THE GREAT MEADOW (1931)

Poorly received at the time, M-G-M’s attempt to add Talkie technology to the frontier spirit that made James Cruze’s THE COVERED WAGON/’23 one of the great hits of its day, now looks like a considerable achievement in historic Americana. But an extended production schedule meant that by the time the film came out, it was already looking somewhat dated in technique & acting style. Dialogue is on the declamatory side and sometimes wide master shots play out in a stage-bound proscenium manner. But director Charles Brabin also gets loads of period color and detail following a party of settlers, in the late 1770s, who brave an eight-month journey from comfortable Virginia to wild Kentucky thru brutal terrain & hellish weather to reach a promised valley, an Eden of a Great Meadow. (Stunning location cinematography, presumably Clyde De Vinna's, with William Daniels back at the studio.) They’re led by newlyweds Johnny Mack Brown & Eleanor Boardman who meet all trials head-on. And such trials! Indians; disease; food shortages; birth pains; blizzards; desertion; loved ones gone missing on missions . . . the works. At only 75 minutes, it sounds overstuffed. But the stiff acting actually works in the film’s favor, undercutting the melodrama, and Brabin scores by really putting everyone thru their paces on what looks like a very rough journey. He has a penchant for low traveling shots, from the waist down. (Boardman, married to director King Vidor, must have been full of wild tales when she got back from the grueling location shoots. No wonder she retired from acting later that year.) Plenty creaky in places, but often filled with a sense of fresh beauty and wonder as well as having a rare feel for the sheer labor hidden behind personal heartaches.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Johnny Mack Brown was then in free-fall @ M-G-M. King Vidor’s big 70mm BILLY THE KID/’30 had just underperformed; a Joan Crawford musical (GREAT DAY) had the plug pulled; then this disappointment followed by another Crawford mishap as he found himself replaced by Clark Gable when COMPLETE SURRENDER was reshot/retitled as LAUGHING SINNERS/’31. Finally, his third-billed role in the very successful THE SECRET 6 (also ‘31) got shoved to the side with a seventh-billed Clark Gable effectively taking over the hero’s spot while the cameras turned! After that, minor studios and B-Westerns for JMB.