The Cheyenne Social Club Firecreek

Buy This Item The Cheyenne Social Club Firecreek by Warner Home Video  Available from Amazon  $17.99  on 11-26-2008     They can be tough as leather. Or as down-home as any pair of good ol' boys. Either way, there's a sense of warm respect between the two stars. The off-camera friendship of James Stewart and Henry Fonda goes back to their days as struggling actors and roommates. The Cheyenne Social Club [Side A] casts them as saddle-weary Texans who, surprised to find they've inherited a Wyoming bawdy house, feel honor-bound to defend it against a gun-wielding gang. Gene Kelly produces and directs this mix of fun and Western action. Next comes a firestorm of character-driven excitement in Firecreek [Side B]. Fonda plays an outlaw preying on small towns, and Stewart is the jittery, $2-a-month part-time lawman who must find the courage to stop him. This will be some showdown! Reader Reviews Unlike many movies made today, The Cheyenne Social Club and Firecreek pit two veteran actors whose consummate skill and ability to tell a story makes special effects unnecessary-the quality of the story and the acting carry both movies. Both films feature great supporting casts, and Fonda and Stewart show why they qualify as screen legends in every scene. Cheyenne Social Club features Stewart as John O'Hanlon and Fonda as Harley Sullivan, two rough and tumble veteran Texas cowboys whose lives revolve around endless cattle drives and the stoic and simple life on the open range of the West. O'Hanlon's brother D.J. dies and leaves him as the sole owner/proprietor of the Cheyenne Social Club, the most notorious brothel in the wild west. Fonda tags along for the ride as Stewart rides the 1000 mile journey to claim his inheritance. The men of Cheyenne consider the Social Club as a hallowed and precious shrine. O'Hanlon is shocked to discover the real meaning of his inheritance and announces to the madam, artfully played by Shirley Jones, and her bevy of beautiful women that he intends to close the brothel and open a respectable boarding house in it's place. The firestorm against O'Hanlon by the townspeople and his employees begins a tour de force comedy romp with the befuddled Stewart trying to weather the storm while Sullivan watches bemused from the sidelines. This movie features two veteran actors and a superb supporting cast at their very best. The sex is suggested rather than "in your face" like today's movies, but gets the sexual points across gracefully without being crude, graphic or clumsy. The end result of O'Hanlon's adventure is a classic cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for-you just might get it! The movie is bittersweet, ironic, and emotional without being maudlin, and shows why these stars from the golden age of Hollywood films set the standard for great acting and class performances. While Fonda and Stewart give great performances in Firecreek, I find this movie to be rather Hollywood formula and too close to "High Noon" in the concept of the story. But, if you love Fonda and Stewart as actors, it's hard not to like how these legendary actors tell the story, as rivals pitted against each other on opposite sides of the law. The problem is not the actors, but the story they have been given has been done before. So they have little room to breathe fresh life and a new perspective into a basic formula western. What Stewart does so well is make you sympathetic and willing to support his underdog character. He must use his wit and grit to overcome evil men and seemingly insurmountable odds, a classic position for Stewart in so many movies. Fonda gives a credible performance as the "bad-guy", but his performance in that type of role in such classics as "Once Upon A time in the West" gave him a better vehicle to explore his turn as an evil and criminal man with no scruples and little compassion.

The Cheyenne Social Club Firecreek Available from Amazon Price: $17.99 Updated on 11-26-2008.

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