Yellow Sky
Yellow Sky
NR | 24 December 1948 (USA)
Yellow Sky Trailers

In 1867, a gang led by James "Stretch" Dawson robs a bank and flees into the desert. Out of water, the outlaws come upon a ghost town called Yellow Sky and its only residents, a hostile young woman named Mike and her grandpa. The story is a Western adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest".

Reviews
Cebalord

Very best movie i ever watch

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GurlyIamBeach

Instant Favorite.

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MamaGravity

good back-story, and good acting

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Lumsdal

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

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arthur_tafero

Yellow Sky is a solid Western. It has a good cast, great production values, and memorable music. The director, Wellman, was better known for the horror genre; and in a way, this film suited him, because there was a bit of horror in it.We meet a hardened bunch of bankrobbers trying to make their getaway across some terrible desert. If they survive that, they have to worry about Apaches. But the real thing they have to worry about is greed. Memories of The Treasure of Sierra Madre could not help but creep in during the film; another tale of the lust for gold.The real moral problem of the film is that we are asked to believe that a young woman, who is sexually assaulted, and a grandfather who is shot, and robbed of half of his life savings are supposed to be grateful to the leader of the band that that attempts these deeds. The film is a lot of fun to watch, but if you actually think about what is transpiring, you have to ask yourself, is the moral premise of the film acceptable? It wasn't for me; and I am not exactly a holy roller. But to each his own. Enjoy the great filmmaking.

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jadzia92

I discovered Yellow Sky after watching the remake The Jackals. I was therefore unaware that The Jackals was a remake of Yellow Sky. On its own merit Yellow Sky is a very enjoyable Western even though I had recently seen the same story before in The Jackals. Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter makes for great leads of Yellow Sky. Richard Widmark also makes for a great antagonist of this movie and on-screen Peck and Widmark suits well together as adversaries. The standoff towards the end of the movie has been well played out. All this cap off well by a light hearted final scene.

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weezeralfalfa

My review title sums up the final conflict between the plans of fellow outlaw gang members Dude(Widmark) and Stretch(Peck) in regard to the bags of gold dust that Grandpa and wildcat gunslinger granddaughter Mike have been saving up for many years. Actually, I'm only assuming , from the friendly gathering on horses in the last scene, that Stretch, and probably his partners Half Pint and Walrus, have made amends with grandpa and Mike, and have decided to stay and participate in the hard rock mining of probably a moderate amount of gold near this otherwise ghost town of Yellow Sky. Also, I'm assuming that Stretch and Mike will probably get 'hitched'.At it's peak, this outlaw gang boasted 7 men. One was shot dead by the cavalry that chased these bank robbers to the edge of a vast salt flats, hemmed in by a high mountain range on either side(filmed in Death Valley). The commander remarked that if they tried to cross this waterless hellishly hot flats and then sand dunes, that would save the justice system the trouble of hanging them. He was very nearly correct in this assessment. The men and their horses were near death when they chanced upon Yellow Sky at the far edge. At first, they assumed there was no water in this apparent ghost town. But soon, a tough-talking , rifle-totting, young woman(Mike) decided to show them a spring. This decision would come to haunt her, as soon Dude, who was jockeying with Stretch for leadership of the gang, correctly guessed that the two were surviving here by finding some gold. After a powwow with the two, Stretch offers a deal. The gang would split the gold 50-50 with the two. Grandpa decided to accept this deal as the best way out, despite Mike's objection. But, the outlaws had to dig through the rubble of a collapsing mine shaft to get to it. After finding it, the outlaws disagreed as to whether to take it all or stick to their bargain. Only Stretch voted for the latter. A shootout ensued, with Mike eventually joining Stretch. Later, Dude decides he will try to run off alone with all the booty. When the others find out about this, Half Pint and Walrus switch sides, and the others try to kill Dude before he disappears. You can more or less guess how things turn out from then. Just before the final scene, there is a rather humorous scene where Stretch, Half Pint and Walrus enter the bank they robbed, pull out their guns, and return all the money they stole(presumably using some of the gold dust to replace that which had been lost or spent.) I would have included some substantial 'interest' to mitigate any lingering hostility about the robbery. Just before this scene, we have Mike discovering Stretch unconscious and barely breathing, from a bullet wound. Seems like he should have soon died, but obviously she revived him.This B&W film was mostly shot on location in the Alabama Hills , near Lone Pine, CA, which provided the ghost town and lots of big boulders and arches to play hide and seek among. Death Valley provided the extensive salt flat and probably the sand dunes. The name Yellow Sky may be derived from Stephen Cranes story "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky": the latter being a town in frontier Texas.Death Valley also provided the extensive salt flats and rugged country seen in the Technicolor John Ford western "3 Godfathers", starring John Wayne, also released in '48. Again, it's a tale of an unlikely opportunity for redemption, after a small gang of bank robbers ride onto the salt flats to escape a posse, and die or nearly so before reaching help.Veteran vaudevillian and actor James Barton made an excellent 'Grandpa', with 'Santa' charisma. Otherwise, I've seen him in a few musicals. John Russell, as horny badman Lengthy, went on to star in some TV serials, including "Lawman". Charles Kemper, as rotund Walrus, often played a sheriff in westerns. But I most remember him as the head of the sinister Clegg gang in "Wagon Master". Anne Baxter makes a convincing tomboy wildcat, knocking Stretch off his feet with a punch, after he grabbed her rifle. Widmark is OK as the wannabe leader of the pack, often at odds with Stretch. In contrast to the others, he seems to know this country intimately. Stretch is from the frontier Midwest, where he has participated in pre and actual Civil War violence. What about the character of Stretch? When it comes to protecting the virtue of the leading lady, he's clearly a hypocrite. He emphasized that the gang, including him, should not mess with her. Yet, on the sly, he grabs her, rolls around with her, lands on top of her, extracting a couple of hard kisses before she brushes him off as "stinking worse than Apaches", and grazes his head with a bullet for good measure. Eventually, she becomes accepting of his advances. In contrast, handsome Lengthy wears his horniness on his sleeve, beginning with that revealing cartoon on the saloon wall,Viewable on YouTube, at present

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Alex da Silva

Gregory Peck (Stretch) leads his band of outlaws to rob a town before being forced to take exile through the desert until they come upon the ghost town of Yellow Sky. Here they come across Anne Baxter (Mike) and her grandfather James Barton (Grandpa). The gang soon work out that these two have a fortune. Greed takes over.The film is a slight let-down in the action and tension department. Peck and Baxter are the best of the cast while outlaw Richard Widmark (Dude) is wasted. His character seems to be half missing and just about sparks into some kind of interest right at the end of the film. Too late – we don't connect with him anymore because he has been so boring and disappointing up to that point. Fellow outlaw John Russell (Lengthy) gives more of a performance as an adversary to Peck.It is a well made film and there are some quality moments of dialogue but the film cried out for more action and more involvement from the Apaches. They were sorely missed.

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