JohnHowardReid It's rare to come across a cult movie that I can not only unreservedly recommend but that I feel fully justifies its cult reputation. Of course, maybe the cultists like the movie for the wrong reasons. But with The Shepherd of the Hills it's hard to find wrong reasons. Everything about the picture is so right. The luminous performances: Wayne, perfectly cast, giving one of the best of his entire career; Carey, so winning and sympathetic, making the title role so memorable it will become a point of reference for the rest of your life; Marjorie Main, equally unforgettable as the blind woman who sees too much too quickly; Beulah Bondi, never more embittered or meaner-spirited as the real head of the Matthews clan; Marc Lawrence, giving the finest and certainly the most unusual study he ever attempted as the pathetically inarticulate Pete. So many others - Ward Bond who has the realistic fight with Wayne, Fuzzy Knight as the singer, Olin Howland as the squirrelling storekeeper... And all brilliantly directed by Henry Hathaway too. Henry, as I've said before, is the sort of director I most admire. For a start, he doesn't direct actors. He expects them to know their craft and is equally impatient with amateurs and hams. Secondly he's a specialist in action and outdoors work. He once said that he always preferred location assignments because it took him well away from front office interference. Hathaway ran a tight unit, turning out the movies he wanted to make in the way he wanted to make them. He had an eye for natural scenery, and could see its dramatic and story possibilities. Weeping Meadow is just that. The hill country in Shepherd is both brutal and supremely picturesque. Of course it's the script's large array of bizarre, vividly realized characters, plus the unusual setting in which they move, and the age-old conflicts which they generate (particularly Youth against Age, Idealism against tainted or even repented Experience, Freedom and/or Libertarianism against Authority) which has propelled The Shepherd of the Hills into such firm favoritism with present-day cultists. The movie of course has these qualities. But it has something else which is not so popular to-day and which indeed, both when the novel was written back in 1907 and throughout its various film versions, was the main reason for its existence. It has a spirituality, a supernatural element, a discussion of the Two Ways, a depiction of the classic struggle between good and evil, and the power of Light to overcome Darkness.

bobbyz-984-842377 I believe that the final climatic scenes music is the base notes for Jaws! The movie was shot in one of the most picturesque locations ever seen on film and it was shot just an hour away from Mr. Wayne's home in Balboa Island (at least his boat was docked there later on in his life). I was particularly struck by the dark satanic overtures and the Ozark verbiage which was great to listen too throughout the film, very down to earth with simple rules to follow in life. In general the storyline never wavered and the simple yet complex characters of the Master's family (kinfolk) was as real as any modern day dysfunctional family "as there ever was!" Aloha, Bobby Z

Tweekums The television guide simply described this as a 'western starring John Wayne'; this led me to expect a totally different film; rather than the wide open plains of the west this is set amongst the Ozark mountains where the people are depicted as being superstitious and insular. John Wayne gets top billing as Moonshiner 'Young Matt', a bitter man who is determined that one day he will kill the father that abandoned him and his late mother when he was young; he isn't really the star of the film though. The main protagonists are Daniel Howett, a wealthy outsider who wants to move into the area and buys the property Matt's mother used to live in but is considered cursed and Sammy Lane a young woman he befriends after helping her father. As the film progresses Howett provides honest work to people, much to the chagrin of the moonshiners and even pays to for a blind old woman to have an operation so she can see for the first time. Of course he has a secret that most viewers will guess long before it is revealed and when it is there will be tragic consequences.This might not have been what I was expecting but I enjoyed it none the less. The opening scenes led me to believe to would be a story about the moonshiners and the revenue men who were after them but that was almost the limit of their involvement. Betty Field did a good job as Sammy; serving to introduce both the viewer and incomer Howett to the people and their ways. Harry Carey was equally good as Howett. John Wayne's role was smaller than I expected but he put in a solid enough performance and we did get to see him in a knock-down brawl. Apart from these the most memorable character is 'Aunt Mollie' a particularly unpleasant woman who metaphorically poisons those around her with her talk of curses. For a relatively early colour film, John Wayne's first, the colour looks fantastic; bringing the glorious scenery alive.

theowinthrop THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS was made into a silent film in 1919. Harold Bell Wright, the author of the story, was a popular novelist of the day, and a number of his stories were turned into films. He usually concentrated on stories regarding people who lived in mountainous regions (one hesitates to call them hillbillies as they are usually shown to be non-stereotypes). As was mentioned in another of the comments here, Wright also wrote the story that was the basis for the Henry Fonda / Fred MacMurray film THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.John Wayne is not the central figure of this film, although considered the star nowadays. In reality this film should be considered one of the best in the career of Harry Carey Sr. A leading movie cowboy actor in the silent period and early sound years, Carey had slowly moved into character parts after 1933. Possibly his best recalled non-western role is the Vice President of the United States in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. As a Western star, he proved to be Wayne's own model of the perfect western film actor. In fact, in the shooting of John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, Wayne purposely honored Carey by copying a mannerism he had (holding his arm with his hand in a particular position) in Wayne's last visible moment in that film.In the movie Wayne is a member of a family centered around James Barton and Beulah Bondi (Wayne's blood aunt), and his cousin Marc Lawrence. Bondi has never forgiven Wayne's father for abandoning the family, and indirectly causing the death of her sister. She has instilled in Wayne a hatred of the father. At the same time, the death of the sister is tied to the other tragedy of the family - that Lawrence is a mute. He has been unable to speak since he survived the fire that killed his aunt (Wayne' mother). The only one who occasionally stands up against Bondi's vicious hatred is Barton, but he admits in his best scene in the film that he really lacks the nerve to openly condemn her behavior.This is a great film for character actors. Besides Barton, Bondi, and Lawrence, please take note of Marjorie Main in one of her most prescient performances. She is blind, and she requires expensive surgery to have a chance for the restoration of her sight. At a critical moment Carey will lend her the money for that surgery. When her eyesight is restored everyone in the community rejoices, until Main recognizes somebody in the crowd she did not expect to ever see again. Her comment when she reveals this person's identity, and realizes the tragedy she may have unwittingly caused, is devastating in it's simplicity and ironic truth.Carey is a newly arrived rancher in the area, who (as witness his assistance to Main) gets involved trying to do good for his neighbors. And all usually benefit. Yet he too has his secrets, and they nearly rip him and several others apart.THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS is a movie about redemption and forgiveness, and it's cast shows the difficulties faced by common people when presented with these seemingly simple acts of behavior. All of the stars of the movie gave first rate performances in it, and for Wayne it was the first big follow-up to his overnight success in STAGECOACH. But the best performance remains Carey's, who in the end has to commit an act of violence in order to try to save his last chance for acceptance from those who count the most.