The Proud Rebel | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
Written by | Joseph Petracca Lillie Hayward |
Based on | Journal of Linnett Moore 1947 story in The Country Gentleman by James Edward Grant |
Produced by | Samuel Goldwyn Jr |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Ted D. McCord |
Edited by | Aaron Stell |
Music by | Jerome Moross |
Production company | Formosa Productions [1] |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution (USA) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (International) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 103 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,600,000 [3] |
Box office | $1.5 million [4] |
The Proud Rebel is a 1958 American Technicolor Western film directed by Michael Curtiz, with a screenplay by Joseph Petracca and Lillie Hayward that was based on a story by James Edward Grant. [1] [2] It is the story of a widowed Confederate veteran and his mute son who struggle to make a new life among sometimes hostile neighbors in the Midwest. Despite the implications of the title, the main character in "The Proud Rebel" does not dwell much on his Southern past, but finds his life complicated by sectional prejudice. Many of the Yankee male town folk refer to him disdainfully, however, as 'Reb', while noting his proud refusal to compromise his values for any price.
The film stars Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd [1] [2] and Cecil Kellaway and features Harry Dean Stanton (credited as Dean Stanton) in an early film appearance.
A former Confederate soldier, John Chandler has come to an Illinois town with his 10-year-old son David to see Dr. Enos Davis. The boy was struck mute after witnessing his mother burned to death when Union soldiers set fire to their homestead, and hasn't spoken a word since. Dr. Davis recommends an operation by a doctor he knows in Minnesota.
In the street outside Dr. Davis' office, Chandler, (the only name he goes under until later in the film) tells his expert sheepdog, Lance, to clear the road of a flock of sheep being herded through town. The sheep belong to rancher Harry Burleigh and his sons, Jeb and Tom; trained dogs are extremely valuable and they try to steal it. Chandler fights them while a passing stranger, Linnett Moore, keeps David safe and out of the way. Harry knocks out Chandler, pours whiskey on him, then tells the sheriff about being attacked by a drunk.
Chandler must pay $30 or serve 30 days in jail. Linnett intervenes, suggesting to the sheriff that Chandler can work off the debt on her farm. In exchange she offers to cover the fine, so that he will be released. Chandler disagrees at first, but is won over by her decency. Over the course of time, he discovers that Linnett is being pressured by the overbearing Burleigh to sell her land. It transpires that her land is blocking the easy passage of his sheep to pasture and the railroad. Gradually, Chandler and Linnett grow closer, despite Chandler being determined to remain aloof, knowing he and his son will leave soon.
A trip to Minnesota for treatment is expensive but Chandler won't accept offers for the valuable dog as David loves the animal. But Chandler decides to sell Lance after all, for a high price, to finance the trip and operation. He asks Linnett to accompany the boy up north while he harvests her crops and rebuilds the barn burned down by the Burleighs' men in an attempt to pressure Linnett to sell.
The operation doesn't work and David's impairment remains. After returning home David is devastated to find their dog Lance is gone. The dog will not herd for his new owner and the Burleighs manage to acquire it to use to pressure Chandler and Linnett. When Chandler goes to their farm to try to buy the dog back, Harry tells Chandler he can have the dog as a gift, but has already told his two sons to help murder him, as an apparent thief, as he leaves their property. David arrives at the farm just when gunshots start and it is clear that the Burleighs didn't intend to let his father leave. Seeing one of the sons preparing to shoot from a new hiding spot, David shouts out a warning to his father. Hearing the warning, Chandler is able to turn and shoot that son first, then he shoots Burleigh, and then the other son puts down his rifle instead of shooting. Chandler walks with David and Lance, while leading his horse, back to Linnett's farm, with David beginning to re-learn how to speak.
Uncredited
The film was based on a 1947 short story by James Edward Grant. Film rights were bought by Sam Goldwyn who gave them to his son in 1950. Goldwyn Jr. said the film would be about his favourite kind of story, "the theme of the undefeated man." [5] He announced the project would be filmed in 1955 based on a script by Joseph Petracca. [6] However it ended up taking him a few years to source financing.
Goldwyn Jr. had budgeted the project at $1.6 million but had trouble securing financing over $1 million. He decided not to compromise and go for the larger budget without having sold it to a distributor. Goldwyn Jr.:
I really had no other choice. To me it was very important that this story be filmed as I thought it should be done or not at all. I suddenly realised that if I couldn't do it the way I saw it, I wouldn't be an independent producer. I was able to borrow $1,200,000 from the Bank of America – my father signed the loan with me – and I put up the rest of the money. [3]
Alan Ladd signed to co-star with his son David under the direction of Michael Curtiz. [7] Goldwyn Jr said "Michael Curtiz has drawn fine performances from both of them. The boy, when I first spoke to him, was stiff and frightened, but when I started talking to him about his father, his face lighted up and I knew he was right for the part." [5]
Adolphe Menjou was meant to play a supporting role [8] but pulled out.
The movie was shot in Cedar City, Utah. [9] Parts of the film were shot in Cedar Mountain, Rush Valley, and Johnson Canyon in Utah. [10] Its external scenes depicting the U.S.Midwest—a flat and well-vegetated landscape, are a bit jarring to compare to Utah's arid, hilly and mountainous backdrop.
