With her stock fading after 15 years at M-G-M, Greer Garson brought her grand manner & flutey tones over for a one-shot deal at Warners, reuniting with favored director Mervyn LeRoy.* (Then nothing till SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO/’60.) As a new doctor with new ideas out West in the 1880s, a woman to boot, she's in competition with Dana Andrews’ established practice & old-fashioned ways, and worrying about scapegrace military brother Cameron Mitchell. The first half plays out in a lighthearted tone (in theory, jokes land with a thud), and gets worse when the film takes a serious turn with a bank robbery gone wrong, Andrews unmotivated hot-and-cold feelings towards Garson, and some sticky religioso storylines. (A blind boy sings Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’ with the voice of an angel. Yikes!) Shabby stuff, pushed along without much enthusiasm by LeRoy & cast, except for young Lois Smith who shows too much enthusiasm as Andrews’ tomboy daughter & love interest to Mitchell. Composer Dmitri Tiomkin also phones it in with a main theme that dips into his own superior theme for Howard Hawks’ THE BIG SKY/’52. No wonder Garson took five years off.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: *LeRoy & Garson had better luck in her early ‘40s heyday on RANDOM HARVEST/’42 and MADAME CURIE/’43. (see below)
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