User Reviews

Years ago, I saw Errol Flynn sing in "Thank Your Lucky Stars". He wasn't particularly good, but the song seemed to fit his limited range and was a pleasant addition to the movie. Little did I know that in addition to this movie, Flynn also sang in "Montana"--again, he wasn't that good, but the song was pleasant and worked because it worked pretty well for a man who was definitely not a singer. While this isn't THE reason to watch this film, for old time film nuts like myself, it sure is an incentive.

This is one of several westerns Flynn made for Warner Brothers, though oddly the movie wasn't released for two years after it was completed. The reason doesn't appear to be because it's a bad film, as it's an amiable film--perhaps it had something to do with contract negotiations.

For once, Flynn actually plays an Australian! Considering his accent, this made a lot more sense than some of these other films where you assume he's supposed to be a 100% born and bred American! And, like most of his other Warner westerns, this one is shot in glorious color--and it sure looks pretty.

The film begins with Flynn and his men moving sheep into Montana--even though cattlemen have promised to kill any sheepmen who enter the territory. And, not surprisingly, soon on of Flynn's men is killed. Instead of an all-out response, Flynn goes undercover into town to scout out the situation. To do so, he joins up with Cuddles Sakall, who is a traveling merchant. In this guise, he soon works his way into Alexis Smith's heart--and she is the owner of one of the biggest cattle outfits. But, when his identity as a sheep lover (don't take that the wrong way, please) is discovered, the blossoming romance is dead. However, considering it IS Errol Flynn, you have an inkling that when all is said and done that they'll be back together.

In the meantime, Flynn and his new buddy, Tecumseh (Paul Burns) realize that their beef (so to speak) isn't with ALL the cattle ranchers--just the big outfits that seek to boss everyone around. If the little ranchers and sheep ranchers could work things out, they could all get along...but what about the biggies? Tired of being pushed around, a shaky alliance is forged...but what about the biggies? As for Flynn, he's pretty much the usual Flynn--mostly because the effects of his wild life and alcoholism haven't yet shown. In other words, in this film, he's still rather 'pretty' and the Flynn most have come to enjoy. A decade later, he'd become big and bloated and appeared 25 years older--and he had trouble with his lines and acting because of all the booze. And, for Smith, she's the typical 'tough dame' you'd expect to find in westerns--the anachronistic and petulant lady who, down deep, is a ball of fire. She was good at the role, but it was awfully formulaic. One thing that IS interesting, though, is that there really is no 'big bad boss' in the film--a bad guy who seems to be THE power in the film and THE man who must be broken by the end of the movie. Smith fills in, somewhat, in this role but the film really does lack someone to truly hate. The closest you have is Smith's foreman or Jock, but they aren't quite up to it either.

Generally the film was quite good despite being formulaic (thus making it predictable--especially at the silly ending). There was a goofy fight scene between the foreman and Flynn after the foreman murdered someone in front of witnesses. During this fight, no one--not one person--did ANYTHING--they just stood back and watched. Hey folks, the guy just murdered a cattle rancher--don't you think it's time you did SOMETHING other than just stand there and watch?! Overall, despite its script's shortcomings, it's a fun western and well worth seeing--even if it is all rather easy to figure out long before the end.

This is not one of Errol Flynn's great westerns -- such as "Dodge City" or "Santa Fe Trail". Nor is it a bad movie, as Westerns go. It pleasantly ambles along, and is as good or slightly better than the average Western. Certainly, Flynn's rough and tumble life was catching up with him here; although only about 40 at the time of filming, he was certainly looking middle-aged here, with a much fuller face than we saw just a very few years earlier. Nevertheless, he was still a handsome leading man.

I think there are two strikes against this film. One is its short running time -- only 77 minutes. Second, although done well, it's the old cattlemen versus sheep-men all over again. So there's nothing really very unique about this film, but as those sheep-vs-cattle movies go...this may be the best of the lot.

The screen romance between Flynn (the unknown sheep-man) and Alexis Smith (the cattle rancher) is really the heart of the picture, particularly since she is already loved by her cattle rancher partner.

You might enjoy, or be taken aback, by the duet sung by Flynn and Alexis Smith -- "Reckon I'm In Love". Personally, though perhaps a tad out of place, it was kinda cute.

This is one of those films where I liked the good guys because I liked there screen personas --Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S.Z. Sakall (for the humor), and Paul Burns (as a sort of Gabby Hayes-like character). On the other hand, I really didn't care for the actors who were the bad guys -- Douglas Kennedy and Slim Reeves; their personas were simply too clichéd.

Nevertheless, this film is worth watching, but probably won't end up on your DVD shelf.

