To Head and Collar (1957)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Around head and collar |
| Original title | The Tall T |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1957 |
| length | 78 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Budd Boetticher |
| script | Burt Kennedy |
| production | Harry Joe Brown |
| music | Heinz Roemheld |
| camera | Charles Lawton Jr. |
| cut | Al Clark |
| occupation | |
| |
To head and collar (original title: The Tall T ) is an American western by the director Budd Boetticher from 1957 . The script is based on the short story The Captive by Elmore Leonard . The premiere in Germany took place on August 16, 1957.
action
Pat Brennan, a small ranch owner, is on his way into town. At a stagecoach station, the owner of which he is friends with, he agrees to bring his son's sweets with him on the way back. When Brennan reaches a ranch where he once worked as a foreman, he plays a game with the ranchers Tenvoorde in which he loses his horse as a bet. He is taken on foot by his friend, the coachman Rintoon, who drives the honeymooners Willard and Doretta Mimms. Doretta is the no longer very young daughter of the richest mine owner in the area.
The carriage is ambushed by three bandits who thought the wedding carriage was the regular stagecoach. The gang is led by Frank Usher. The gang includes Billy Jack and Chink, who shoots the coachman Rintoon. It turns out that the bandits raided the carriage station, murdering the station manager and his son. Mr. Mimms turns out to be a coward who tries to save his life by paying a ransom. Billy Jack rides Mimms to see his father-in-law to deliver the ransom note. Usher and Chink take Brennan and Doretta Mimms to a mountain hut that is the gang's quarters.
Usher and Brennan are not unsympathetic to each other. The bandit boss tells Brennan that he would like to have a ranch one day, something of his own to be proud of. He is not happy about his companions, but they are his "family". He also assures Brennan that he hasn't killed anyone yet, he'll leave that to the boys.
Billy Jack returns with an assurance that he will receive $ 50,000. Willard is then released and rides away quickly without saying goodbye to his wife. He is shot by Usher, who is outraged by the cowardice of the husband. Doretta, who saw this, now learns of her husband's behavior and realizes that he only married her because of her money.
The desperate widow and Brennan get closer. Brennan knows that their only option is to wait for a chance to escape. While Usher is on the way to the ransom, Brennan can arouse Chinks suspicion, so that Usher follows. Doretta distracts Billy Jack, who is surprised by Brennan and shot in battle. Chink hears the gunshots and returns. With the help of Doretta, who has refused to ride on alone, Brennan manages to kill Chink too.
When Usher returns with the money, he comes under the control of Brennan and gives him the saddlebag with the ransom. Despite a warning from Brennan, he rides away because he doesn't think Brennan will shoot him backwards. Already under cover, he takes up his rifle and rides back to attack Brennan - who killed his "family". Brennan must also shoot Usher. Then he makes his way home with Doretta and the money.
background
- The second of seven westerns that Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott made together.
- Burt Kennedy, who wrote the scripts for four of these films, later emerged as a director of westerns himself.
- Maureen O'Sullivan, mother of actress Mia Farrow , was best known for starring as Jane in the Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller . She made six films in the series, the last in 1942.
- Composer Roemheld had already won an Oscar in 1943.
Reviews
"Logically constructed, tightly and excitingly staged, hard western."
“ The Tall T , the second major achievement in Budd Boetticher's Ranown Western cycle, develops from a family-friendly comedy that parodies the western classic 'Shane' at the beginning into a violent tragedy with many deaths. After Randolph Scott outsmarted the gangster trio and turned them off, a happy ending is no longer possible. "
"Like most of the works in the series (the Boetticher-Scott Westerns), this one is staged in a straight line and without frills."
"Thrilling psycho western with a likeable hero and a decent villain."
“Kennedy and Boetticher seem to be most interested in shady characters, using their loving and detailed characterization to turn normally pale henchmen into real main characters with philosophical veins. [...] The quality of the dialogues and the performance of the actors - in this case Homeier and Silva - are mutually reinforcing. "
Awards
- 2000: Entry into the National Film Registry
Web links
- To his neck in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Movie poster at filmposter-archiv.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Around the head and collar. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ http://www.wdr.de/tv/kinozeit/070313.phtml
- ↑ Around the head and collar. In: prisma.de. prisma-Verlag , accessed on April 15, 2018 .
- ^ Gregor Hauser, Peter L. Stadlbaur: Prairie bandits: The gripping world of B-Westerns . Verlag Reinhard Marheinecke 2018, ISBN 978-3-932053-98-6 . P. 100f.