Stars in my Crown - 1950
- Type:
- Video > Movies
- Files:
- 1
- Size:
- 728.05 MB
- Info:
- IMDB
- Spoken language(s):
- English
- Tag(s):
- drama western
- Quality:
- +0 / -0 (0)
- Uploaded:
- Jun 12, 2010
- By:
- DogNo7
Civil War veteran Josiah Grey comes to a small town to be a gospel minister. In time he has a family and many friends, but he also finds friction with a few of his parishioners. A young doctor grates at what he feels is the parson's interference in the scientific treatment of patients, and a mine owner resents Grey's protection of an old sharecropper whose small plot of land stands in the way of his continued mining. Grey must face a public health crisis and a lynch mob as a result, all seen and described through the eyes and memory of Grey's young nephew John.
I wouldn't call this a classic but it is a fine picture and a small forgotten gem. Probably because he did so many westerns the last 15 years of his career, McCrea's comic talents (which shine films in like "The More the Merrier") have been largely forgotten. This film, released in 1950, presents him in transition from earlier roles to the western parts he's play from here on. In the hands of lesser actors and a director less committed to the material than Jacques Tourneur, this film would insufferably hokey, but the sincerity of all involved prevents that. It's interesting to see Alan Hale here (in his last film role), Lewis Stone (also in one of his), a very young Dean Stockwell, Broadway dancer James Mitchell in a dramatic role and the splendid Juano Hernandez, who has a fairly substantial role for a black actor at this time. Warner Archive finally released this in the spring of 2011. I don't know it this from that or from the Turner Classic airing that has been on line for a couple years.
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