Errol Flynn now entered the last decade of his career and of his life. The public perception of Flynn in the 50's is of a long, sad deterioration exemplified by a long series of increasingly pathetic films that he was in, ending with the risible 'Cuban Rebel Girls', (1959). In fact, virtually all of Flynn's 1950's films were 'A' products and most of them are perfectly good entertainments and some of them are more than that. He was not the young, so handsome he's pretty cavalier of his earlier days, but he was a much more accomplished actor, playing with good energy in most of these films and was almost always the best thing in them.

'Montana' is in the "perfectly good entertainment category, a technicolor treat, (especially red-haired Alexis Smith) about sheepmen, (which Flynn had had some experience with back in Australia - he describes how they - and he - castrated sheep in his autobiography in not-so-loving detail, which the film fortunately spares us), vs. Cattlemen - and women. There are some signs of belt-tightening by Warner's: the short length of the film, (1 hour, 16 minutes), and some fuzzy back projection. But the movie moves and has plenty of action and humor in it, (you've got to see Flynn hawking a patent medicine). I doubt that 1950's audiences left disappointed and Flynn fans won't either.

He's driving a large herd of sheep into the Montana range lands and meets with hostility due to the prejudices by cattlemen against sheep: they tended to eat grass down to the nub and produced an unpleasant smell that made the land they grazed unpalatable. From my reading the problem was that shepherds used to herd sheep into tight groups in the mountain areas from whence they came whereas that was unnecessary in the great expanses of the west. When it was found that if they were allowed to roam free, they wouldn't destroy the grass or stink the place up, ranchers found they could make even more money than cattle as sheep were a source for wool as well as food.

To find out who he will have to deal with in Montana, Flynn hops a ride with a traveling merchant played by S. A. Zakall, (in a thankfully brief and restrained performance), and pretends to be his assistant. He finds out that the smaller cattle ranchers are being forced out by the larger ones and are resentful of it and that the English over-seer of one of them might be persuaded to run sheep as well as cattle. Definitely opposed are Smith, who has lost a father and a brother to previous wars against sheepmen and Douglas Kennedy, (last seen as a co-conspirator of Duke DeLorca in 'The Adventures of Don Juan'), who wants Smith's hand, (but is two-timing her with the sheriff's gal), as everything else under his control. Flynn romances Smith with mixed results and finally disposes of Kennedy in a battle in the middle of a stampede Kennedy created before confronting the armed Smith in a showdown in the middle of the town's main street that must be seen to be believed.

" . . . by the Great Land Barons," Warner Bros.' trailer for MONTANA states. The "them" in this sentence refers to the Patriotic Loyal True Blue Average Union Label Normal Folks (like us) comprising the majority of our USA Citizenry in 1879 (the year of this story), of 1950 (the year of this movie), and Today (the year of 2017). "The Great Land Barons," of course, are the forerunners to Today's Job-Killing Corrupt Capitalist Trumpster Rats. Speaking of rats, now that Putin's Puppet has succeeded in destroying 300 years of American Civilization by eliminating ALL of President Obama's Consumer Safeguards, I was NOT surprised to view AN ACTUAL, REAL LIFE RAT OF THE RODENT FAMILY scuttle across Aisle 12 of the Kroger Store two miles from my home TWICE as I stopped for milk an hour before watching MONTANA, an errand that took double the usual time in fighting through the masses of other terrorized customers milling about. I NEVER saw so much as one single rat inside my local Kroger (or anyplace else I frequent, for that matter) during the ENTIRE EIGHT YEARS that President Obama was America's Leader. However, MONTANA teaches us that when those of the ilk of Billionaire Oligarchs are allowed to run roughshod over "We Little People" and "drown the government in the bathtub" (to use the catch-phrase of Trump's Chief Henchman, Steve Bannon) we can expect authentic rodent rats to be given the run of our Kroger Stores on Day #82 of Putin\Trump's Reign of Terror. Though I tried MONTANA's featured mutton dish once and didn't care for it when Obama was Commander-in-Chief, I'm thankful for Warner's timely warning to beware that Rump of Rat might become Kroger's newest deli meat as soon as a Monkey Business Bozo such as Trump bans all of America's regulations, protections, and safeguards on behalf of Vicious Vacuous Venal Village-Idiot Villains such as himself.

This lackluster Errol Flynn oater qualifies as one of his minor efforts. Clocking in at a sheer 73 minutes, "Montana" doesn't waste its time getting down to basics, but the narrative has its lapses. One character shows up and then is gone without an explanation. The performances are good and the Warner Brothers production values are bed-rock. Seasoned western writers such as James R. Webb and Borden Chase penned the screenplay, but they deliver little in the way of memorable dialogue and there are absolutely no surprises in this formulaic horse opera. Some of the situations, like our hero being duped into riding an unbreakable bronco, are old hat.

