[ Post a Response | EVEN DeepER Blurting! ]
Posted by DexterBG on 2/19/2008, 1:55 am
I was watching my DVD of The Hallelujah Trail, for no better reason than I was bored, and hadn't watched it in decades. I got the used DVD from a video store that was going out of business. So it was cheap, and I got a couple dozen more that way. That's why I hadn't watched T.H.T. till now.
It's a two 1/2 star movie, according to Lenard Maltin's guide books. Some may consider it a three star movie. But by today's standard, even though it is a comedy (or satire), it's in somewhat bad taste for its protrayal of the american indians as booze hounds. Though everyone else in the picture ends up drinking to excess. Even the temperance leader.
But at least two things about the plot struck me as just plain wrong! First, a rather glaring mistake, or plot hole. It's mid November of 1867. And the Denver miners are concerned about their whiskey running out during a long cold winter. This is why they decided to order 40 wagons worth of it. Fast wind ahead. Everyone is either walking or riding across the plains, dressed in heavy clothes. So it must be getting a bit nippy, eh? Fast wind ahead to the important part. The Irish Teamster wagon driver tells the Temperance leader (Lee Remick) that the ten wagons they are giving to the indians is filled with French Champagne. And because it's very warm, if the bottles get too shook up, they'll explode.
So after all these decades, it now occured to me. How could it be warm enough to explode fizzy bottles, in mid November, in the mid west? I've lived out there a few years, and Colorado isn't known for being "warming" in late fall. And the whole premise of the movie was that it was beginning to get colder, earlier than ever before. So the Champagne couldn't be warm, like they were left out in the hot sun. And a rough wagon ride shouldn't have been enough to cause them to pop their corks.
The other thing that struck me as wrong, was the very presence of the Champagne, at all. This mining town (Denver) wasn't known for its high living (yet). And for a 1/4 of the precious booze shipment to be taken up by anything not Whiskey, seems outragious. What tavern or saloon owner(s) thought that was a good idea? Of course, it was necessary to the plot for the Champagne to be there. Shook up whiskey wouldn't explode. It also explained the presence of the irish wagon drivers. They were the only ones willing to drive such a volatile cargo, as touchy as Nitro (I guess). But the movie didn't really elaborate on that. Just that these irish were constantly complaining about their working conditions. Not that they were considered expendable labor, should something go wrong. The movie was "kinder" to the irish, not to point that out, than it was to the indians.
I also have my doubts that the Temperance movement was around that long ago. If it were, it took nearly 50 years to bring about the Prohibition act. That seems rather too long for something like that to last. Anyway, what passed for Ok entertainment, back in 1965, probably wouldn't sell too well today. Not enough sex and violence. And too disrespectful of the american indians in general. And not a single black person to be found in the whole movie. Probably because there would be something to say about disrespecting them. Though Donald Pleasance's character is so overly tanned (by the hot November sun), that he could past as black. To this day, I can't be sure that he wasn't made up for that reason. But he probably played one of the best roles in the movie. Too bad they weren't into doing many sequels, back in 1965. He could have carried it.
The main thing this movie had really going for it was the wide screen format, panoramic shots of the old west, and its great musical score. The occasional "animated maps" also helped make it a unique movie. Beside Donald Pleasance (and his toner look), the other thing this movie has in common with an MST3k episode is the "sandstorm" scene!
-Dex-
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