joepolach It tries everything to win the viewer over, all of the typical western tactics and tropes, but a western with a vapid story line, basic acting, and too many improbable and poorly edited shoot 'em up moments cannot be rescued, no matter how many whiskeys and cowboy antics are thrown in, even with a star-studded cast.

atlasmb Four brothers reunite in Clearwater, Texas to attend the funeral of their mother--Katie Elder. None of them has been very attentive to her needs, but their neglect has not been intentional. They are all wanderers. When they return to Clearwater, they discover how little they know of Katie's recent circumstances.John Elder (John Wayne) is a renowned gunfighter and the father figure to his younger brothers. Tom (Dean Martin) is an inveterate gambler who likes to manipulate the odds. Earl Holliman plays Matt, next to youngest. And Michael Anderson, Jr. is Bud, the youngest--a reluctant student who is always ready to prove his mettle.As the sons visit local merchants and the town bank, hoping to settle Katie's accounts, they find that the townspeople knew her better than they did. One woman, Mary Gordon (Martha Hyer), plays the good neighbor while they are in town, just as she had promised Katie.Two mysteries arise: Why had Katie moved from the family homestead? And who had killed their father? In the first part of the film, the men investigate, unable to let go. The rest of the film is a series of actions sequences.John Wayne plays his usual cowboy self--forceful and determined. Earl Holliman is solid as Matt. Martin and Anderson are less natural in their portrayals. Martha Hyer plays Mary in a wonderfully understated fashion. The remainder of the cast includes a delightful collection of character actors who add color and are fun to recognize.The musical score feels forced and reminiscent of other, larger films. When the insistent strains of the orchestra back up a scene on horseback where the action is sedate, it feels inappropriate. I blame the director, not composer Elmer Bernstein.I really enjoyed the way the story develops in the first half of the film--with subtlety and sophistication. The second half is your standard shoot 'em up.

SnoopyStyle The four Elder boys return to Clearwater, Texas for their beloved mother Katie's funeral after some time. The eldest John (John Wayne) is an infamous gunslinger. Tom (Dean Martin) is a gambler. Matt (Earl Holliman) had an unsuccessful hardware store. The youngest Bud (Michael Anderson, Jr.) was sent away to school after he was accused of stealing a horse. Their father had sold the family ranch to new land baron Morgan Hastings (James Gregory) under mysterious circumstances. The bank insists that Katie had no money despite selling the land. Hastings hired gun thug Curley (George Kennedy) just in case. Sheriff Billy Wilson tells the boys that Hastings says their father gambled the money away and then got shot in the back, all in the same night.Bud Elder is terribly annoying and the young actor is doing very broad acting. This is all very old-fashion. For any old western fans, this is a perfectly fine watch. It also has a younger Dennis Hopper as well as big names like John Wayne and Dean Martin. The story is pretty interesting with some compelling villains. It's not one of the great westerns but it is a well made traditional one.

classicsoncall Though I enjoyed the picture well enough, I kept getting sidetracked by events in the story that managed to distract. The main one had to do with the ages of the Elder Brothers, particularly John (John Wayne). The family Bible had a notation that Katie Elder married in 1850, so even if she were pregnant with her oldest son at the time, and John Wayne looking every bit of his fifty seven years, the story would have taken place around 1907!That certainly wouldn't have been the case, so let's say John Elder was in his forties. A reference was made by youngest son Bud (Michael Anderson Jr.) about the Dalton Gang, saying he wanted to ride with brother John and become famous just like them. John's response was intended to give Bud pause, stating that the Dalton's were hung. But that wasn't correct either - Grath and Bob Dalton were killed during an attempted bank holdup in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892 (another hint about when this story took place). Emmett Dalton was captured and sentenced to life in prison, though he was pardoned after fifteen years in 1907 (about the time John Wayne's character would have been fifty seven). So again, some simple math works against the picture if one wants to get technical.Be that as it may, there's something to be said about the basic premise of the picture. The recently departed Katie Elder must have been a saint of a woman as every resident of Clearwater, Texas held her in the highest regard. On the flip side, three of her four sons wound up on the questionable side of the law, and Bud was headed that way if his siblings didn't send him back to college. But first, things have to be set right regarding the death of Bass Elder and the loss of the Elder ranch to Morgan Hastings (James Gregory).What one might not expect in a film like this is the number of scenes written for humorous effect. The argument the brothers had about the Katie Monument was pretty comical, and Dean Martin's glass eye raffle was a hoot. It seemed only appropriate that Strother Martin would be the winner.Probably the film's biggest missed opportunity came when gunman Curley (George Kennedy) was killed in the ambush at the bridge. His character was introduced as the antidote to gunfighter John Elder's presence in Clearwater, hired by Morgan Hastings in case the brothers got too close to the truth about their father's death and the ranch's new ownership. So the expected showdown that was suggested never became a reality. On top of that, Curley wasn't curly, and if I had to guess, a screen writer who saw this movie might have been inspired to give the same name to the Jack Palance character in "City Slickers".