Basically, Morgan Lane (Errol Flynn of "The Sea Hawk") plunges his flock of sheep into cattle country in 1879 and the cowboys refuse to tolerate these sheep-nanigans. No sooner has Lane and his flock entered cattle country than the cowboys descend on them at night with their guns blazing death. An unarmed, young Mexican shepherd becomes the first casualty with a bullet in the back. The following day Lane and company encounter Papa Otto Schultz (S.Z. Sakall of "Casablanca") who drives his peddler's wagon into their camp. Lane and Papa Otto become partners almost instantly and the two ride into Fort Humboldt to peddle his wares. Initially, Lane receives a chilly reception in the Little Big Horn Saloon where Slim Reeves (Ian MacDonald of "High Noon") goads him into a showdown after he labels Lane a sheep-man. Although he knows that it isn't any of his business, a bearded, leathery-looking Tecumseh Burke (Paul E. Burns of "Son of Paleface") pokes his nose into the confrontation. The older gunman offers Lane the use of his hardware since our hero doesn't pack a pistol. Tecumseh warns Lane that the trigger is tied back and he will have to fan the weapon. Slim shoves the holstered revolver and gun belt at Lane. Everybody clears out of the way so the two can shoot it out. Tecumseh starts the countdown to three, but the bushwhacking skunk that Slim is tries to shuck his six-shooter on two. Lane blows the revolver neatly out of his adversary's fist as easily as he might blow out a candle. The ruffian apologizes because he insists no sheepman could possibly wield a shooting iron with such dexterity.

"Montana" features a romance between the principal players. Predictably, it doesn't take our hero long to meet, greet, and get sweet with cattle queen Maria Singleton (Alexis Smith of "San Antonio"), even though she is engaged to marry rancher Rod Ackroyd. Lane has Maria eating out of his hand after he wagers that he can ride a bronco that nobody else has managed to stay aboard for a full minute. Sneaky Reeves whittles away at the cinch and Lane barely missing staying in the leather long enough. Apparently, the colossal loss of money that Papa sacrificed not only drove him out of his partnership with Lane but also out of the movie. Papa vanishes and is never heard from again. Meanwhile, Maria decides to lease Lane some land to run his steers on since he didn't tame the bronco. At this point, things take a turn for the worse for our protagonist. Inexplicably, Lane's sheep dog Jeanne prances into town that same day that Lane steps outside the bank with Maria with the lease for the land. Reeves and his cohorts expose Lane as a sheepman when the mutt goes to him. Naturally, Maria is furious, but what she doesn't know is that her fiancée has been two-timing her with the lawman's girlfriend. Indeed, the lawman, Sheriff Jake Overby (Lane Chandler of "Samson and Delilah") doesn't know that he, too, is being two-timed.

Meantime, the ornery cattlemen cannot shed their deep-seated prejudice toward the mutton-minded Lane. Lane argues that sheep and cattle can get along together. He has seen it in Mexico, but the cattlemen don't believe him. Gunslinging cattleman Rod Ackroyd (Douglas Kennedy of "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold") leads the charge against Lane and his sheep and bites the dust. The showdown in front street at the end of the action looks like a mild imitation of "Red River" with our colorful heroine shooting the man that she loves. Flynn was looking a mite long in the tooth when he made this oater and the alcohol had robbed him of his spontaneity but not his charm. He looks a little more heavyset than usual. Smith doesn't look like she has changed since their last collaboration on "San Antonio" except that her outfits aren't as flamboyant. Mind you, she is a bit more hard-hearted and tough as a cattle queen who lost her father and brother in the war against the sheep herders.

"Montana" doesn't rank in the same league with Flynn's more prestigious westerns like "Dodge City," "Virginia City," and "They Died With Their Boots On." In fact, "Montana" rates as one of his least appealing westerns. At least the Technicolor makes this modest western look good. Strangely, the peddler that Sakall plays vanishes inexplicably from the action. If you want to see a genuinely entertaining cattle versus sheep western, watch director George Marshall's comedy western "The Sheepman" (1958) with Glenn Ford.

The process shots of the cattle stampede near the very end the film are some of the worst I have ever seen in a film. Hokey and completely unbelievable.

