User reviews

Set in a post-civil war Montana location from the freeway in which takes place a strong confrontation between the leaders of the cattlemen against the sheep-men . It stars Errol Flynn who is opposed by local ranchers and a rich cattle-woman , Alexis Smith . As an Australian sheep-man called Morgan Lane (Errol Flynn) comes to Montana looking for grazing space . He goes to town along with Papa Otto Schultz (S.Z. Sakall) , disguising as a merchant , explains his Australian accent , and to be aware that Maria Singleton (Alexis Smith) , a strong-willed rancher , is at odds the family ranch in Montana . Lane wants to rent some lands to his sheep and Miss Singleton wants to keep the lands for her cows and while the cattle barons attempt to keep the sheep from nubbing away at the good grass . Now Morgan as a tough person trying to calm the conflict between shepherds , cattlemen and homesteaders . But Lane also finds time in a romantic triangle with heart-of-gold/Alexis Smith and Rodney Ackroyd (Douglas Jackson) , Miss Singleton's Fiancée , another ranch owner .

It deals with the classic cattle-vs.-sheep feud and it gets Western action , shootouts , a love story , street showdown gunfight and being quite entertaining . There is a twisted romance when Flynn falls for a girl who turns out to be a domineering woman who hates shepherds . This relationship tugs Morgan/Flynn and Miss Singleton/Alexis , wealthy owner of a large ranch but Singleton quickly decides that Morgan has a much better name than other suitor but keeps them apart . The violent conflicts emerge when Morgan/Errol encamps his sheep at the boundary line where the bad grazing ends and the good grazing begins . It's a medium budget film with nice actors , technicians , production values and pleasing results . At the ending takes place a disastrous clash between the cattle and sheep factions with unexpected consequences . The film is totally set in Montana territory which was the first of the major railhead cattle territories , it was a booming depot , including cattle drives and shipping some Longhorns by railroad and meat markets in the East . With the numerous presence of homesteaders the towns prospered , stabilized and grew , its lawabiding citizens decided to discourage the troublesome cattle trade with his transient cowboys and early requested the cattlemen to drive their herds elsewhere . Well played by Errol Flynn who starred various ¨Sword and Swagger¨ films and was superstar of Warner Brothers swashbucklers . Errol is still nearly at his most agile and deft style . Errol Flynn was 40 when he made this movie , but his wild lifestyle had diminished his health and made him less able to perform his own stunts, as he had in earlier films . Previously , Flynn made his best swashbucklers and played successes as ¨Captain Blood¨ , ¨Adventures of Robin Hood¨, ¨The prince and the pauper¨ , ¨Sea Hawk¨, ¨The private lives of Elizabeth and Essex¨ , ¨Gentleman Jim¨ . Flynn also performed some Westerns as ¨Dodge City¨, ¨Virginia City¨, ¨Santa Fe Trail¨, ¨They died with their boots on¨, ¨San Antonio¨, ¨Silver River¨. And wartime movies as ¨Objective Burma¨, ¨Norhern pursuit¨, ¨Dive Bomber¨ , ¨Edge of darkness¨ , ¨Desperate journey¨.

The motion picture is directed in sure visual eye and with action enough . The yarn well produced by William Jacobs was professionally directed by Ray Enright . Ray was a craftsman who directed lots of Westerns . He realized a variety films of all kind of genres , though especially Western , the best are starred by Scott , all well screen-written . His Western film debut was ¨River's end¨ (40) , following ¨Bad men in Missouri¨ (41) about the Youngers , ¨The spoilers¨ (42) with a star-system , as Marlene Dietrich , John Wayne and Scott , ¨Men of Texas¨(42) , ¨Sin Town¨(42) , and various starred by Randolph Scott as ¨Trail Street¨(47) , ¨Coroner Creek¨(48) , ¨Alburquerque¨(48) , and starred by Alexis Smith : ¨South of St. Louis¨(49) and this ¨Montana¨ (50) . His last Westerns were ¨Kansas raiders¨(50) and Flaming Feather¨(52) , until his retirement in 1953 .

