The Wonderful Country

Dir: Robert Parrish

1959

***

Legend has it that director Robert Parrish went to Tom Lea and asked if he could direct his novel The Wonderful Country but never made a contract with him. The only money that Lea received from the picture was for his cameo role as the town’s barber. Parrish and Lea first asked Henry Fonda, then Gregory Peck to take the starring role. But, Robert Mitchum really wanted to do the film, and after Fonda and Peck said no, Mitchum took over production. The story is pretty much the same in the film as it is in the novel. In Mexico, expatriate American pistolero Martin Brady (Robert Mitchum) is employed by the Castro brothers, Marcos (Victor Manuel Mendoza), a general, and Don Cipriano (Pedro Armendáriz), the new governor. On a business trip to the United States to arrange the purchase of a wagonload of rifles and ammunition, he is delayed when he falls of his horse due to exhusion and breaks his leg in the Texas border town of Puerto. Treated by Dr Stovall (Charles McGraw), he stays with German immigrant Ben Sterner (John Banner), who is the seller of the rifles, and Ben's nephew Ludwig (Max Slaten). Due to the severity of his injury, Brady is told he will have to stay in town for at least a couple of months and he soon becomes familiar with the town and its residents. Brady's help is sought by the local U.S. Army commander, Major Colton (Gary Merrill), to persuade Cipriano Castro to cooperate with Colton's Buffalo Soldiers in an expedition against hostile Apaches in Mexico, even though Brady suggests the Castros’ wouldn’t be interested in anything unless there was money in it for them. In the meantime the rifles he purchased for Castro have been stolen. Captain Rucker of the Texas Rangers knows that Brady fled to Mexico as an adolescent after avenging the murder of his father not knowing the man he killed was an outlaw, and tries to enlist him as a Ranger. Brady is attracted to Colton's unhappy wife Ellen (Julie London), but after shooting a man (Chuck Roberson) who murdered Ludwig and then drew on Brady, he returns to Mexico to inform Cipriano Castro of the missing rifles. Major Colton and Ellen arrive to meet with Cipriano, arranged by Travis Hight (Jack Oakie), the representative of a railroad threatened by the Apaches. Ellen and Brady have a brief affair. Cipriano tells Brady that by law he must pay a debt for the rifles and orders him to assassinate his brother Marcos, who seeks to make himself governor instead. Brady refuses and finds himself an outlaw in Mexico as well. Weeks later on the run, he finds cavalry sergeant Tobe Sutton (Satchel Paige) and returns with him to Major Colton's camp. Colton has been seriously wounded in a skirmish with the Apaches but is determined to rendezvous with Captain Rucker and General Castro's troops. En route they recover the stolen rifles from a small band of Apaches, but Colton dies. The rifles are returned to General Marcos, who reveals that Cipriano is also dead and he is now governor. Calling Brady an assassin, he demands the Americans surrender him and leave Mexico immediately. However Rucker offers to help Brady prove that the shooting in Puerto was a case of self-defense if he returns to Texas. Brady decides to risk it and heads across the river to the U.S. to be with Ellen. Mitchum’s portrayal of a Mexican is a little insulting by all respects but he just about gets away with it. To be honest, even when he was drinking heavily and his heart wasn’t in it, he’s still a powerful figure of a man on screen. The way Mexico is portrayed in general seems unfortunate but then there is the story that during filming in Durango, Mitchum and his stunt double Chuck Roberson decided to have a few drinks at a local cantina. They witnessed two Mexicans get into a violent confrontation in which one drew a pistol and fired a shot into the other's face. After running outside momentarily, the wounded man came back into the bar and dropped dead. The incident shook up Mitchum so badly it convinced him to keep his drinking to the hotel and its vicinity. It’s a fairly average western to be honest, Mitchum’s performance is good, although I rather liked Charles McGraw’s Dr. Herbert J. Stovall and thought it was a shame he didn’t have a larger part to play in the story. Julie London plays quite a powerful female which is unlike many films of its kind but she is also side-lined. It’s filmed well by Parrish but one would think that he would have shot more of the beautiful countryside, especially given the title of the film which I still don’t really understand. Forgettable but pleasant all the same.