There was a line by old Tecumseh Burke (Paul E. Burns) that blew by a little too quickly for me to properly digest, but it had something to do with Morgan Lane and a reference to the Little Big Horn. It had me immediately recalling Erroll Flynn's role as General George Armstrong Custer in the 1941 film "They Died With Their Boots On". Truthfully, that might have been the highlight of the flick for me, right ahead of the brief divergence concerning Poppa Schultz's supply of antimacassars. I heard that term once in my youth long ago, and today I know what it means. But you'll have to catch the film to find out.

For all the dozens of Westerns that ever came out with cattlemen versus sheep ranchers as a plot element, you can probably count on one hand the number in which someone thought it might be a good idea for both animals to try to get along. This was one of them. Not that Morgan Lane (Flynn) ever got to prove his point, when push came to shove, the sheep-men who made a stand simply turned away a cattle stampede and declared victory. I thought it was just too pat an ending for all that went before, with Miss Singleton (Alexis Smith) ever so willingly giving up her grudge against Lane. Not buying it.

What's probably more interesting than the story is seeing Errol Flynn team up with Alexis Smith in a duet around the campfire singing 'Reckon I'm In Love', before they actually came to terms with that diagnosis. In the ensuing decade since Flynn's portrayal of Custer he looks like he might have aged twice as much. There seemed to be a few times when Flynn and his co-star might have had some good chemistry going, but that didn't seem enough to compensate for the kind of rivalry that went with the territory. Had I found myself in Flynn's shoes, I probably would have rounded up my men and got the flock out of there.

"Montana Territory...1879...where cattle was king...where the law was a gun...and the men who drove the great herds up from Texas made the rules. They were hard men...they had to be hard to keep alive..." And not just the men. Cattle queen Maria Singleton (Alexis Smith) is not about to let a bunch of stinkin' sheep onto prime cattle land. She and Rod Ackroyd (Douglas Kennedy), equally prejudiced against mutton, run things in this section of Montana Territory. It's not going to be easy or pleasant when Morgan Lane (Errol Flynn) shows up on horseback with a lot of sheep following him. All he wants is a chance to prove that cattle and sheep and share the same land profitably. While he's trying to do this, sometimes with humor, sometimes with his fists, men will die, the sneaky Ackroyd will get his, a great stampede will take place and Maria will find out that at least some sheepmen don't stink as much as their sheep.

This routine oater is competently enough made, but there's not an original idea in either the script or the direction. At some point Raoul Walsh is said to have stepped in to help with the directing. Perhaps that's why there are some scenes involving Errol Flynn that have a little juice in them. At 41, Flynn looks his age. He may not be entirely convincing in a fistfight, but for the most part the movie shows him using more charm and brains, not brawn. His looks hadn't yet fallen victim to booze and gravity. That would come in the next two or three years. In The Master of Ballantrae, 1953, he looks as tired and worn as Roger Livesey looks corrupted and drunk, but Livesey was wearing make-up. The Fifties saw Flynn as just another alcoholic and the punch line of jokes. His last movie, released in 1959, the year of his death at age 50, was something called Cuban Rebel Girls.

For those who enjoy S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakoll, this shtick-carrying character actor, so cute...so wobbly...so predictable, shows up early in the movie and then just disappears. For those who enjoy music, we hear Celito Lindo warbled around a nighttime campfire and Old Dan Tucker sung by rough cowboys in close harmony. For those who enjoy the bizarre, we even have Errol Flynn strumming a guitar and singing "Reckon I'm in Love"...

"I met a certain someone who makes me feel that way. And ever since I met her I'm a singin' in the saddle 'Skidoodle diddle daddle' all the day."

Flynn smiles while singing this, but he must have needed a drink afterwards.

An El Cheapo western if ever there was one, with a climax made up entirely of stock footage - and not particularly exciting stock footage at that - either used as is or very obviously projected on a back screen.

Still it's hard to put a good cast down - Flynn even gets the opportunity to sing a song. He's as charming as ever and Alexis Smith makes a colorful foil for his attentions. S.Z. Sakall dominates the first quarter-hour or so, and then unaccountably disappears, while Douglas Kennedy makes an indifferent villain. Fortunately, Ian MacDonald makes an ugly enough henchman and Paul Burns is more than okay as Flynn's Walter Brennan type sidekick. Enright's direction is competent if undistinguished, - at least he keeps the film moving. Karl Freund's photography (provided it isn't being used as a foreground to back projection) is as colorful as a postcard. But it lacks style. But then so does the rest of the film. The players give it a bit of class, but otherwise it's on its own.

The script is no more than adequate. Maybe the plot and the characters were less familiar back in 1950 but I don't think so. Still at 76 minutes and by "B"-feature standards, it's a presentable enough offering.