Once the movie was completed, Goldwyn Jr. showed it to distributors and succeeded in securing deals with Buena Vista for the U.S. and Loews internationally. [3]
A contemporary review in Variety described the film as a "suspenseful and fast-action post-Civil War yarn" with "characterizations that hold forth most strongly, topped perhaps by the very appealing performance of David Ladd." [11] Critic A.H. Weiler wrote in The New York Times that the film was "a genuinely sentimental but often moving drama" and an "honestly heartwarming drama" that "is more concerned with exposing character than mayhem." While praising the performances, the review also notes that "A viewer might justifiably observe that the tale is spun somewhat unevenly, that it slows down on a few occasions and that the 'happy ending' is telegraphed. But these [...] are minor matters." [12] A review in TV Guide described the film as a "warm-hearted story" with "[b]rilliant performances (especially David Ladd's) and the unusual characterization of de Havilland's hardened, loner widow" and "fine color photography of the Utah landscape." [13]
The Proud Rebel influenced Indian actor Kishore Kumar, to remake it as Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein in 1964, with his real-life son Amit Kumar playing the role of the mute son.[ citation needed ]
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was an Australian actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia de Havilland, and reputation for his womanising and hedonistic personal life. His most notable roles include Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which was later named by the American Film Institute as the 18th greatest hero in American film history, the lead role in Captain Blood (1935), Major Geoffrey Vickers in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and the hero in a number of Westerns such as Dodge City (1939), Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City, and San Antonio (1945).
Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland was a British and American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. At the time of her death in 2020 at age 104, she was the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award winner and was widely considered as being the last surviving major star from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Her younger sister was Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine.
Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent.
Harry Dean Stanton was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Christine (1983), Repo Man (1984), One Magic Christmas (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), The Straight Story (1999), The Green Mile (1999), The Man Who Cried (2000), Alpha Dog (2006), and Inland Empire (2006). He had rare lead roles in Paris, Texas (1984) and in Lucky (2017).
Alan Walbridge Ladd was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake in films noir, such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). Whispering Smith (1948) was his first Western and color film, and Shane (1953) was noted for its contributions to the genre. Ladd also appeared in ten films with William Bendix.
Dean Jagger was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King's Twelve O'Clock High (1949).
Virginia Mayo was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of popular comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Bros. biggest box-office draw in the late 1940s. She also co-starred in the 1946 Oscar-winning movie The Best Years of Our Lives.
King Creole is a 1958 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. Produced by Hal B. Wallis, the film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger, and Vic Morrow, and follows a nineteen-year-old (Presley) who gets mixed up with crooks and involved with two women.
Rory Calhoun was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).
The Rebel Rousers is a 1970 American independent outlaw biker film starring Cameron Mitchell, Jack Nicholson, Diane Ladd, Bruce Dern, and Harry Dean Stanton. Filmed in 1967, it did not receive a release until 1970 following the success of Easy Rider. It is one of several motorcycle gang films of the period to feature Nicholson, Dern and Stanton. The film was co-written, produced and directed by Martin B. Cohen in his only directorial effort.
The Charge of the Light Brigade is a 1936 American historical adventure film from Warner Bros., starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Samuel Bischoff, with Hal B. Wallis as the executive producer. The film's screenplay is by Michael Jacoby and Rowland Leigh, from a story by Michael Jacoby, and based on the 1854 poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The music score was composed by Max Steiner, his first for Warner Bros., and the cinematography was by Sol Polito. Scenes were shot at the following California locations: Lone Pine, Sherwood Lake, Lasky Mesa, Chatsworth, and Sonora. The Sierra Nevada mountains were used for the Khyber Pass scenes.
The 16th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1958 films, were held on March 5, 1959.
Albert Zugsmith was an American film producer, film director and screenwriter who specialized in low-budget exploitation films through the 1950s and 1960s.
Family Classics is a Chicago television series which began in 1962 when Frazier Thomas was added to another program at WGN-TV. Thomas not only hosted classic films, but also selected the titles and personally edited them to remove those scenes which he thought were not fit for family viewing. After Thomas' death in 1985, Roy Leonard took over the program. The series continued sporadically until its initial cancellation in 2000.
David Alan Ladd is an American film and television producer and former actor.
The Cabin in the Cotton is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay by Paul Green is based on the novel of the same title by Harry Harrison Kroll.
The Man in the Net is a 1959 American drama film starring Alan Ladd and Carolyn Jones, and directed by Michael Curtiz. The supporting cast features Diane Brewster.
Joseph Petracca was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and television writer of Italian descent. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Petracca moved to Los Angeles after the end of World War II and worked a series of full-time jobs, mainly as a steam press operator for a laundry and linen rental service, while he pursued his writing in the evenings and began raising a family with his wife Lena. In the early fifties Petracca began publishing fiction in the popular magazines of the day. Throughout the fifties Petracca wrote and collaborated on numerous films for such studios as 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures and in the sixties wrote episodes for such television shows as The Untouchables, Rawhide and Route 66. Petracca is survived by a daughter, Frances Petracca, a neuroscientist and AIDS researcher, and a son, novelist and university Lecturer Emeritus Michael Petracca.
Jaguar Productions was a short-lived production company established by actor Alan Ladd in the 1953. It produced several movies, most of them starring Ladd. The majority of the films were distributed through Warner Bros.
Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein is a 1964 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed, produced and written by Kishore Kumar. He also stars, along with Supriya Devi and Amit Kumar. Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein, an adaptation of the American film The Proud Rebel (1958), was released in 1964 and gained critical acclaim, but failed commercially. It was later remade in Tamil as Ramu (1966) in Telugu with that same title (1968), and in Malayalam as Babumon (1975).