Thanks for the memories!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This is not one of "the GREAT" Westerns, but it's pretty darned good...above average for that genera in that era.The biggest positive of this film is its star -- Joel McCrea as the Virginian. I always preferred McCrea in non-Westerns, but he's very good here. Brian Donlevy is here as the "bad guy" Trampas. Donlevy was an interesting actor. Often the bad guy, but not always. He's quite good here, although it's obvious that he's a B actor.Sonny Tufts is the Virginian's best friend and competitor in the love department with the new school marm. This characters demise -- hung by his best friend -- is another thing that sets this Western apart from many.Barbara Britton is "just okay" as the romantic interest here...the new school marm. Not much depth there in regard to acting.The wonderful Fay Bainter is here as the best friend of the school marm, but she is wasted in her role. The equally wonderful Henry O'Neill plays Bainter's wife...but again, his talents are wasted here. Long before "I Love Lucy", William Frawley sometimes played in Westerns, and he is along here in a small role.Incidentally, some sources indicate that Minor Watson has an uncredited role as "the Judge". I am quite sure that is incorrect. Willard Robertson played the role.Production values here are quite good, and the Technicolor photography taken in California is very nice.Very good, but not great. Better than the average Western of the era. Worth a watch...at least once.

The fourth big-screen adaptation of author Owen Wister classic novel "The Virginian" stars Joel McCrea as the eponymous hero and Brian Donlevy as the villainous Trampas. McCrea looks a bit long in the tooth to be cast as the title character. Director Stuart Gilmore's "The Virginian" concerns a transplanted Easterner on horseback who serves as foreman at Judge Henry's ranch in Wyoming. Barbara Britton co-stars as 'a wisdom-bringer" from Vermont who gets off on the wrong foot with McCrea. This is a traditional western lensed beautifully but primarily against studio backdrops and Hollywood backlot towns is comparatively dull. This morality play draws its gravity from a superlative performance from Sonny Turfs as Steve Andrews, a never-do-well, cloven-hoofed cowboy who prefers to rustler rather than earn his living the legal way. Steve wanders back and forth from the wrong end of the trail to work briefly for The Virginian. Steve and the Virginian are close, old friends. Brian Donlevy is dressed from Stetson to boots in black and plays Trampas as a thorough-going bastard. He ambushes our hero after Steve and the other rustles are strung up by the neck. The romance between the hero and heroine is complicated somewhat because she doesn't like the Virginian standing up for her. Molly Stark Wood resents the fact that everybody in the cattle town of Medicine Bow has her attached to the Virginian. The finale between the Virginian and Trampas in the streets of Medicine Bow could hardly be termed suspenseful. A tame oater at best with a straight-up, honest McCrea, with the sympathetic but doomed Tufts taking top honors. The target practice that Trampas and Steve have in the bar is amusing. Trampas blasts three whiskey shot glasses out of the air. When Trampas slings one shot glass aloft, he fires at it and we hear the intact glass strike the floorboards. Barbara Britton makes a pretty heroine.

... and the comparison is made more interesting because this film is almost a word for word remake of the 1929 version starring Gary Cooper. Most remakes of early sound films had to make huge changes in the plot just to please the production code. Just take a look at the mess that the 1941 version of the "The Trial of Mary Dugan" is versus the 1929 version, which had its plot completely changed due to production code issues. Here, there is no such issue. Joel McCrea, always overly humble when discussing his own acting ability, said that he'd get a script and after reading it, often know that the studio wanted Cooper and couldn't get him, and he was their second choice. I doubt that, but here we get to judge the two actors in the same role as "The Virginian" 17 years apart. The two films are practically the same even down to the visual and audio cues - Trampas dressed in all black, the bird call that is synonymous with affable but ultimately tragically lazy Steve, etc. The one thing they didn't do that would have looked just plain silly by 1946 standards is dress McCrea in all white as the good guy, which they did with Cooper as the hero in 1929. I think I prefer Mary Brian as Molly in the 1929 version versus Barbara Britton in this version. Mary Brian played Molly as a strong smart woman, but a woman of New England, unfamiliar and puzzled by the ways of the west. Here Ms. Britton plays Molly as a bit of a befuddled weakling, easily evoked to tears. No befuddled weakling would travel across the continent to teach school in a wilderness. If you've never seen the 1929 version, you'll probably like this one. If you like Joel McCrea I'm almost sure you'll like it, but if you've seen the early sound version the ghost of that early sound marvel is likely to raise its specter more than a couple of times as you watch it.

Owen Wister, himself, is fascinating to me. The movie version of his book doesn't include the rather excellent banter between the schoolmarm and the hero, nor does it include the evidence of growth and maturity in the early antics of the hero and his friend, Lin. What great fun they had before falling for the schoolmarm. You have to read to get that.Molly appears a bit ditsy in the '46 version and a bit underdeveloped in the book. Thank goodness for the remake with Bill Pullman and Diane Lane. Molly seems to have more depth with Lane playing the role.The '46 version is great, the '99 version is great, but I hope you get to see both to fill in the gaps each seems to have.Its a great plot, fabulous development of romance, and the ending is intense (more so in the '99 version though).