Truly Dreadful Film

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Henry Hathaway's "The Shepherd of the Hills" represented the first time that John Wayne and he worked together. Hathaway was the director of record on other John Wayne movies, among them "Circus World," "The Sons of Katie Elder," and "Legend of the Lost." "The Shepherd of the Hills" is an early John Wayne saga, made just four years after "Stagecoach" catapulted the Duke to stardom. Wayne isn't really the hero of this saga. The hero is portrayed by none other than Harry Carey. Later, Carey would play the lawman opposite Wayne in "Angel and the Badman." He shows up in the Ozarks where the Wayne clan makes bootleg whiskey. Revenue agents raid the hills, wound a moonshiner, but they never find young Matt's family moonshine operation. Meantime, Matt visits his mother's grave in a valley. He has vowed to kill his father if he ever sees him again. Matt isn't particularly friendly toward Daniel Howitt (Harry Carey) when he meets him for the first time. Nevertheless, Matt's sweetheart Sammy Lane (Betty Field) likes him. She has seen him help extract a bullet from a moonshiner. Eventually, Howitt visits Matt's family and buys land in a sacred part of the county to the chagrin of Matt. You see, Matt didn't want anybody to live where his mother died. Grudgingly, he grows fond of Howitt. Howitt helps an older woman regain her sight. This is neither a typical Hathaway or Wayne movie. There is very little fighting. Some of the conversations are interesting. It is a shock to see veteran gangster Marc Lawrence playing a half-wit. Of course, Carey delivers an impeccable performance and he makes all this folksy baloney work better than it should.

This is an overlooked John Wayne movie ,as well as an overlooked Hathaway's -who in his long career produced more great or good movies than wretched ones :"Peter Ibbetson" is one of the most beautiful romantic movies I know,"lives of a Bengal lancer is adventures movie quintessence and "Niagara" remains one of Marilyn Monroe's best films ,to name but three.John Wayne is cast against type in "the shepherd" ;he is not really the he-man but a frail human being ,born under a bad sign , with a curse hanging over him .The characters and the atmosphere are not unlike those of "the trail of the lonesome pine" which Hathaway made five years earlier ,with the same wonderful color.Some scenes are admirable:when Wayne 's old man enters the room of the old home,he feels a presence in the room : the furniture, the things ,everything reminds him of the woman he's never stopped loving (he is as romantic as Peter Ibbetson!).Another memorable scene shows the old man and his son fishing in the river :watch closely and you'll hear a ravaged tale ;the gentler side of the movie hides real fury (and Hathaway does not indulge himself a flashback of the stormy fateful night).Actually,John Wayne 's character is not so much bitter as wistful and it's one of the actors' best performances;but it's all the cast that should be praised .Add it to your Hathaway list.

This is John Wayne's first color film and he receives top billing, though clearly the star of this hillbilly movie is Harry Carey. Unfortunately, there were quite a few films about the Ozarks made during a 10 year stretch in the 30s and 40s and they were all pretty bad (such as SWING YOUR LADY, THE MILLERSON CASE and SPITFIRE). And while this movie isn't exactly bad, it sure isn't good--due to weird script writing and some over the top performances (particularly Beulah Bondi who plays a character like a mean version of Granny from "The Beverly Hillbillies").Harry Carey is a stranger to the mountains and wants to buy land and move there. Considering that there is no logical reason for a stranger to move there, it's amazing how long it takes the residents to realize who he really is. At the same time, John Wayne (who seems rather out of place in this hillbilly heaven) broods about how he hates the father who abandoned him--yet he and so many others don't bother putting it all together to realize his father is Carey. Now I know that this technically is a spoiler (so it is noted), but every member of the audience guessed this LONG before the folks did in the movie. Sadly, I think the idea that mountain folk are superstitious idiots is how you are supposed to rationalize how none of them figured this out for the longest time! I'm sure most Arkansans groan when such stereotypes appear on film.Despite beautiful color cinematography, there isn't much to recommend this dull little film due to dumb (and occasionally cartoon-like) characters, a silly plot and a rather listless pace. While it's far from horrible, it's nothing like you'd expect from John Wayne and it's only passable entertainment.

"The Shepherd of the Hills" was strangely enough John Wayne's first color film, and if I'm not mistaken likewise for the veteran Harry Carey. It was beautifully photographed in technicolor and is reminiscent of Director Henry Hathaway's earlier color film, "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (1936).A mysterious stranger, Dan Howitt (Carey) arrives in th Ozarks amid a group of moonshiners looking for a piece of land on which to settle down. He turns up at the Lane cabin where he finds Jim Lane (Tom Fadden) and his young daughter Sammie (Betty Field). Lane has been wounded by revenue agents hunting down the moonshiners. Howitt tends his wounds and saves his life making a friend of Sammy in the process.Later Coot Royal (John Qualen) bursts in looking for help for his young daughter whose breathing is labored. Howitt goes along with Sammy to Coot's cabin where he dislodges a food scrap from the young girl's throat, allowing her to breathe normally. He also pays for an operation for Granny Becky (Marjorie Main), to restore her sight. As a result of his actions, Howitt becomes known as the Shepherd of the Hills.Young Matt (John Wayne) has been carrying a grudge for his father who abandoned himself and his mother years earlier. Matt's mother died and Matt has carried the hate for his father for all those years. He had been raised by Aunt Mollie (Beaulah Bondi) and Old Matt (James Barton).Howitt, as luck would have it, purchases the piece of land on which Young Matt's original home stands. This angers Young Matt who tries to drive the stranger off. But then he learns the stranger's secret and.........................................In spite of the magnificent setting, this film is a bit of a soap opera. It doesn't take one long to figure out what is going on. In spite of a good fight between Wayne and Ward Bond, and the finale, the film is lacking in action. There are no real villains in the story. The apparent romance between the Wayne and Field characters is only touched upon.Also in the cast are Samuel S. Hinds as Andy Beeler, the sheriff, Marc Lawrence in an off beat role as Pete the mute son of Bondi and Fuzzy Knight, who sings a song as he had in the earlier film.This was I also believe, the first film that Wayne made with his friend and mentor Harry Carey whose mannerisms Wayne adopted in many of his later films.