I much enjoyed this Technicolor latter day Flynn western, more so than my initial viewing some years ago. Although the viewer can soon guess the ultimate outcomes in the intertwined romance and business departments, the details of getting there are entertaining in typical Flynn fashion. Some reviewers deride it for its relatively short length, but I'd rather have a well-paced shorter film than a tedious long one. Flynn is once again cast as a romantic rebel, this time as sheepman Morgan Lane, intent on invading cattle-only territory in western Montana. He cleverly poses as a hawker for traveling salesman Papa Schultz('Cuddles' Sakall), in order to get his foot in the door. Although he claims to be an Australian who decided to move to the US, if you listen carefully, his father(probably when he was a small boy), as a sheepman, was run out of this region by cattlemen, and he has returned to reestablish a mix of sheep and cattle. He knows it will be a tough sell, but he's undeterred.

Cattle queen Maria Singleton(Alexis Smith) long ago lost her father and brother in a sheepmen-cattlemen war, presumably the one involving Lane's father, although this connection is never explored. Thus, she and neighboring cattleman fiancé Rod Ackroyd have warned death to any attempt to reestablish sheep in their corner of Montana. Before she learns Lane's true intentions, Maria is impressed with Lane's skills with a gun(in a showdown with foreman Slim Reeves), a guitar, and riding a notorious bucking bronco; thus offers to lease him some of her best grazing land, presumably to establish a cattle herd. Naturally, she is horrified to learn that he is the proprietor of the sheep flock recently harassed nearby. Maria spends the rest of the film being alternatively attracted to Lane's charm and ranch skills and repelled by his sheep past and plans: a classic conflict between an irresistible force and an immovable object.

Lane eventually convinces most of the small ranchers, one big rancher, and a banker that, given the depressed prices for cattle products, sheep plus cattle is the way to go. He arranges to move his sheep onto the land of a cooperating big rancher, who is then assassinated by Slim, who then accidentally shoots himself in a grapple with Flynn. The non-cooperating cattlemen then plan a cattle stampede through the sheep flock, but are thwarted by Flynn and cooperating cattlemen, who were forewarned. Ackroyd is trampled to death by his own cattle after losing a grapple with Lane. To rub Maria's nose in his victory, Lane herds his sheep into town, where she is waiting with a gun. Well, you can guess the outcome of this showdown, more or less. End of story.

The two leads are very well cast and charismatic. Flynn, with his past success at combining physical skill, imagination, wordy charm and humor, made a believable upstart, and Alexis made a great brassy beautiful adversary/romantic counterpart. Her flaming red hair and bright gray-green eyes were made for Technicolor. I was surprised to learn this was their fourth(and last)film pairing. Unlike some reviewers, I thought Flynn still looked rather good for age 39(The film was actually shot in '48, not '50). He definitely looks much better in the film than on the jacket of the current DVD! You may or may not be charmed by the charismatic talkative Hungarian refuge 'Cuddles' Sakall, who becomes Flynn's initial local 'old timer' partner and adds some lightness to the story. Sakall disappears after bankrupting himself, losing multiple bets on Lane staying on that bucking bronco for at least one minute(Lane loses this bet due to undetected foul play). He is replaced as Flynn's 'old timer' friend by bewhiskered Paul Burns, as Tecumseh.

In addition to the background music, Flynn and Alexis's duet "I Reckon I'm in Love" is a pleasant diversion in their getting acquainted process. In addition, there is a short traditional Latin song around the campfire, interrupted by a cattlemen attack, and a harmony ditty "Ole Dan Tucker" in the saloon.

So, how does this story relate to actual history? Lane's sheep and shepherds got off very easy compared to some actual depredations by cattlemen. Actually, Montana was one area of the Great Plains where cattle-sheep wars were relatively few, and sheep were often grazed with cattle and horses. In part, this was because individual investors often had both cattle and sheep flocks, and sheep and cattle raising began about the same time in the 1860s. The later '80s and early '90s were a difficult time for northern plains cattlemen, as mass cattle deaths from severe winters and drought, and economic depression drove many into bankruptcy. In this film, only the price drop is mentioned as a hardship.

This film dramatizes some of the common prejudices of the times by cattlemen against sheep and shepherds: sheep eat vegetation down to the roots, are smelly and their meat inferior to beef, while sheepmen usually are inexperienced at riding horses and using firearms, and are financially poor. Most sheperds were Mexicans, Native Americans or poor immigrants, as depicted. In fact, sheep prefer forbs to grass, opposite to cattle. If raised around cattle, they often follow cattle, which tend to scare off lamb predators, abetting guard dogs.

Presently available as part of the Flynn westerns DVD collection, and has played occasionally on the Encore Westerns TV channel.