Taking part in a poll on ICM for the best movies of 1940,I started looking for movies which came out that year. Solely knowing John Ford's magnificent The Long Voyage Home as the only thing he starred in this year,I was intrigued to find out that John Wayne had done another movie in 1940 which sounded like it deals with the same themes Ford touched on in 1940's The Grapes of Wrath,which led to me facing west.
The plot:
Emigrating to the US as the horrors of WWII grip Europe, Dr. Karl Braun and his daughter Leni 'Lenchen' Braun settle in a Dust Bowl farm town in North Dakota. Welcomed by John Phillips,the Braun's learn that the locals are desperate for new farming machines,but are told by the Department of Agriculture that they must keep to the old ways. Believing that there is no hope left in the Dust Bowl,Phillips makes plans with his fellow townspeople to all travel to a new home,as Leni finds out that her fiancé has embraced Nazism.
View on the film:
Limiting any action to a dirt road chase to the end credits, director Bernard Vorhaus & cinematographer John Alton plant an atmospheric character study,that digs up the lingering effect of the 1929 crash,with dour brown and bronze colours lining the stomach of the town. Displaying a sharp ear for sound,Vorhaus listens in on the towns waiting for FDRs New Deal,via rustling howls and an eerie yowl from the wind signalling the wasteland state of the country.
Carving the Nazi fiancé to be the most film-like element,the screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert/Joseph Moncure March and Samuel Ornitz wonderfully keep the drama grounded,from the Braun's getting a mixed reaction to their arrival,to Phillips difficulties leading him to not reach his hopes of being the cowboy who rides during sundown and saves the town. Joined by a fittingly fragile Sigrid Gurie as Leni,The Duke shakes his (big C) conservative image with a striking performance as Phillips,that rings a warm sincerity for the New Deal facing the former Wild West.
The plot:
Emigrating to the US as the horrors of WWII grip Europe, Dr. Karl Braun and his daughter Leni 'Lenchen' Braun settle in a Dust Bowl farm town in North Dakota. Welcomed by John Phillips,the Braun's learn that the locals are desperate for new farming machines,but are told by the Department of Agriculture that they must keep to the old ways. Believing that there is no hope left in the Dust Bowl,Phillips makes plans with his fellow townspeople to all travel to a new home,as Leni finds out that her fiancé has embraced Nazism.
View on the film:
Limiting any action to a dirt road chase to the end credits, director Bernard Vorhaus & cinematographer John Alton plant an atmospheric character study,that digs up the lingering effect of the 1929 crash,with dour brown and bronze colours lining the stomach of the town. Displaying a sharp ear for sound,Vorhaus listens in on the towns waiting for FDRs New Deal,via rustling howls and an eerie yowl from the wind signalling the wasteland state of the country.
Carving the Nazi fiancé to be the most film-like element,the screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert/Joseph Moncure March and Samuel Ornitz wonderfully keep the drama grounded,from the Braun's getting a mixed reaction to their arrival,to Phillips difficulties leading him to not reach his hopes of being the cowboy who rides during sundown and saves the town. Joined by a fittingly fragile Sigrid Gurie as Leni,The Duke shakes his (big C) conservative image with a striking performance as Phillips,that rings a warm sincerity for the New Deal facing the former Wild West.