krocheav
While not having been attracted to this film earlier, I recently heard from others that it offered some interest. I'm very pleased to finally catch up with it as it certainly offers unexpected qualities. Robert Mitchum displayed an ability to act against type - showing a warmer side to his gunslinger image (& also producing). This role presented a vulnerable side to his character (not often seen before) who was being played by both sides, leaving him open and continually on the run. Julie London was certainly a quality choice for the feminine interest but seemed uneasy within her character. Several notable performers made up the supporting roles and each personality was well defined. It probably won't suit all tastes but was a welcome change of pace for a western & offered above average intelligence within its character development - unlike the overblown, overly nasty, cheap Italian shoot 'em ups that would shortly afterwards flood the world market - killing off the quality American western. Looks perhaps like the rights may have lapsed for this title as the DVD quality I found was poor - being a transfer from a used film print and not an original remastered studio neg. Good original cinematography was an asset along with a curious south-of-the border Mexican style score from Alex North, just before his Spartacus effort.
sol-
Nursed back to health from a broken leg by the residents of a small US town, an American-born illegal arms dealer becomes torn between whether to return to Mexico, where he has lived most of his life, or stay on in America in this Technicolor western starring Robert Mitchum. As it turns out, Mitchum has quite some history, residing in Mexico to avoid being arrested for avenging his father's murder, yet with so many welcoming him with open arms, offering him jobs and declaring that he should stay "this side of the river... where you belong", Mitchum soon finds himself in quite a dilemma. The title is intentionally ambiguous; it is never clear whether the USA or Mexico is meant to be the wonderful place. The plot is not really helped though by the inclusion of Julie London as a love interest in the town. She is married and it is hard to root for Mitchum when he convinces her that she must not really love her husband on account of a few glances. London is pretty dull too, and then as a self-defense incident forces Mitchum to make up his mind between the US and Mexico, it feels a case of too much being thrown on the plate here. The film's best moments are the quieter ones in which Mitchum sits and genuinely ponders over which side to join. There are enough of these moments to keep the film chugging along, but it is a little hard to enthusiastically recommend it.
theskulI42
An understated and underseen little character-driven western, The Wonderful Country has a touching melancholy soul, but has a serious, nagging nagging problem with pacing that leaves it feeling undercooked.The film deals with a man, Martin Brady (Robert Mitchum), who is a native Texan, but long ago fled to Mexico after killing his father's murderer. There, he got in with a dangerous criminal gang led by the Castro brothers, and as the film starts, he is escorting an illegitimate shipment of gold and guns into the small Texas town of Puerto. There, his horse, Legrimas (Spanish for "tears") gets spooked by some tumbleweed and he ends up breaking his leg, not only losing his shipment but becoming stranded in Puerto, where he makes friends and enemies all around town: in the former, German apprentice "Chico" (Max Slaten) and the Major's wife (Julie London, who has a giant face). But when the angry drunk town doctor (Charles McGraw) ends up fatally wounding Chico and Martin has to kill him in self defense, he and Legrimas must flee again, adrift in the emptiness, without a home.Much of the film's glories hang on the mug of Robert Mitchum, and his performance is virtuoso. In addition to being saddled with a thick faux-Mexican accent (that always threatens to become a distraction but is kept in check), he gets a damaged character that almost wholly internalizes his emotions, and manages to make him understandable. The rest of the supporting cast is a combination of random 'name' actors and forgettable role players, with Pedro Armendariz and Satchel Paige (!) showing up unexpectedly, and Julie London and Gary Merrill giving clipped, underfed performances for likewise roles.That ends up being the biggest problem with the film: everything feels clipped, rushed, undercooked. In the opening third where he is forced to stay in town, he not only recovers from an apparently serious broken leg in about a dozen minutes of screen time, and when he begins some sort of vague "love affair" with Major Colton's wife, it ends up meaning almost nothing. The summation of their 'relationship' ends up being a couple scenes where she makes eyes at him, then he leaves, then they meet again later, and lay this insane guilt trip on each other and talk about all these bad things that they "did", and...unless I passed out and missed several scenes, talk and glare is all that they did.The film also gives short shrift to pretty much every character supporting Mitchum. Characters float in, do something, usually one single thing, maybe slightly pivotal, and that action sends Mitchum somewhere else, and then disappears. Even the main relationship they intend to develop (between Brady and his "horse named Tears") gets most of its traction from allusion and assumption that I had to infer myself than any direct action, physical or mental).The general idea, the subtext the film wants to put forth is the wandering sadness of its protagonist, the 'wonderful country' is meant somewhat sarcastically since, while it is undeniably beautiful, Martin has no home, no place of residence within that wonderful country, and he keeps getting ousted from every comfortable place. The problem is, while he goes back and forth between Mexico and the US several times, each sequence is so short and ends so suddenly that none of them end up having much impact, and had Robert Parrish given his film some time to breath and stretch its dramatic legs, it might have been as memorable and emotional as its tone wanted to be, but at a scant hour and thirty-eight minutes, the film's memory diminishes by the minute, fading from view like a passing highway sign.{Grade: 6/10 (C+) / #22 (of 33) of 1959}
