In another weird coincidence that manages to catch me by surprise with my movie viewing pastime, this is the second film in a row I've watched to feature a character with the name Cherry. Yesterday it was "Road to Singapore" in which actress Judith Barrett portrayed a character with that nickname. Here it was Loretta Young, not exactly a Western movie mainstay, going by the name of Cherry de Longpre.
Well I didn't quite know what to make of this picture until some way in as Coop's Melody Jones never broke character as a bumbling cowpoke. His sidekick George (William Demarest) managed to show more gumption most of the time, and after a while I wondered if Cooper might not have made the better sidekick in a different picture. Bottom line is he's no Will Kane here, with an approach diametrically opposed to the portrayal he gives in that classic of the genre, "High Noon".
What was constantly distracting for me was the frequent use of rear projection photography for the most mundane of riding scenes whenever Melody, George and/or Cherry took to horseback. I can't imagine why it wouldn't have been easier to simply shoot those scenes in some available countryside instead of a sound stage. It just didn't make sense to me, and because it was so blatantly apparent, whenever a scene like that occurred I had to chuckle.
But maybe that was intended to be part of the whole Western movie spoof that seemed to be going on here. Melody kept bumping his head into things and dropped his gun every time he tried to use it; it's surprising he didn't hurt himself. So one had to wonder how Coop would have fared if it ever came to a showdown with the desperado everyone else thought he was in the first place. With the genre already turned upside down, it made perfect sense that the real Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea) would get taken out by his long time gal pal Cherry. Doesn't that just sink the duck?
Well I didn't quite know what to make of this picture until some way in as Coop's Melody Jones never broke character as a bumbling cowpoke. His sidekick George (William Demarest) managed to show more gumption most of the time, and after a while I wondered if Cooper might not have made the better sidekick in a different picture. Bottom line is he's no Will Kane here, with an approach diametrically opposed to the portrayal he gives in that classic of the genre, "High Noon".
What was constantly distracting for me was the frequent use of rear projection photography for the most mundane of riding scenes whenever Melody, George and/or Cherry took to horseback. I can't imagine why it wouldn't have been easier to simply shoot those scenes in some available countryside instead of a sound stage. It just didn't make sense to me, and because it was so blatantly apparent, whenever a scene like that occurred I had to chuckle.
But maybe that was intended to be part of the whole Western movie spoof that seemed to be going on here. Melody kept bumping his head into things and dropped his gun every time he tried to use it; it's surprising he didn't hurt himself. So one had to wonder how Coop would have fared if it ever came to a showdown with the desperado everyone else thought he was in the first place. With the genre already turned upside down, it made perfect sense that the real Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea) would get taken out by his long time gal pal Cherry. Doesn't that just sink the duck?