21 reviews
Outstanding Color Western
This lesser known Western film features WWII hero Audie Murphy as a young Mountain dweller on the hideout for years with his Dad , played by the great Dean Jagger. As Murphy is forced to confront Horse Thieves and Town crooks, he demonstrates once again that fierce toughness we so often see in all his roles.
The great Burl Ives is terrific as a singing troubadour friend of Murphy. The outdoor cinematography is stunningly beautiful and we are also treated to early screen appearances by young Tony Curtis and James Arness as two rough and tumble bad guys. Lotsa action and cool dialogue.
The storyline is solid, though a little familiar. An enjoyable film and a treat for those fortunate enough to see this rarely shown film !!
The great Burl Ives is terrific as a singing troubadour friend of Murphy. The outdoor cinematography is stunningly beautiful and we are also treated to early screen appearances by young Tony Curtis and James Arness as two rough and tumble bad guys. Lotsa action and cool dialogue.
The storyline is solid, though a little familiar. An enjoyable film and a treat for those fortunate enough to see this rarely shown film !!
Fugitive mustangers
Sierra is an unpretentious little western that paired Mr.&Mrs. Audie Murphy at the time, Audie and his leading lady Wanda Hendrix. Audie is cast in the first of many roles as a callow western youth who was raised by his father Dean Jagger who is a fugitive from the law.
Way back when Jagger was charged with the murder of Sara Allgood's husband and fled to the high Sierra country where he raised his son and now both make a living catching young wild mustangs of which there are plentiful in the Sierra foothills.
Hendrix is a rarity for the time, a female attorney who might gain acceptance back east, but in the rough and testosterone driven west is finding it hard to get clients. Audie and Dean might be the way to break into the man's world of the court, but both them are fighting their own sexist nature and don't take her advice.
There's a nice part in Sierra for Richard Robert who would die two years later in an automobile crash cutting short a promising career as a film villain. Tony Curtis has a small role as the son of another fugitive whose family teams up with Murphy and Jagger.
In his memoirs Tony Curtis says that soon afterward the tempestuous two year marriage of Murphy and Hendrix broke up. He tried to date Hendrix but Murphy was a jealous man with a bad case of post traumatic stress courtesy of the late World War and all the action where Audie Murphy became our most decorated soldier. Curtis describes himself as young and stupid and thinking not with his brain. He made it a point to avoid Audie for years afterward.
Best of all is Burl Ives, a hermit who lives close to Murphy and Jagger and who has some nice ballads to sing in Sierra.
Sierra is a nice western, made better with Burl Ives and his singing.
Way back when Jagger was charged with the murder of Sara Allgood's husband and fled to the high Sierra country where he raised his son and now both make a living catching young wild mustangs of which there are plentiful in the Sierra foothills.
Hendrix is a rarity for the time, a female attorney who might gain acceptance back east, but in the rough and testosterone driven west is finding it hard to get clients. Audie and Dean might be the way to break into the man's world of the court, but both them are fighting their own sexist nature and don't take her advice.
There's a nice part in Sierra for Richard Robert who would die two years later in an automobile crash cutting short a promising career as a film villain. Tony Curtis has a small role as the son of another fugitive whose family teams up with Murphy and Jagger.
In his memoirs Tony Curtis says that soon afterward the tempestuous two year marriage of Murphy and Hendrix broke up. He tried to date Hendrix but Murphy was a jealous man with a bad case of post traumatic stress courtesy of the late World War and all the action where Audie Murphy became our most decorated soldier. Curtis describes himself as young and stupid and thinking not with his brain. He made it a point to avoid Audie for years afterward.
Best of all is Burl Ives, a hermit who lives close to Murphy and Jagger and who has some nice ballads to sing in Sierra.
Sierra is a nice western, made better with Burl Ives and his singing.
- bkoganbing
- Nov 11, 2015
- Permalink
It will be like bedding down in a nest of rattlers!
Sierra is directed by Alfred E. Green and adapted to screenplay by Edna Anhalt from the novel "Mountains Are My Kingdom" written by Stuart Hardy. It stars Audie Murphy, Wanda Hendrix, Burl Ives, Dean Jagger and Richard Rober. Music is by Walter Scharf and the Technicolor cinematography is by Russell Metty.
