn … Susie Spann
John McIntire … Zack Wakefield
Una Merkel … Sophie Wakefield
Donald MacDonald … Little Eli Wakefield
Walter Matthau … Stan Bodine
John Carradine … Ziby Fletcher
John Litel … Pleasant Tuesday Babson
Rhys Williams … Constable
Edward Norris … Roulette dealer
James Griffith … Riverboat gambler
Runtime: 104 min.
Memorable lines:
Zake Wakefield: “I’ll work the buckskin out of him and off him both. He’s my little brother.”
Hannah: “Eli, some are born to stand still. And some are born to run, like a hound is born to run. Can’t you see that Texas is the fox for you.”
Eli: “I’m through with running.”
Little Eli: “Hannah, you got to help me with pa. He won’t talk Texas. I can’t get nothin’ out of him any more.”
Pleasant Tuesday Babson: “What’s important to your son? You. You, first of all. You doing the things you were cut out to do, the things God created you to do. Not you imitating your brother.”
Eli Wakefield: “Zach’s all right.”
Babson: “In his way. But the Zachs of this world build businesses. Men like you could build countries, if you only will.”
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