On Jan 17th I watched -
THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER (1965) starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Michael Anderson Jr., Earl Holliman, Martha Hyer, Jeremy Slate, James Gregory, Dennis Hopper, and George Kennedy.
Beloved, proud, and stubborn Katie Elder has died, and her four sons are coming home to bury her. Three are at the train station, the rakish gambler Tom (Martin), the serious no nonsense Matt (Holliman), and the young impetuous Bud (Anderson), waiting for the fourth....the infamous gunman John Elder (Wayne). Also waiting for him at the station is the aged but sensible town sheriff Billy Wilson (Paul Fix) and his young quick to anger deputy Ben Latta (Jeremy Slate). John does not get off of the train when it arrives...but a shady looking cowboy (George Kennedy) does. They go to the funeral (where many townspeople tell of how much they loved Katie) and no one notices John up on a hillside between rock formations watching the proceedings. After everyone leaves the ceremony....John comes down to visit the grave, and sheriff Billy Wilson is there to meet him. He tells John that he isn't wanted for anything in this part of the territory, so he won't arrest him, but he doesn't want any trouble and he should move along. John says he doesn't want any trouble, just wants to settle his folks estate...and Billy tells him there is no estate. It comes as a surprise to him that his father had been murdered six months earlier...right after losing his ranch in a card game and that his mother had been living in an old shack provided by the banker because he felt sorry for the beloved old lady.
John goes to where Katie had been staying and meets up with his brothers. He hasn't seen any of them in 10 or more years and quickly go from slapping each other on the back to arguing over petty issues pretty quickly. Young and pretty townswoman Mary Gordon (Hyer) shows up with a basketful of food for them. When John thanks her for it, she replies "Don't thank me. I didn't do this for you....I did it for Kate, because she would have wanted me to. I don't care a thing for you four." She then asks where her four big wonderful sons were when she was having to scrounge for a living. Tells how she wouldn't take any charity from anyone because she had her four sons providing for her (which obviously they weren't). They then go into town to settle up her bills. They here more stories about her making dresses and giving guitar lessons to live on. The banker tells how their father had lost the ranch in a card game to a new guy in town, Morgan Hastings (James Gregory) who is trying to buy up everything and how he had gave her the shack to live in to have a roof over her head. While this is going on, Hastings and his hired men are watching them and go in behind them and ask the people what they were asking about. When the undertaker (John Doucette ) says it's none of their business...they press hard, which leads to one of those iconic moments form the movie when John comes back and ends the conflict with an axe handle to the face.
John and his brothers ride out to their old ranch now taken over by Hastings...he's still in town, but they are met at the door by his wussy son Dave (Dennis Hopper) who is jumpy jittery and afraid of his shadow. He won't talk to them about anything and screams for them to leave the ranch. Just then, "looking for trouble" deputy Ben Latta arrives and asks what the problem is...and Dave promptly says that he asked them to leave and that they not only refused but threatened him (which they didn't)...so Ben promptly arrests them. At which time brother Tom (Martin) promptly knocks him off his horse and takes his gun away from him. They then lead the deputy back to town and talk to Sheriff Billy about what happened...and he promptly lets them go. They go back to the shack, and a rancher from 50 or so miles away meets them, and tells them of the letter their mother had sent him about wanting the rancher to give her a bunch of horses on consignment, and she would repay him after she had sold them. He says he wanted to meet the woman who had balls enough to suggest it. They ask if he will consider doing it with them now that Katie is dead, and he says why not. So they ride off to get the horses. Later that night, deputy Latta and Hastings come into the sheriff's office and shoe Billy a wanted poster for Matt they had found. Latta wants to go and arrest the lot of them, but Billy says he will ride out and talk to them because Latta is too hot headed. As Billy rides up to their shack (that they are not at, because rode off to another county to get the horse) he is shot by Hastings and left to die.
When Billy's horse returns without him, deputy Latta rides out to the shack and finds him...and of course immediately believes the "Elder Gang" did it. He gathers a posse and goes looking for them. The posse catches up with them with the horses...and arrest them for the murder of Billy and for stealing a herd of horses. Angry deputy Latta will not listen or check into their alibi and the entire town, encouraged by Hastings and his men, believe they are guilty and want to lynch them. Finally listening to some good advice, Latta decides to move them to another county before the locals kill them...too bad he doesn't know all the volunteers to ride with him are on Hastings' payroll and plan to ambush them down by the river. They shackle the brothers together in twos, put them in a wagon and head out. At the river as the ambush starts, John disarms the driver and all the brothers jump into the water and hide under the bridge. A big shootout ensues, one brother is killed, another wounded, and they manage to escape back to town and hold up in the livery stable. The fear of John's shooting keeps the town at bay, and that night, Matt sneaks out and grabs Hastings' son to try and get info on what the hell is going on. The Marshal that came to check on things hears the truth from Dave Hastings. This leads to a final showdown between John and Hastings that ends in a bang....a big bang. The Elder's are exonerated....but one is dead and now two are seriously wounded.....the end.
Not as many shootouts as you would expect from a Wayne western, but the ones that happen are grand. There's a great Elmer Bernstein score. A couple of standout stunts that keeps you talking about them. A fair amount of humor to offset the seriousness. Definately a must see for Wayne and western fans.
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