Montana with a running time of only 77 minutes has to be some kind of record for Errol Flynn while he was Warner Brothers for shortest feature film. Some of the B westerns with Dick Foran back from the Thirties had longer running times than Montana.

My suspicion is that Montana is nothing more than a pumped up B film, it certainly does not have as expensive a look to it as say The Adventures of Don Juan which Flynn did the year before.

The plot is a simple one and it's the only time that Errol Flynn actually played someone of his nationality which was Australian. Flynn for reasons left unexplained by the film has decided to leave Australia and homestead new country for sheep raising in the Big Sky country of Montana territory.

Naturally this upsets the local cattle ranchers and two of the biggest in the area are Alexis Smith and Douglas Kennedy who are about to make a personal and business merger. But once Flynn gets into the picture he certainly makes Alexis see the error of her ways about him and about sheep in that order.

As a film, Montana relies heavily on the considerable charm of Errol Flynn to bring it off. Bring it off he does, but Montana certainly will not rank high in the best of Errol Flynn list anyone compiles.

But someone out there was really impressed with the film. Back in the day when I lived in Brooklyn there was a judge who must have loved this film as a lad. He thought Errol's character name of Morgan Lane had character so he changed his own name to Morgan Lane from some Jewish sounding ethnic name. Of course that was before he became a lawyer and eventually a judge.

The second thing Montana is known for is a nice little cowboy duet that Errol and Alexis sing called Reckon I'm In Love. It's nice little ditty and one of only a few times Mr. Flynn got to sing in films. I recall he sang in Thank Your Lucky Stars and in Let's Make Up and that's about it in the vocalizing department.

You might watch Montana for entertainment, but who knows if it will actually move you to change your name.

Reminds me a little of the Glenn Ford movie, "The Sheepman". Glenn Ford also brought sheep into bovine territory. I always like that movie and then just discovered this one on TCM this morning. Errol Flynn is one of my favorite actors and this little jewel will be added to my collection. The movies a classic B movie. But Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith was able to pull it off.

And to the person who called his sheepdog a mutt: that was a blue merle collie and could very well be my dog's great-great parent. Mac looked exactly like that. We lost him last year to cancer. This makes the movie even more cherished to me. I just purchased it on Amazon!

If you like westerns and Errol Flynn and who doesn't, prepare to be entertained. Cattle, sheep, a woman, ranches, shootings and all the rest take place in a rather quick paced plot that serves its purpose. It would have been a 5-6 rating but Errol is always a pleasure to watch as he has this way of acting that looks so effortless. Hollywood did well to take advantage how the camera loves this man. Good movie to eat a sandwich while watching with a tasty drink and perhaps some choice candy. There is a couple parts where they sing and in the bat scene, the song is quite catchy. Listen to the words or read them if you have closed captioning. It gives us a glimpse of life back then, what people liked and song subjects can be revealing. Just listen and learn. Okay boys, lets ride

Montana is directed by Ray Enright and adapted to screenplay by James R. Webb, Borden Chase and Charles O'Neal from a story by Ernest Haycox. It stars Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S.Z. Sakall, Douglas Kennedy, James Brown and Ian MacDonald. A Technicolor production with cinematography by Karl Freund and music by David Buttolph.

Flynn plays an Australian sheepman who comes to Montana looking for grazing space but finds local ranchers and a wealthy cattle-woman are greatly opposed to his plans.

Warning! Sheepherders Passing This Point Will Be Shot On Sight.

Just how many films are out there about the Sheep Vs Cattle Wars? What an interesting subject, that cattle ranchers were convinced that sheep were detrimental to the land and therefore a threat to the beef money market. This forms the basis for Montana, a modest budgeted production that never the less has glorious Technicolor to digest and Errol Flynn as a tough handsome dude.

