Cattle Empire (1958)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Sadly Over-hyped

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

***Spoilers Ahead, Maybe*** I mainly watched this movie because I was flipping through the movie channels looking for something to watch & I was lucky enough to catch it right when it started.The only time anything really happens in Cattle Drive is when what really happened when John Cord & his men shot up the town is revealed & the foiled ambush/shootout at the end.Those were the most exciting things to happen in the movie.Oh yeah, and when John Cord is dragged through town at the beginning.Nothing really happens in Cattle Drive except a...... cattle drive.Cattle Drive was boring at times but it's not a bad enough movie that I'd turn it off before it ended.It's definitely not a movie I'd recommend somebody go see even if you're a Western fan like I am.There are better Westerns or even better movies out there you could be watching

Plot-- Trail-driver Cord (McCrea) is blamed for letting his cattle crew wreck a town. After prison, he consents to head up a trail drive that will save the same town's finances. But the town's in competition with an outside cattleman to be first to arrive at the buyer's base and get the contract. So who will win, and can Cord be trusted. Despite the great Joel McCrea and a grabber opening, this is a bland western. The only action, until the showdown, is loping cattle going here and there and who knows where. The rambling script fails to gel into any kind of suspense, with one talky scene after another to accommodate the many characters and subplots. Meanwhile the large supporting cast flounders getting no help from director Warren. The one compensation —the scenic eastern Sierras— is marred by contrast with poorly designed nighttime sets that take us back to the studio. Considering this was a TCF production, I'm surprised it was so poorly put together. Maybe they were trying to capitalize on the McCrea name. But by this time, he was in his mid-50's, still quietly commanding, but aging, nonetheless. At least they don't have him riding into the sunset with one of the girls. Mostly he sits astride his horse and gives orders. As a fan of the ace cowboy, I wish there were more to compliment. But unfortunately, there isn't.

Few guys can be considered as bad as McCrea at the beginning of this film. He blinded one man, made another lose his arm and was a disgrace to the town. Will he turn out to be good at the end? Talented writers like Daniel B. Ullman and Endre Bohem and a great actor like Joel McCrea., can makes us believe in whatever choice they make. McCrea was quite unsympathetic in Fort Massacre (1958), a western made in the same year. This film could go the same way, and part of the fun of seeing it is wandering how it will come out. In the fifties westerns were trying desperately to bring different stories due to the competition from TV. And when you saw a standard good guy like McCrea being so bad in the trailer, you would go running to the movie theater! Cattle Empire is directed by Charles Marquis Warren who has to his credit "Hellgate", "Seven Angry Men", "Tension at Table Rock", "Arrowhead" and "Little Big Horn", all remarkable westerns.

Mr Joel McCrea appeared in two of cinema's finest works at opposite ends of his career,"Sullivan's Travels" near the start and "Ride the high country" near the finish over 20 years later.In between,many of his roles were like that of John Cord in "Cattle Empire",a tarnished hero with a past.A trail boss wrongly convicted of allowing his men to wreck a town in a drunken orgy,Cord returns to Hamiltonville after being released from prison and is promptly arrested and dragged through the streets by horses ridden by irate townsfolk,only to be rescued by a former friend who was blinded in the incident that put Cord behind bars. Hired to take 5,000 head of cattle across unforgiving country to save the town from bankruptcy,Cord also agrees to take another herd in opposition to the original one,thus virtually guaranteeing to ruin Hamiltonville and gain his revenge. Directed by Charles M.Warren,also an experienced writer and producer, "Cattle Empire" is a bit of a journeyman's movie but is enlivened by Mr McCrea deciding to play the part of Cord as if he were John Wayne. As if that wasn't enough to peak our interest there are two brothers called George Washington Jeffery and Thomas Jefferson Jeffrey who run the chuckwagon and shave each other's beards,a pretty gal who dumped Cord when he went to prison and married the blinded man,and a villain racked with guilt who knows the truth about what happened in Hamiltonville five years earlier. The villain rides along at night singing "Streets of Laredo" in a shaky tenor as a tribute to an earlier Warren movie of that name that earned him a W.G.A. nomination in 1950. Ambitious neither in reach nor grasp,"Cattle Empire" is nevertheless a good example of the sadly long - defunct genre of the low - budget but thoughtful and well made western.And Mr McCrea is splendid in it.