Director: Henry Hathaway
Screenplay: Stuart Anthony, Grover Jones
Based on the novel by: Harold Bell Wright
Producers: Jack Moss
Starring: John Wayne, Betty Field, Harry Carey
Year: 1941
Country: USA
BBFC Certification: PG
Duration: 98 mins
Henry Hathaway isn’t a name you’ll hear mentioned that often these days but fans of Golden Age Hollywood will no doubt have stumbled upon him at some point. One of the quintessential journeyman directors, Hathaway could generally be relied upon to deliver solid, if often unremarkable, interpretations of the material given to him. He made his share of recognised classics (True Grit, Niagara), cult oddities (23 Paces to Baker Street, Prince Valiant) and even a personal favourite of mine in the taut, pacey Western Rawhide. Like many of the journeymen, the impression I get with Hathaway is that his filmography probably hides a handful of gems but it would take a lot of shovelling to uncover them. It was in this optimistic mindset that I seized upon the opportunity to review Hathaway’s 1941 Drama The Shepherd of the Hills but unfortunately I was left with nothing but a shovel in my hand and sweat on my brow.
The Shepherd of the Hills is known for being John Wayne’s attempt at moving towards roles with more dramatic heft. Having been relegated to B-Westerns for years following the failure of his first shot at a star vehicle in 1930’s The Big Trail, Wayne seemed to have equated his trademark genre with cultural bankruptcy. Though the ascendency of his star at the time was due to his iconic role in John Ford’s Stagecoach, Wayne seemed determined to hang up his spurs for good and saw this torpid literary adaptation as his ticket out of the saddle. It was reportedly Olive Carey, the wife of his Shepherd costar and longtime idol Harry Carey, who talked Wayne out of this by using her husband’s career as an example. Would Wayne have wanted to see Carey move away from the genre in which he had fallen for his charms in the first place?, she asked. The excellent accompanying article by Rick Burin in Indicator’s new The Shepherd of the Hills blu-ray attributes this encounter with having changed the face of cinema, assuring Wayne’s rise to one of the most recognisable Western stars in history. What is perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Wayne saw The Shepherd of the Hills as a leap away from the Western when it actually shares a number of tropes with the genre. Although set in the Ozark mountains, the film still features a mysterious stranger arriving in town, a bitter family dispute, gunplay over land ownership and a supporting role for Ward Bond. If Wayne was seriously seeking deliverance from the Western aesthetic, he’d have needed to gallop a good few miles further down the trail to achieve it.
Reportedly the novel by Harold Bell Wright on which The Shepherd of the Hills is based is a densely religious tome. Hathaway’s film barely skirts the issue but God isn’t the only thing cut out of the story. Hathaway’s original cut ran for two hours and, despite positive audience feedback, the studio baulked. Ironically, removing over twenty minutes of footage had the effect of making formerly supportive audiences complain that the film was too long. Hathaway attributed this to missing information making the story confusing, resulting in boredom setting in more quickly. The more the studio cut out, the more audiences complained of overlength, but despite Hathaway having the receipts to prove it, Paramount pushed ahead with a truncated version. I’m in two minds as to whether a longer cut might’ve saved The Shepherd of the Hills. On the one hand, it does feel like some crucial information and emotional beats are missing. Also, the potentially appealing languid, dreamlike style of the film might’ve benefited from the extended runtime. Certainly, the ravishing scenery shot in glorious Technicolor is the highlight of the viewing experience. However, the screenplay feels distinctly uneven and the actors appear rigid and unengaging as a result. Wayne has a few good moments but he never seems to quite settle into his character, so that the intermittent instances of emotional connection feel like anomalous blips. Old hands Ward Bond and Beulah Bondi are hamstrung by broad caricature, while Carey brings a stately reverence that feels too significant for the paltry material. It’s down to Betty Field’s lively and idiosyncratic performance to carry the entirety of the film’s negligible charm.
If The Shepherd of the Hills failed to live up to even my modest hopes, it remains an interesting footnote in cinema history that seems to have been instrumental in helping Wayne feel his way towards Western roles built upon the gravitas he sought, a compromise that arguably made his career. It’s easy to understand how the film has become comparatively lost but it kicked off a fruitful collaboration between Hathaway and Wayne which would eventually lead to the latter’s Oscar win for his iconic turn as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.
The Shepherd of the Hills is released on 20 January 2025 by Indicator on limited edition Blu-ray. Special features are as follows:
* High Definition remaster
* Original mono audio
* Audio commentary with academic and curator Eloise Ross (2025)
* Bertrand Tavernier on ‘The Shepherd of the Hills’ (2017): archival appreciation by the celebrated filmmaker and critic, presented with English subtitles for the first time
* Original theatrical trailer
* Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
* New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
* Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Rick Burin, an archival report on the film and source novel’s Ozark setting, an extract from an interview with Henry Hathaway, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and full film credits
* UK premiere on Blu-ray
* Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK
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