The Hallelujah Trail (1965)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very disappointing...

the audience applauded

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

As with many movies making their way to disc I recalled seeing this film when I was younger. I'd always thought of it as a spectacle of a film and funny at the time. Going back and revisiting it today it remains a spectacle but not near as hilarious as it was to me when I was a child. But it is still entertaining and a great movie for fans of the stars to add to their collections.The movie takes place out west in 1867. The war is over, peace has been settled with the natives and cities are growing out west. In Denver the miners are aware that a long winter is on the way but concerned over one major issue. Someone forgot to place the order and they may run out of whiskey before winter even arrives! Consulting an old Indian guide named Oracle (Donald Pleasance) they place an order immediately.That order is being shipped to them by one Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith) who reminds all he comes in contact with that he is a "taxpayer and a good Republican" (which while perhaps funny is repeated far too often). Wallingham has sunk his last dollar into the shipment of 40 wagons of whiskey for Denver and demands protection in delivering the goods.That would fall upon the soldiers at Fort Russell. Commanded by Col. Thaddeus Gearhart (Burt Lancaster), who is just returning from patrol, the fort is in a bit of turmoil when he returns. Temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale (Lee Remick) has roused the women in the area into her movement to ban alcohol and to call out for the suffrage movement. Torches ablaze, soldiers marching, the band playing when Gearhart returns to the commotion he's not pleased to say the least. The fact that his second in command Capt. Paul Slater (Jim Hutton) allowed to happen at the coercion of his daughter Louise (Pamela Tiffin) he's in love with doesn't help matters.Word then reaches the fort that they are to escort the whiskey wagon train and insure that it arrives in Denver unharmed. But it seems there were leaks then much as there are now. Massingale and the women hear of the wagon train and are determined to see that it is all disposed of, requiring the soldiers to protect them as well. At the same time the various Indian tribes get word of this as well and want a share of the whiskey for themselves. There is little doubt that all concerned parties will cross paths in the dust filled desert while the wagon train makes its way to Denver.Made in 1965 the film was released in a large screen Cinerama version that toured the country as well as an Ultra 70 Panavision version that played wide. Epic comedies like this were rampant in theaters at the time but ended up with mixed results. While offered as a comedy the laughs are sparse and the running time padded with far too much extra. At 175 minutes the movie would have played much better with at least 30 of those minutes excised. But hey, this was a spectacle and scenes of the mountain ranges and deserts of the west looked good up on that wide screen. While they still look impressive on the smaller screen they just take up time.A number of the jokes found in the film would seem normal for 1965 but trigger items for audiences of 2018. Audiences have become too troubled by these items and should take the time to realize the world as it was when viewing movies from the past rather than the world as it is today. At the same time the jokes on view here would be more inclined to entertain younger viewers old enough to understand the whiskey aspects but for whom humor can be found in people falling on their faces on treadmills. In other words this is not highbrow humor. It is still enjoyable for fans of the film and its stars but not perhaps for a widespread audience.Many who have already written about this release have been more concerned with the quality of the reproduction than the movie itself. When I read reviews like this I am reminded of the recent attempt to save the classic THE ALAMO from self-destruction. Made just 5 years prior to this film the John Wayne directed and starring film has languished on the shelves at the MGM studios for years and is slowly deteriorating. Calls for its restoration have fallen on deaf ears and in the meantime the film has lost a vast amount of footage that could have been used to create a pristine version of the film for decades to come. When watching this film my thoughts were that perhaps it's not a question of the film not being up to the standards of those viewers but of Olive Films having the availability to offer anything better than what we see here.As I said if you're a fan or Lancaster, Remick, Hutton or director John Sturges (who directed such classics as BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and THE GREAT ESCAPE) then you'll want this film in your collection. For all others it might provide a nice evening's entertainment but with this running time start it early.

