MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936)

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Thursday, November 25, 2021

THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936)

Fourth time ‘round for this popular Hatfield & McCoy tale, here the feuding Appalachian clans Tolliver & Falin. Director Henry Hathaway, A-listed after LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER/’35 and having made the similar TO THE LAST MAN/’33*, revels in the assignment, using the Great Outdoors to startling effect with those early TechniColor cameras and their painfully slow film stock. The story and acting pretty much hold up, too. Fred MacMurray (at his best here/very likable) is the big company engineer sent to sign up land rights for coal production and the rail line to move the stuff. Only problem, the territory needed runs right thru those two feudin’ clans. Henry Fonda, who lost his folks in the fighting, is pledged to cousin Sylvia Sidney, a bit of a minx who sees opportunity in MacMurray’s stranger-in-town. Soon she’s dressing up, going to town and thinking about an education. But as soon as Fonda & MacMurray come to blows over her, those pesky Falins attack, and romantic rivals suddenly join forces against them. Hathaway pulls this off with gorgeous early TechniColor (in beautiful shape on a Universal DVD), understated acting for the period (Fonda’s natural rhythm improving everyone around him) and impressive action set pieces. The story surprisingly violent & tough-minded at killing off friendly characters. More than mere historical interest in this one. If only comic relief Fuzzy Knight didn’t repeat the same damn song at every occasion. Even at a funeral.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The 1923 version of TRAIL starred Mary Miles Minter in her final film role, only 21, but fatally tainted by her involvement in Hollywood ‘s greatest unsolved mystery, the murder of director William Desmond Taylor. On the other hand, Hollywood’s second greatest mystery has to be: Why was Henry Fonda the go-to guy for early TechniColor features? Two years in Hollywood and he’s on loan to Paramount for their first shot at 3-strip TechniColor before heading off to make England’s first TechniColor feature, WINGS OF THE MORNING/’37, then a pair for the home team at 20th/Fox in 1939.

DOUBLE-BILL: *If you can find it, that earlier Hathaway Feudin’ Families Film, TO THE LAST MAN/’33 is damn good, if a little stiff at times (especially the women), and features the spectacular debut of 5-yr-old Shirley Temple, star already written all over her. OR: For a wonderful comic spin on Hatfields & McCoys, Buster Keaton’s OUR HOSPITALITY, out the same year as the silent version of TRAIL mentioned above. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/01/our-hospitality-1923.html

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Thursday, November 25, 2021

THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936)

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