In fact, this film heads southward after an impressive start. There are inconsistencies here such as Arthur Kennedy killing a man for doing what he does later on.
Aline MacMahon attempts to portray a feisty woman, but let's face it, Aline, who attended my alma mater, Erasmus Hall High School, in Brooklyn is anything but the feisty type. You need someone of the caliber of Marjorie Main in the role.
As for Donald Crisp in the role of the patriarch, he is not exactly Mr. Morgan, the prize role that got him an Oscar 14 years before in the memorable "How Green Was My Valley."
William Wyler's sister-in-law, the always frail looking Kathy O'Donnell, is far too dainty in her part as the young lass who came out west with her father and instead found herself amidst quite a family. O'Donnell, who never looked better in a film, acts as if she came out of a finishing school. The part was beneath her, for she gave outstanding performances as Wilma, Harold Russell's self-sacrificing girlfriend in "The Best Years of Our Lives," and Tierza, the leprosy victim, sister of Charlton Heston, in "Ben-Hur."
James Stewart in the lead of the film again comes off as the "aw-shucks" guy. Arthur Kennedy, as always, steals the film in a complex role of a dedicated foreman to Crisp resorting to violence when things don't go his way.
Aline MacMahon attempts to portray a feisty woman, but let's face it, Aline, who attended my alma mater, Erasmus Hall High School, in Brooklyn is anything but the feisty type. You need someone of the caliber of Marjorie Main in the role.
As for Donald Crisp in the role of the patriarch, he is not exactly Mr. Morgan, the prize role that got him an Oscar 14 years before in the memorable "How Green Was My Valley."
William Wyler's sister-in-law, the always frail looking Kathy O'Donnell, is far too dainty in her part as the young lass who came out west with her father and instead found herself amidst quite a family. O'Donnell, who never looked better in a film, acts as if she came out of a finishing school. The part was beneath her, for she gave outstanding performances as Wilma, Harold Russell's self-sacrificing girlfriend in "The Best Years of Our Lives," and Tierza, the leprosy victim, sister of Charlton Heston, in "Ben-Hur."
James Stewart in the lead of the film again comes off as the "aw-shucks" guy. Arthur Kennedy, as always, steals the film in a complex role of a dedicated foreman to Crisp resorting to violence when things don't go his way.