Much of the film is given to talking about the sheep and cattle conundrum, with some duplicitous behaviour, ulterior motives and political nest feathering thrown in for good measure. Naturally there's a fiery romance bubbling away between Flynn and Smith, where they even duet on a song, "Reckon I'm In Love", while there's fist-fights, stampedes and some buckaroo to achieve the action quotient on "B" movie par. Some bad rear projection work shows its face from time to time, a shame because there's a lot of nice scenic photography to enjoy. But the best feature away from Flynn being Flynn, is that Technicolor photography, check out Smith's flame red hair and eyes chipped from Kryptonite, a dinner sequence rich in colour composition or just how the costumes burst out of the screen. This is a beautiful movie to look at even if it's routinely scripted from the page. 6.5/10

Australian sheepherder Errol Flynn brings his sheep to (you guessed it) Montana. He fights with cattle ranchers and romances Alexis Smith. Routine oater made a little less so by the sheep angle. The leads are enjoyable. Flynn fans will want to see him sing "Reckon I'm in Love" with Smith. Fun support from S.Z. Sakall and Paul Burns. Love that Technicolor. Just look at that blue jacket of Errol's pop! The story is much ado about sheep and will have you suppressing laughs here and there. An example of the kind of dialogue you can expect is when one thug says to Flynn: "You talk like a sheepherder." He said that with a straight face, believe it or not. Filmed in 1948 but sat on shelf for two years.

Montana is a dope flick and spotlights the savage curtain of the cattle men vs sheep men who each must make a business out of their chief focus. By now they have figured out all the angles how to to make a manageable Western good, not to say the other Westerns are sorta those are definitely adventurous, but in this there's little things that I appreciate that have addition to this movie. The hero is Morgan Lane - wow what a name, that evokes shrewdness especially with how Morgan is a hearty sounding name while it contrasts with Lane, a sharp cool and clever fox and just like he is in here, yet the good guy with these characteristics. He deals in sheep and the badguys are cattle people who own the biggest property for this in Montana, an earthly state deep in USA, with a cooly sounding name, maybe they have out of state trade as well if they're such a big 'range.' Rather than gunfights there's more fisticuffs going on in contrast to other Errol Flynn Westerns, maybe this is more gentlemanly or barbaric it's trying to make the point, either way another little thing I notice only now is Flynn has to differentiate himself to the mammoth amount of other Western stars who are more roughhewn and he showcases an element of wiles, cool, smooth, dressed to the nines as he starkly drops his more rustic cowboy wear early to put on a cool blue suit as he heads to Montana. More on this suit I'll get to. I also appreciate this flick for not relying on the Civil War as a backdrop to increase entertainment, which is not bad just that it's the genre from relying on automatic war, I like to check how they make this entertaining by other methods that must use creativity and here it spoitgliths the battle between cattle men and sheep men which is nifty, wow. This is conjured up like a big deal even unintentionally with humor to what appears aloof, cattle and sheep can both coexist 'out on the range,' which is like a business party broken up as someone says, 'everyone on the cattle side let's get out of here,' and a badguy saying about Morgan, 'he knows sheep, now he's gonna learn about cattle.' Ooooh. The badguys motive is like nothing, they made their names on cattle woopdedoo. When so many heroes frequently wear red in movies, this is refreshing to see the cool blue suit of this hero aaaah. The Montana state is very smooth cool sounding name and this is showcased by the hero Lane also suiting himself up with a cool blue suit and out cools.

Errol Flynn, as a sheep-herder? Say it ain't sew! No wonder Flynn drank his way through this turgid Western. I'd be pulling the wool over your eyes by saying Flynn doesn't mail it in. Lots of short scenes with many edits plus obvious studio cuts against outdoor backdrops. Flynn's first film in 1950 but the miles and trials were taking a toll on Errol. His eyes were too bloodshot to shoot some scenes.

