Yellow Sky
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Movie Reviews of Yellow Sky
Movie Review: Old western
Summary: 5 Stars
It is great to be able to see these old westerns on DVD. Gregory Peck made such a handsome cowboy. Story line is okay, too.Movie Review: Yellow Sky DVD Review
Summary: 5 Stars
This 1948 western is an excellent film. The black-and-white picture is in 4:3 format and looks good.Movie Review: An excellent example of William Wellman's professional craftsmanship
Summary: 4 Stars
When it comes to the movies, in my opinion, craftsmanship trumps art most of the time. William Wellman's Yellow Sky is a movie with an intriguing story-line, strong characters in conflict, well-paced and dramatic direction, skillful acting and a satisfyingly good-natured conclusion...and without a "message" in sight. It's a small-scale and very well-made Western which, without DVDs, would probably remain as forgotten as it has been for the last fifty years.
James Dawson (Gregory Peck) leads a gang of bank robbers, a gang that includes Dude (Richard Widmark), a gambler with a bad lung, a taste for white shirts and a love of gold. It's a couple of years after the Civil War. They rob a bank and ride out of town with the money but find themselves pursued by a cavalry troop. Their only chance at escape is to head out over the salt plains, where it's deadly hot, there's no water and men and horses usually die. Half dead they manage to cross and find themselves in Yellow Sky, a broken-down ghost town filled with rolling brush and dust. They encounter the only people who live there, Mike (Anne Baxter), a tomboy who can shoot as well as most of the gang, and her aging grandfather (James Barton), an old miner. It doesn't take long for the gang to figure out that Grampa and Mike have been quietly mining and stashing away gold.
And that's the set-up. Dawson and the gang want the gold and will take it, but Dawson is prepared to share it with Mike and Grampa. Dude is willing to go along...until he has an opportunity to take all the gold for himself. And the rest of the gang? There's Lengthy (John Russell), mean and aggressive who plans to have his share of the gold as well as having Mike; Bull Run (Robert Arthur), a kid who may be too sentimental for his own good; Walrus (Charles Kemper), usually good-natured, not too smart and willing to follow along; and Half Pint (Henry Morgan), maybe he's okay, maybe not, but he's not one to break things up.
Before long Dawson realizes that Mike is someone special. He remembers that he wasn't always a bankrobber. But by then, in this blazing hot ghost town, it's Dude and the gang against Dawson, with Mike using her rifle to back Dawson. The resolution, which started as a good guy versus bad guy drama, ends up as a good guy versus bad guy versus bad guy shootout in the dark, deserted, broken-down saloon. Wellman plays it so we see no action inside, only Dawson walking in, then two or three gunshots and powder flashes. The movie ends with some good-natured bank robbery redemption on the part of Dawson, and a nice mixture of doubt at first by Mike and then trust.
The movie was shot in Death Valley and looks it. There is no shade, just burning hot boulders, dirt, dust and sand and the falling-apart buildings that were Yellow Sky. What makes this movie such a pleasure to watch is that Wellman knows his business. There are no false starts, unnecessary emotional anguish, over-acting, back stories or meaningful subtexts. Wellman shows us what these people are like, even the gang members, but he shows us just enough to keep the story moving forward. The story, with two attractive leads in Peck and Baxter and one creepy and untrustworthy bad guy (Widmark), is the important element. Wellman was one of the great craftsmen of Hollywood movie making. He was a pro. He directed such varied and excellent movies as Beau Geste, Nothing Sacred, Battleground, The Public Enemy, The Ox Bow Incident and Roxie Hart. Yellow Sky may not be in that category but it is a skillful and satisfying movie.
Movie Review: Western ahead of its time
Summary: 4 Stars
In the late 1940s when many westerns still had the good guys in white taking on bad guys in black, William Wellman's Yellow Sky came along. After robbing a bank in a little town, Stretch Dawson and his gang hightail it out of town with a cavalry troop hot on their trail. But the gang rides out into the desolate salt flats, 70 miles until the next town, and the cavalry lets them go. After days of riding, Dawson's gang stumbles upon a ghost town, Yellow Sky, where there's only two residents, an old man and his tom-boy granddaugeter. There's tension between the groups, but things get worse when the talk of gold arises. There's no good guys here, all the characters are in that gray area between good and bad. It's almost a film-noirish western, a pyschological movie more interested in showing how these characters interact. Filmed in Death Valley, there's some gorgeous shots of riders crossing the arid desert, years before David Lean used similar shots. Not your typical western, it's not that well known, but take advantage of the DVD and give it a try.
Leading a strong cast, Gregory Peck plays one of his more sinister characters, James "Stretch" Dawson, an ex-cavalryman leading his gang to safety after a bank robbery. Dawson isn't necessarily a bad guy, he has a change of heart, but he's not exactly on the up and up either. Anne Baxter is good as Constance Mae, or Mike, a young woman living with her grandpa (James Barton) out in the desert. Unlike a lot of female characters inserted into westerns, Baxter's Mike fits in perfectly, the tough tom-boy who can shoot and fight as well as many men. Richard Widmark is the most villainous member of the gang, Dude, who is interested in himself and little else. The rest of the gang includes Robert Arthur, Harry Morgan, Charles Kemper, Robert Adler, and John Russell, one of his best roles as Lengthy, who's got sites on Baxter.
The DVD offers the movie in its standard presentation, the black and white cinematography looking great with the Death Valley shooting. Special features include three separate photo galleries, a trailer, and trailers for three other Fox Flix westerns. A very underrated western that's never received much in the way of recognition, Yellow Sky is well worth a watch!
Movie Review: GOOD PECK WESTERN!
Summary: 4 Stars
Gregory Peck stars in this William Wellman directed Western from Fox.Peck is very believable an as "good"-"bad man",he's the leader of the a gang of bank robbers which include Richard Widmark,as a gang member who just can't waite to take over as leader,Charles Kemper,Henry Morgan,Robert Arthur,and John Russell.After robbing the bank and escaping,from the law,thru salt flats,they come across a "ghost town",whose only residents are Anne Baxter and her grandfather,played by James Barton,both of whom MAY be hiding gold,fom a near by abandoned mine.The rest of the films deals with bandits and their cat and mouse game with Baxter-Barton fighting over "the gold",with Widmark(excellent) being his usual obtuse self(he doesn't want to share 50-40,as Peck had agreed to),and a budding romance is developing between Peck and Baxter,with some of the other "baddies" wanting Anne too.It seems to me that I read years and years ago that Paulette Gooddard was originally scheduled to have the Baxter part.Paulette certainly would have a more fetching lass,but Ms Baxter is OK.If Fox had wanted to release its REAL CLASSIC WESTERN COLLECTION,it should have released the great Peck-Henry King oater "THE GUNFIGHTER",before Yellow Sky.Nevertheless YELLOW SKY,is a very good Western under Wellmans'taut direction,with a fine Lamar Trotti script,derived from W.R.Burnett(Aspalt Jungle,High Sierra) work.Wellman and Trotti had earlier collaborrated on the Noir-Western classic "The Ox-Bow Incident",which also co-starred Henry Morgan.The DVD transfer is fine,but my one criticism of the DVD is that a commemtary is not provided ,and I believe ALL films on DVD should have commets by participants,historians,or experts in the field.Commentaries are usually a great addition and Fox has provided some excellent ones with its film-noir series.Otherwise a fine addition to your DVD-Western collection.