The Shepherd of the Hills | |
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Directed by | Henry Hathaway |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | The Shepherd of the Hills 1907 novel by Harold Bell Wright |
Produced by | Jack Moss |
Starring | |
Cinematography | |
Edited by | Ellsworth Hoagland |
Music by | Gerard Carbonara |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Shepherd of the Hills is a 1941 American drama film starring John Wayne, Betty Field and Harry Carey. [1] The supporting cast includes Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Marjorie Main and John Qualen. The picture was Wayne's first film in Technicolor and was based on the novel of the same name by Harold Bell Wright. The director was Henry Hathaway, who directed several other Wayne films including True Grit almost three decades later.
The story was filmed previously in the silent era by author Wright, in 1919 , released on State Rights basis. It was filmed again in The Shepherd of the Hills (1928 film), starring Molly O'Day at First National Pictures, and later, in color in 1964.
The film also features two uncredited pieces of music. The first is used as a leit motif to represent the spirit of Young Matt's deceased mother: the Wiegenlied ("Guten Abend, gut' Nacht" [1868]) of Johannes Brahms, commonly known in English as the Brahms Lullaby. The second uncredited composition was "There's A Happy Hunting Ground," words and music by Sam Coslow, sung by "Fuzzy" Knight, accompanied by an a cappella onscreen chorus in multi-voiced harmony; the song is sung again by the chorus alone over the closing credits.
This article needs a plot summary.(January 2024) |
Filming took place in Big Bear Lake and Moon Ridge, California. [2]
Literary critic Kingsley Canham reports that The Shepherd of the Hills is considered the best of the director’s “mountain feud” films dealing with inter-family conflicts in rural settings. The movie is the first of Hathaway’s six pictures to star John Wayne. [3]
Only a few plot elements and characters from the novel are used in the 1941 film, and those are depicted differently, so it is basically a different story.
While the novel interposed fiction with portrayals of actual persons residing in the Missouri Ozarks, in the early Branson area, the film departed markedly from the book's presentations. Old Matt, a patriarch, mill owner and influential person within the community, is presented in the film as a doddering fool, henpecked by his wife, Aunt Mollie. In the novel she's a nurturing, kindly, loyal wife and friend, but in this film she is a shrill, nasty moonshiner. The "Shepherd" of the title, a cultured, sympathetic visitor from Chicago who contributes positively to the society he's visiting, in this film is an aging ex-convict. In total odds with the book, he is here Young Matt's (John Wayne's) messianic father, with a shootout perpetrated by "Big John." Other characters differ as markedly from Wright's novel.
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The Shepherd of the Hills is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by Louis F. Gottschalk and Harold Bell Wright, and based on Bell Wright's 1909 novel of the same name. It was remade in 1941 by director Henry Hathaway.
The Shepherd of the Hills is a 1964 American Western film directed by Ben Parker and starring Richard Arlen, James Middleton and Sherry Lynn. It is based on Harold Bell Wright's 1907 novel The Shepherd of the Hills. The story was filmed previously in the silent era by author Wright himself in 1919, released on State Rights basis. It was filmed again, in The Shepherd of the Hills , starring Molly O'Day at First National Pictures. Again remade as 1941, also color version starring John Wayne.