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Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply Perfect

Highly Overrated But Still Good

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

this is a very primitive western with terrible screenplay, wordy dialog, but most of all, the annoying childish cartoon-like music would drive you crazy. the directing was basic, deadbeat and breathless due to a lifeless screenplay, the acting of all the characters in this boring film were badly affected by the lousy script. when these sheepherders went into the territory of the cattlemen, they didn't pay any attention to the eminent danger, drinking and singing around the camp fire, what a stupid arrangement was that? when the cattlemen attacked them at night, there was only a gun available to fight back, what made the guy think that he could deal with the self-entitled cattlemen in Montana? the childish screenplay then forcefully developed into a more stupid scenario with a gunfight in the tavern, then the guy met a pretty local girl in town that was so predictably boring and so formulaic stupid. do i have to go on and on with the annoying sound track? sorry, no can do.

This is not one of Errol Flynn's great westerns -- such as "Dodge City" or "Santa Fe Trail". Nor is it a bad movie, as Westerns go. It pleasantly ambles along, and is as good or slightly better than the average Western. Certainly, Flynn's rough and tumble life was catching up with him here; although only about 40 at the time of filming, he was certainly looking middle-aged here, with a much fuller face than we saw just a very few years earlier. Nevertheless, he was still a handsome leading man.I think there are two strikes against this film. One is its short running time -- only 77 minutes. Second, although done well, it's the old cattlemen versus sheep-men all over again. So there's nothing really very unique about this film, but as those sheep-vs-cattle movies go...this may be the best of the lot.The screen romance between Flynn (the unknown sheep-man) and Alexis Smith (the cattle rancher) is really the heart of the picture, particularly since she is already loved by her cattle rancher partner.You might enjoy, or be taken aback, by the duet sung by Flynn and Alexis Smith -- "Reckon I'm In Love". Personally, though perhaps a tad out of place, it was kinda cute.This is one of those films where I liked the good guys because I liked there screen personas --Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S.Z. Sakall (for the humor), and Paul Burns (as a sort of Gabby Hayes-like character). On the other hand, I really didn't care for the actors who were the bad guys -- Douglas Kennedy and Slim Reeves; their personas were simply too clichéd.Nevertheless, this film is worth watching, but probably won't end up on your DVD shelf.

There was a line by old Tecumseh Burke (Paul E. Burns) that blew by a little too quickly for me to properly digest, but it had something to do with Morgan Lane and a reference to the Little Big Horn. It had me immediately recalling Erroll Flynn's role as General George Armstrong Custer in the 1941 film "They Died With Their Boots On". Truthfully, that might have been the highlight of the flick for me, right ahead of the brief divergence concerning Poppa Schultz's supply of antimacassars. I heard that term once in my youth long ago, and today I know what it means. But you'll have to catch the film to find out.For all the dozens of Westerns that ever came out with cattlemen versus sheep ranchers as a plot element, you can probably count on one hand the number in which someone thought it might be a good idea for both animals to try to get along. This was one of them. Not that Morgan Lane (Flynn) ever got to prove his point, when push came to shove, the sheep-men who made a stand simply turned away a cattle stampede and declared victory. I thought it was just too pat an ending for all that went before, with Miss Singleton (Alexis Smith) ever so willingly giving up her grudge against Lane. Not buying it.What's probably more interesting than the story is seeing Errol Flynn team up with Alexis Smith in a duet around the campfire singing 'Reckon I'm In Love', before they actually came to terms with that diagnosis. In the ensuing decade since Flynn's portrayal of Custer he looks like he might have aged twice as much. There seemed to be a few times when Flynn and his co-star might have had some good chemistry going, but that didn't seem enough to compensate for the kind of rivalry that went with the territory. Had I found myself in Flynn's shoes, I probably would have rounded up my men and got the flock out of there.

Flynn is bringing sheep into cattle territory, where he is received with bullets. In order to go to town he passes as a peddler and falls in love with Alexis Smith (great as always). This is an agreeable and lighthearted western, at a certain moment Flynn and Alexis Smith even sing!!! There is a good color cinematography, although not as good as in "San Antonio", which besides this one and "Dodge City" were the only westerns Flynn did in color. Ray Enright was quite good at making westerns he could make them in quantity and with quality (Kansas Raiders, The Spoilers, Return of the Bad Men) The story here is much better than in "San Antonio", Borden Chase has to his credit some of the best westerns like Winchester 73 and Red River but Flynn was getting older and not so ideal for the character he played. When I saw this film for the second time I enjoyed it much more because I had lower expectations. "Montana" is no "Dodge City" but it is quite enjoyable.