1950 is right at the beginning of Audie Murphy's film career and it's a big indicator of where his genre staples were laid. Of the three Westerns he made in 1950, Sierra is the weakest, but even then it's above average and shows enough of why Murphy was such an engaging star to his fans.
Plot has Murphy and Jagger as a Son and Father living in the mountains due to Pops being on the run from the law. They survive by trapping and breaking wild horses and then use Burl Ives' prospecting troubadour type as an intermediate salesman. One day a lost lawyer from town in the form of Hendrix gets involved in the lives of the mountain duo, where a series of events then lead to Murphy having to go into town and from there things become dangerously interesting for all involved.
The location photography is outstanding, with Metty bringing visual joys from Cedar City and Cedar Breaks in Utah. The costuming (Yvonne Wood) is top draw, and how nice to see Ives in a jolly role where he warbles and strums at various junctures in the play. Murphy and Hendrix have the chemistry, even though their ill fated marriage would end this same year, and the legal axis of the narrative (intriguing court sequences with Hendrix as the defence) adds some thought into proceedings.
Unfortunately for action junkies this is not the one for you, there's some nifty horse play and stampedes, and of course some macho posturing in sync, but it's with the smart story (greenhorn young man meets city life for the first time/lady lawyer trying to make it in the male dominated West) where the pic gets its strength. In the support slots you find Tony Curtis (billed as Anthony) and James Arness, who add a bit of colour to an already lively frontline cast. 6/10
1950 is right at the beginning of Audie Murphy's film career and it's a big indicator of where his genre staples were laid. Of the three Westerns he made in 1950, Sierra is the weakest, but even then it's above average and shows enough of why Murphy was such an engaging star to his fans.
Plot has Murphy and Jagger as a Son and Father living in the mountains due to Pops being on the run from the law. They survive by trapping and breaking wild horses and then use Burl Ives' prospecting troubadour type as an intermediate salesman. One day a lost lawyer from town in the form of Hendrix gets involved in the lives of the mountain duo, where a series of events then lead to Murphy having to go into town and from there things become dangerously interesting for all involved.
The location photography is outstanding, with Metty bringing visual joys from Cedar City and Cedar Breaks in Utah. The costuming (Yvonne Wood) is top draw, and how nice to see Ives in a jolly role where he warbles and strums at various junctures in the play. Murphy and Hendrix have the chemistry, even though their ill fated marriage would end this same year, and the legal axis of the narrative (intriguing court sequences with Hendrix as the defence) adds some thought into proceedings.
Unfortunately for action junkies this is not the one for you, there's some nifty horse play and stampedes, and of course some macho posturing in sync, but it's with the smart story (greenhorn young man meets city life for the first time/lady lawyer trying to make it in the male dominated West) where the pic gets its strength. In the support slots you find Tony Curtis (billed as Anthony) and James Arness, who add a bit of colour to an already lively frontline cast. 6/10
- hitchcockthelegend
- Sep 9, 2019
- Permalink
An Early Murphy Western
Until they take in a fugitive girl, a father and son hide out in the mountains to elude a bogus murder charge.
Pretty good Murphy western, one of his earliest. When you think about it, his transition from Texas sharecropper to WW II hero to Hollywood actor is remarkable. True, it was hard for him to loosen up on screen, still he delivered his lines well enough, while nobody could do a hard-eyed stare better.
Here Murphy does well enough, carrying most of the movie. The role of a hard eyed loner (Ring Hassard) appears tailor made for him. At the same time, diminutive, girlish Hendrix (Riley) manages her courtroom lawyer sequence in pretty convincing fashion. Ironic to think the two were married at the time, but in the process of getting divorced. So there's something poignant about their riding into the sunset at movie's end.
Universal popped for a pretty big budget, unlike many of Murphy's later westerns. The red rock Kanab (Utah) locations are really eye-catching. Then too, those wild horse herds are anything but skimpy. And nobody could strum a guitar more soothingly than the rotund Burl Ives. Together they add a lot of color and mood to the dramatics. At the same time, there's not much gunplay, yet quite a bit of suspense to the rather complex story.
