Sons of Katie Elder

Buy This Item Sons of Katie Elder by Warner Home Video  Available from Amazon  $9.95  on 11-26-2008     John Wayne recovered from his first bout with cancer to appear in this 1965 film as the brother of Dean Martin, Earl Holliman, and Michael Anderson Jr. All four characters are wandering souls prone to trouble, but after the funeral of their frontier mother, they set out to avenge her death. Directed by Henry Hathaway (Wayne's director on <i>True Grit</i>), the film moves like a conventional, latter-day Western, with good performances from Wayne and Martin, who'd already costarred with the Duke in Howard Hawks's <i>Rio Bravo</i>. Nice support from Dennis Hopper (who had a legendary conflict with Hathaway on this film), Strother Martin, and George Kennedy. <I>--Tom Keogh</I> Reader Reviews This is a different sort of Western for John Wayne. While he has a big reputation as a gunfighter, he spends the film avoiding fighting as much as he can. Wayne also has fewer action sequences in the film. This may simply be due to the plot of the movie, or it may have been his recover from lung cancer surgery and treatment that he had in 1964 and had delayed the shooting of the film until 1965. Wayne insisted on doing all his own stunts even though it had only been four months since he had the cancerous lung removed. John Wayne, Dean Martin, Earl Holliman, and Michael Anderson Jr. play, respectively, John, Tom, Matt, and Bud Elder. They have come back to Clearwater to attend their mother, Katie's funeral. She was a widely loved, admired, hard working, tough, and sometimes sly woman (we are told she sold a man a blind horse once, and she also wrote a horse rancher that she would like a hundred or two hundred of his horses on credit to sell). John's reputation is such that he watches the funeral from up on a hill. His three brothers had waited for him at the train (along with Sheriff Billy and his hot headed deputy). However, the only person that got off the train was a menacing looking stranger. We later learn his name is Curly (WONDERFULLY played by George Kennedy) and he is a gunfighter who was hired by Morgan Hastings (James Gregory). As the brothers try to settle up Katie's estate they learn that there was something shady surrounding the loss or sale or transfer of Katie's 1,200 acre ranch to Morgan Hastings, who seems bent on buying up and building the town, with him owning it all. They discover that their father had supposedly lost the ranch in a poker game, which seemed somewhat in character. But his being shot very shortly after this game was supposed to have taken place raises their suspicions. Sheriff Billy Wilson (Paul Fix) at first tries to simply get the brothers to move on, but he keeps getting closer to the truth of Bass Elder's death. When Billy is shot, his hot headed deputy assumes it was the "Elder Gang" and arrests them without any investigation. The movie heads towards its climax and a good one it is. Martha Hyer plays Martha Gordon who was an old friend of the family and took care of Katie. She is as close to a romantic lead as the movie gets, and it doesn't get very close. Percy Helton did a nice turn in a small role as a shopkeeper who enjoyed doing business with Katie Elder. She bought at his store, but also made dresses for his wife and gave her a couple of guitar lessons. Another interesting aspect of the film is that Wayne was really 57. Katie's tombstone says she was 64. So, how old John Elder was supposed to be (40?) is open to question. Bud is supposed to be 17. The old Western TV show Bonanza had a similar age problem with the oldest sons and Lorne Green. But this is a classic Waynestern. Not one of the very best, but memorable and enjoyable. Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Sons of Katie Elder Available from Amazon Price: $9.95 Updated on 11-26-2008.

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