In his well-researched landmark biography of John Sturges, film critic Glenn Lovall points out that the failure of "The Hallelujah Trail" at the box office forced John Sturges back into being a contract director. Unfortunately, this ambitious, $ 7 million dollar, two-hour and forty-five minute western did prove to be Sturges' undoing. Sadly, according to Wikipedia, the film grossed only $4 million during its release. Nevertheless, I've always thought it was an incredibly hilarious and splendidly staged western comedy. The closest that Sturges had come to making a comedy was the Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin western "Sergeants Three," but "The Hallelujah Trail" was far from anything that "The Magnificent Seven" helmer had ever undertaken. Sturges assembled a first-rate cast. Burt Lancaster, who starred in Sturges' first big western "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," took top billing as Colonel Thaddeus Gearhart. Gearhart was a traditional, straight-laced U.S. Calvary commander who is in charge of a frontier fort who has a beautiful daughter, Louise Gearhart (Pamela Tiffin), who is hopelessly in love with an officer, Captain Paul Slater (Jim Hutton of "Major Dundee"), who serves under Gearhart at the fort. At one point, Gearhart finds Slater and his daughter rolling around on his bear skin rug. The hugely funny western takes advantage of the usual elements of most standard-issue oaters. There is the inevitable clash between the U.S. Calvary and the Native Americans. Similarly, the alcoholic frontiersmen clash with the Ladies of the Temperance Movement. This sprawling western brings together all these parties for an incredible finale in a swamp.John Gay's complicated screenplay based on William Gulick's entertaining western novel concerns the efforts of desperate Denver merchants inspired by 'Oracle' Jones (Donald Pleasance of "The Great Escape") to get a wagon train of liquor to them before they exhaust their supplies for the winter. Signs indicate that the winter will be the worst in years and the merchants don't want to run out of suds. Moreover, a citizens' committee shares the merchant's anxiety. Meantime, beer merchant Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith of "The Wind and the Lion") organizes an emergency shipment of booze to Denver, but he must contend with obnoxious Irish teamsters, led by Kevin O'Flaherty (Tom Stern) who feel that he is taking advantage of them. O'Flaherty constantly addresses Wallingham as "your lordship," and Wallingham grumbles about it the entire time. Of course, when the Indians learn about this huge shipment of liquor, they decide to help themselves to it. Walllingham demands that Gearhart provide an escort to safeguard his booze from Chief Walks-Stooped-Over (Martin Landau of "Impossible Impossible") as well as Chief Five Barrels (Robert J. Wilke of "The Magnificent Seven") and they bring along their respective tribes. If contending with Indians armed with Winchester repeating rifles weren't challenging enough, Wallingham faces opposition for a well-known Temperance champion, Cora Templeton Massingale (Lee Remick of "The Omen"), who just happens to be holding meetings at Gearhart's fort. Massingale decides to intercept the shipment of suds and destroy the beer, and Gearhart's daughter joins her. Naturally, an upset Colonel Gearhart decides that he must provide an escort for these dames and Sergeant Buell (John Anderson of "The Satan Bug") to keep them out of harm's way.Lancaster is absolutely brilliant as the Calvary colonel who must supervise everything in this massive sagebrusher. His comic timing is impeccable. Sturges doesn't slight anybody and he gives some rather unusual parts to actors who had never done anything like these roles. Martin Landau is terrifically amusing as Chief Who Walks Stooped Over and British actor Donald Pleasance, who eventually played villain in "Will Penny," is cast as a barfly. Crowning all these wonderful performances are Elmer Bernstein's impressive orchestral score and Robert Surtee's radiant widescreen photography. If you enjoy comedies where the performers behave as if they were is a serious dramatic saga, "The Hallelujah Trail" is ideal entertainment.

I found this little gem at a local video retailer having never heard of it before. I read the DVD cover and with the cast listing I was intrigued. On my first viewing of this film I fell in love with it and have now watched it about a dozen times. I love the concept of a Colorado town sending for liquor to help stave off the effects of what is predicted to be a hard winter. Many of the characters in this movie are funny in their own right but add them all together and you get a movie well worth your time. Sadly many of the actors are no longer with us, Donald Pleasance, Burt Lancaster and Lee Remick to name a few but they all appeared to be having a blast in this film. If you are not a fan of westerns you might like the comedy element which pokes some fun at some western clichés. I'll not give away any "spoilers" but will tell you the basic plot is the wagon train of whiskey and its trip back to Denver. Mix in ladies of the temperance movement, a tribe of native Americans looking for some fire water, the US Cavalry charged with escorting the women and whiskey to Denver as well as a local profiteer, played by Brian Keith and finally a town militia and you have the recipe for comedy. The DVD I purchased is an excellent release of this film complete with 5.1 surround sound and Elmer Bernstein's excellent musical score including entrance music, intermission and exit music and you have a fun filled viewing of a classic comedy western.

I don't know why this movie isn't funnier. Jim Hutton, Donald Pleasance, Brian Keith, Dub Taylor, and Martin Landau all have great comic credentials, and Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, and John Anderson have also done serviceable comic bits in their long, illustrious careers. I paid money to see this flick in the theaters forty years ago, and have watched it several times on TV, most recently on TCM this week, which was my first viewing in many years. My final conclusion is that the writing and the direction underestimated the viewing audience's collective sense of humor by an order of several magnitudes. The narration is too pointed, the jokes are all telegraphed, and some of them are not as funny as they should be. The potential for the early scenes where Lancaster and Anderson think that the fort is being besieged based on the bugle calls and cannon fire just doesn't have the impact it should have at the denouement, when the troopers come charging into the fort, and the climactic scene with the popping champagne bottles was foreshadowed, also. Finally, the escape of the whiskey bottles from the quicksand bog should've occurred without any hints. The movie is watchable, and even fun to watch, but not as good as it should have been. Sort of like watching Jim Thome hit a mile high fly ball which is pulled in by an outfielder who reaches over the fence.