Stand Up and Fight (1939)

Best movie ever!

As Good As It Gets

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is not your typical cowboy movie, or 'western' Stand up and Fight has good character development, and attempts to be historically accurate for the 1840s. While the dialog Robert Taylor must deliver to explain his position on selling his slaves seems more a 20th century attitude, it is reflecting some of the 19th century writings that have come down to us- but certainly not a justification. This movie piqued my curiosity about what train was used in the train scenes. After a little research, I found it to be the replica built in 1927 of the Norris Lafayette 4-2-0. The replica was built for the 'Fair of the Iron Horse' and B&O's anniversary. This train is in the Baltmore and Ohio railroad museum in Maryland, along with what appear to be the same passenger cars used in the movie. Apparently it is still working, and is occasionally taken out and run. There are you tube videos of it.Wonderful scenes of this train running are had in the movie. The Lafayette is an historic train, so train lovers, enjoy.

When you see a film made in 1939 like this one you can be sure, with few exceptions that some of it will age and look ridiculous, some of it will age but will be interesting because of a certain historical value, and some of it will not age at all. What did not age in this film is the charismatic performance of Wallace Beery, playing a kind of likable bad guy, rough and unscrupulous . What aged? The fistfights of Beery and Robert Taylor that look like the film was sped up. Also the good guy Taylor showing his kindness by selling his slaves only as a family when he goes broke. The real kindness would be to let them go free. Interesting are the scenes that show the race between the train and a stagecoach, reminding us of "Dodge City", released in the same year and also the train being pushed on a hill by the passengers, because the engine is underpowered.

Cynical Southern gentleman Blake Cantrell (Robert Taylor) is forced to sell his plantation and seek employment with a stagecoach company run by Captain Starkey (Wallace Beery) and owned by lovely Susan (Florence Rice). But is the company actually illegally transporting slaves? And can a leopard, the cavalier Blake, actually change its spots?I didn't expect much from this movie, and was thoroughly and positively surprised by the sharp writing and ebullient acting, and contrary to many A-movies of its day its aim is no way an aesthetic 'arty' one. Made in 1939, this movie addresses all sorts of controversial issues, and they have a way of taking you by surprise along the way. The movie is really about abolitionism and treats its subject with remarkable subtlety, although why and how the lynch-mob, the one that we encounter in the last third of the film, goes after white man Starkey is never made quite clear. Cantrell's gradual moral reform is well-explained and plausible, not least because of Taylor's warmth and humanity in the part. Yes, he is handsome, but here it is almost besides the point. Wallace Beery has a field day with the larger-than-life captain, very cleverly balancing on the edge of buffoonery but with plenty of edge and ambiguity.See it, it makes a deep impression.

In this slightly unconventional western which does not always follow the usual stylings and cliches of the western, Woody S. Van Dyke, the biggest director, box-office wise on the MGM lot has created a crowd pleaser and a good one too. To believe, this movie deals with trafficking of slaves as an aberration. The movie is set up north where most of the people are abolitionist. There is even a scene where the townspeople want to hang a white man for killing a black man. I kid you not. Taylor is our poverty-stricken southern man who has lost it all and now has to work for a living. Beery runs a stage coach company on the side that helps slaves escape. But someone is capturing this slaves and reselling them back to the southerners. Taylor, when an ex-slave he sets free gets caught decides to find out who. Also, there is a changing of an era clash as the early unrefined and prototype steam engine is just getting started and wants to buy the stagecoach company and its route to link up its tracks. Taylor works for them. Beery and Taylor clash. So who is capturing and reselling the slaves? Is it Beery? If not, then who? Or is Taylor a spy for the railroad company? If not, what is he up to? Enough said. Two big stars who are charming and likable. A romantic interest. MGM cinematography and scenery. A big hit for the studio.