All in all, it's a picturesque, entertaining Murphy western.
Pretty good Murphy western, one of his earliest. When you think about it, his transition from Texas sharecropper to WW II hero to Hollywood actor is remarkable. True, it was hard for him to loosen up on screen, still he delivered his lines well enough, while nobody could do a hard-eyed stare better.
Here Murphy does well enough, carrying most of the movie. The role of a hard eyed loner (Ring Hassard) appears tailor made for him. At the same time, diminutive, girlish Hendrix (Riley) manages her courtroom lawyer sequence in pretty convincing fashion. Ironic to think the two were married at the time, but in the process of getting divorced. So there's something poignant about their riding into the sunset at movie's end.
Universal popped for a pretty big budget, unlike many of Murphy's later westerns. The red rock Kanab (Utah) locations are really eye-catching. Then too, those wild horse herds are anything but skimpy. And nobody could strum a guitar more soothingly than the rotund Burl Ives. Together they add a lot of color and mood to the dramatics. At the same time, there's not much gunplay, yet quite a bit of suspense to the rather complex story.
All in all, it's a picturesque, entertaining Murphy western.
- dougdoepke
- Apr 18, 2013
- Permalink
" Audie And Wanda In Sierra "
- PamelaShort
- Nov 1, 2013
- Permalink
Hassard County
Handsomely photographed on location under blue Technicolor skies by Russell Metty shortly before he brought high contrast gloss to his work with Douglas Sirk. The presence of Burl Ives sauntering in and out of the action (occasionally resembling Sancho Panza straddling a mule) singing and strumming a guitar marks this out as a piece of Americana rather than a conventional Audie Murphy western. Centre stage are baby-faced newlyweds Murphy and Wanda Hendrix (both of whom died young), while sixth-billed 'Anthony' Curtis gets a few lines but no close-ups.
- richardchatten
- Mar 15, 2021
- Permalink
MURPHY & DAD COME OUT OF HIDING...!
An Audie Murphy Western from 1950. A woman (Wanda Hendrix) gets lost in the mountains & found by Murphy who escorts her back to his cabin blindfolded which he shares w/his father (Dean Jagger). It turns out Jagger was accused of murder years before & rather than face an unjust punishment, he hightailed into the hills w/Murphy where they ply their trade as bronco busters as they scoop up mustangs from the wild. During a taming session, Jagger gets hurt prompting Murphy & Hendrix (who was bitten by a snake) to go into town (using an alias so he can keep his identity safe) for medical help. Returning to the cabin, Murphy comes across some rustlers w/his wares who give him a beat-down setting up a final confrontation where Murphy (now running w/other accused desperadoes which include Tony Curtis) & the villains vie for a large passel of mustangs. Running a scant 90 minutes (typical of Murphy fare), this film suffers from a surfeit of back story & incident which is given short shrift but as a time filler it gets the job done. Burl Ives (most people will know him as the narrator of the perennial Christmas classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) plays Murphy's town contact & gets ample opportunity to get his song on.
If I could find this movie on VHS, I would buy it if reasonable.
This is not one of Audie Murphy's better known movies. In fact, hardly anyone has heard of it. I saw it once many years ago, and fell in love with it. I really enjoyed Burl Ives performance also. I have wanted a copy of this movie for my colldection for a long time.
Solid Murphy film with great supporting cast
I'm always fascinated by a movie star's early work and even more so with Audie Murphy because this was just 5 years after his heroics in WWII. It's amazing to think how much transition this young man went through in only a handful of years. Murphy is a natural fit for Westerns with his quiet manner and brooding looks. Sierra is not often shown on television, but if you have the chance to catch it, you won't be disappointed. I'd say watch for Burl Ives alone, because his voice was timeless. Such beautiful simple little Western melodies are peppered throughout the film. What's also unique about Sierra is that Murphy is costarred by his then-wife Wanda Hendrix. Their marriage didn't last long, but their chemistry is very obvious. And keep your eyes peeled for a young Anthony "Tony" Curtis as a Coulter gang member.