Nevertheless, the Technicolor cinematography (Calabasas Ranch)is first rate plus production values make up for the drab characters. It's tough to care about anyone except beautiful, flaming redhead, Alexis Smith. I've never seen whiter teeth in my life. Cute little scar on her chin too. Flynn and Smith have some nice scenes plus sing a fun little ditty: Reckon, I'm in love! Seriously, it's not bad! A sheep-herder invades cattle country! If this sounds like a bum steer of a film, you're probably right but it's Flynn in his final decade. He went downhill fast from here but "amoung other things", he still looks good next to Alexis.

This was the beginning of the final years for Errol Flynn, he was still good in this surprise less story full of charm and action, a bit different an dmore effective than George Marshall's THE SHEEPMAN for Metro Goldwyn Mayer. It is rather short for a major Warner flick, maybe because Ray Enright was the director and not William Keighley or William Wellman. This scheme concerning sheepmen vs cattle owners war has certainly been told many times, besides this one and THE SHEEPMAN; I guess they are both the most important films. So, to summarize, that's a prety good old fashioned western in the pure Hollywood style. Well done, very professional piece of work.

About 20 minutes into the film, Errol Flynn is being questioned by some cowboy hick at the saloon bar. The director - whether it was Enright or Walsh that day - shoot it in extreme closeup of Flynn looking - in effect - into the saloon mirror behind the bartenders. He's still got smooth skin, perfect teeth and what looks like the world clearest, glittering Amber eyes. By gawd he was beautiful.

And then there was Alexis Smith who the studio dubbed The Dynamite Girl but who should have been called The Penticton Peach, with apologies to Andy Moog. Her blue/green eyes are so striking they actually made me gulp when she first appears. Contrasted with that Hollywood copper hair and teeth so white they appear to be their own light source, well, you have a first-class knockout.

Of course they fall in love. Until he confesses he's into sheep.

The local cowboys are either testing him or shooting at him. And the movie-makers manage to work in a a couple of songs. The action is decent but the rear-projection is laughable. And the character development is non-existent.

As long as the obnoxious S. Z. Sakall isn't chewing up the scenery with that hackney accent (same goes for Charles Irwin as Flynn's Scottish sidekick at the beginning) it's a harmless time-filler. I'd like to think this movie's ''missing" 13 minutes (give or take) were scenes featuring either Sakall or Irwin and wisely got plotzed on the cutting room floor.

All in all a decent way to spend some time watching TV with grampa.

this is a very primitive western with terrible screenplay, wordy dialog, but most of all, the annoying childish cartoon-like music would drive you crazy. the directing was basic, deadbeat and breathless due to a lifeless screenplay, the acting of all the characters in this boring film were badly affected by the lousy script. when these sheepherders went into the territory of the cattlemen, they didn't pay any attention to the eminent danger, drinking and singing around the camp fire, what a stupid arrangement was that? when the cattlemen attacked them at night, there was only a gun available to fight back, what made the guy think that he could deal with the self-entitled cattlemen in Montana? the childish screenplay then forcefully developed into a more stupid scenario with a gunfight in the tavern, then the guy met a pretty local girl in town that was so predictably boring and so formulaic stupid. do i have to go on and on with the annoying sound track? sorry, no can do.

Morgan Lane (Errol Flynn) is an Australian sheep herder. He has come to Montana to graze his sheep despite attack by murderous local cattlemen. He encounters traveling huckster Papa Otto Schultz (S. Z. Sakall). He decides to play a peddler and infiltrate the town. Maria Singleton (Alexis Smith) is one of the local cattle ranchers.

It's a fine Errol Flynn western. Sheep herders are not the usual western fare. That's an unique spin. Otherwise, it's very standard and non-challenging. There are some cowboy stunts with the stuntmen. Errol Flynn is doing his leading man work. This is fine but a little slow.