Posts from A Girl Named Jen in thread „The Shepherd Of The Hills (1941)“

Thanks, erthomp143. I guess I wasn't paying enough attention at that point in the movie. Maybe I was painting my toenails or something.

Now it makes perfect sense. It seems that superstitions such as those were pretty common with "hill" or "backwoods" people years ago - and in some cases probably still are.

So now I need to read the book for this movie AND for Red River!

Yes, I really liked the scene with Granny Becky getting her vision. It was beautifully shot and very touching. And it does make sense that his aunt kind of poisoned him against his father. As we learn after Pete gets his gift of speech back (a parallel to Granny Becky?), the aunt was the real curse.

Thanks for the recommendation on the book. I've meant to look for it.

Cheers!

I'm way more than a day late and a dollar short here, but just thought I'd mention that I understand how Hollywood was in those days and movies sometimes just don't come out quite the way we'd like them to (even today).

Reminds me a bit of the end of Red River. Joanne Dru gives the boys a good talking to and suddenly a raving madman maniac is best friends with his surrogate son again. It's a bit of a blight on an otherwise perfect (or nearly perfect) film.

Thanks, everyone.

Ethan, I got that Duke felt it was abandonment, but I guess I didn't think that seemed sufficient to warrant wanting to kill his dad, though at some level I can obvioulsy understand his hurt and anger. Anyway, I was wondering if I had missed something else.

Yes, I remember when he explained why he wasn't there for Sarah's passing. It was while Duke was just coming out of his fog, and Betty Field & Harry Carey are talking about him while silhouetted against his canopy or whatever.

That was the one scene in the movie, btw, that didn't seem quite right to me. It seemed a little rushed and kind of cheesy the way it all came out right there and Duke just happened to wake up and hear it. Oh well.

Hey y'all...

Just finished watching this over the weekend. I'd never seen it before and thought it was pretty enjoyable. I liked Harry Carey and Beulah Bondi was really good, too.

I'm a little confused as to why Duke's character needed to kill his old man. I may have missed or forgotten something, as I only had time to watch the movie in bits & pieces. They thought Harry Carey (as Duke's dad) brought a curse upon the family because he wasn't there when Duke's mom died?

It was fun watching Duke engaged in fisticuffs with Ward Bond. Not quite a fight of epic proportions like Duke & Victor McLaglen, but still a couple of heavyweights going at it. I'll bet they had a good laugh over it offscreen.

Duke was his usual self. I loved the scene where he comes home and senses that something's amiss (when he discovers that they've sold his mother's land). I also like the relationship he had with the mute cousin. The scene of Pete trying to catch dust motes in the sunlight was really beautifully shot.

I know Henry Hathaway isn't as well known as Ford or Hawks, but he did a lot of Duke's films and they're all pretty solid, IMO.