Watch Stars in My Crown For Free

People are voting emotionally.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The plot summary gives you the impression that this is a Western.Unfortunately this is not the case.Instead we have got what can only be described as a moralizing preaching drama.There is very little drama and a truly bizarre climax where McCrea persuaded the vigilantes not to lynch the afro America n as they will be willed his possessions.Whowver wrote this should have had his head examined.

A man recalls memories of his childhood growing up as the adopted son (Dean Stockwell) of a parson (Joel McCrea) and the parson's wife (Ellen Drew) in a southern town in the years after the Civil War. A wholesome family image undermined by latent violence, it's a pretty interesting portrayal of the times from director Jacques Tourneur.The title of the film is also the title of Christian hymn that gets repeated a few times. McCrea fits the part of the parson well, saving the town from sliding into darker impulses, represented by menacing Jack Lambert as Perry Lokey, especially in a scene where he's snapping off a few cracks of his bull whip, and Ed Begley as a greedy landowner out to cheat Juano Hernandez out of his land. It's kind of a family movie, but with Tourneur (Cat People, Out of the Past) at the helm, it's darker than most.

I must admit that this movie took its time to grab me.It's a movie which grows on you.Some called it "western" but western fans won't get anything of it.It's rather a chronicle,sweet memories of a grown up who remembers his dear past with a marvelous preacher man and a loving auntie.There is no plot but subplots for it is primarily the depiction of a city in the south.Around the minister,we find the "new generation" doctor who has his doubts and who doesn't believe that healing the soul is that much important;he comes into conflict with Gray .There's also a KKK side and their "methods" to do good old Uncle Famous Pril away from his valuable property.The scene which finally won me over was the reading of Pril's "last wills" .When you discover the truth,you won't believe your eyes!This scene alone raises the movie to greatness by recurrence.And what a tuneful canticle!

STARS IN MY CROWN takes its time in setting up the pastoral story it tells about a small town preacher and his effect on a western town after the Civil War period. JOEL McCREA is perfect as the stalwart preacher who carries his gun into the town saloon to get attention for his sermon and finds it an effective way to get the men to listen.He also has to deal with a typhoid epidemic, conflict with the local doctor (JAMES MITCHELL), defending a dignified black man (JUANO HERNANDEZ), and caring for his adopted son (DEAN STOCKWELL). But director Jacques Tourneur takes his time in telling the tale, narrated in lazy fashion by MARSHALL THOMPSON who is supposed to be the grown-up version of Dean Stockwell's character.It spins dangerously close to cloying sentiment but never oversteps the bounds and is especially compelling when it shows how McCrea manages to dissuade a mob bent on violence with a clever way of defending Juano Hernandez from a lynching. It's this episode that makes the last portion of the story crackle with genuine suspense--although, in some respects, it's rather hard to believe how easily the mob is persuaded to drop the whole idea.Summing up: Earnest and heartwarming, it's a likable treat.Trivia note: Catch JAMES ARNESS and AMANDA BLAKE in the same film, before they became famous on "Gunsmoke."