- fleurfairy
- Oct 2, 2011
- Permalink
Baby Face Audie in an Early Western!
- bsmith5552
- Mar 11, 2019
- Permalink
"watch my make up"!
And sadly, despite a great write up, it didnt, for this household, at least, get any better. A young woman riding alone in them there hills comes across a young man, shes lost and he takes her home, without any change of clothing and no make up bag the next few scenes her lipstick is bright RED!. Then, to add a spot of light relief Burl Ives turns up singing. In the final few minutes the truth does come out that "dad" didnt shoot a chap in the back 15 years earlier. Theres a whole load of dialogue, lots of chasing after the horses, some good photography, but not much of a script, even the presence of Curtis and Arness dont improve things. You wont miss much if you choose to watch this - i caught it on a rainy day when I had hoped for a better movie!
- davyd-02237
- Dec 20, 2020
- Permalink
Audie Murphy Defiant
Audie Murphy and his aging, fugitive father Dean Jagger, live deep in the mountains, away from trouble. A chance encounter with lost lady lawyer Wanda Hendrix and a serious injury to Jagger sends Audie to town for the first time since he was a small boy, where he finds trouble with the law.
Striking locations, good photography, and a well-plotted story combine to make a fairly entertaining movie. Action scenes are handled quite nicely as well, especially the climax, involving a stampeding of hundreds of horses, back and forth between the good guys and the bad! The only problem with the movie is that the ending (satisfying as it was) is just a little too convenient.
An interesting cast includes Burl Ives as a singing mountain man and early performances from Tony Curtis and James Arness as brothers and part of an outlaw family hiding on Audie and Jagger's mountain
Meanwhile, Audie plays pretty much the same type of character you always see (and love to see) him playing, that of a young, angry, brooding, misunderstood young man, real-life traits, shaped by his service in World War II, that Hollywood seized upon and interestingly enough, inspired writer David Morrell to create the character of Rambo, a piece of trivia that makes seeing Audie elude a posse in the mountains all the more interesting.
Striking locations, good photography, and a well-plotted story combine to make a fairly entertaining movie. Action scenes are handled quite nicely as well, especially the climax, involving a stampeding of hundreds of horses, back and forth between the good guys and the bad! The only problem with the movie is that the ending (satisfying as it was) is just a little too convenient.
An interesting cast includes Burl Ives as a singing mountain man and early performances from Tony Curtis and James Arness as brothers and part of an outlaw family hiding on Audie and Jagger's mountain
Meanwhile, Audie plays pretty much the same type of character you always see (and love to see) him playing, that of a young, angry, brooding, misunderstood young man, real-life traits, shaped by his service in World War II, that Hollywood seized upon and interestingly enough, inspired writer David Morrell to create the character of Rambo, a piece of trivia that makes seeing Audie elude a posse in the mountains all the more interesting.
- FightingWesterner
- May 25, 2014
- Permalink
2 out of 5 action rating
Skip it – While this ranks among Audie Murphy's best westerns, it's far from spectacular. The plot, however, is unique. It is the story of an innocent young man who was raised in the mountains by his outlaw father. When his father gets injured, he is forced to go for help, and in doing so enters society for the first time. The naïve young man gets in to trouble, and it doesn't help matters any when the townspeople find out his true identity. While the plot is original enough, nothing else really stands out about this film. It co-stars a very young Tony Curtis and a very old Burl Ives, who starts getting annoying after he sings his fourth song. There is not very much action, and there are twice as many songs as gunfights. 2 action rating
A B picture improved by Mr. Ives.
This film for the first half wanders as slow as Burl's mule. Your introduced to Hendrix character a woman lawyer lost in the Sierras while taking a shot a Murphy while passing a horse, she's apparently lost with no dirt, smudged make up or a hair out of place. Murphy and his Dad are hiding in the Mountains for a murder charge. The story begins to improve when Hendrix is digging to find the Hazards back story of the murder. The ending is decent albeit predictable. The singing Ives added a bit of light charm while balladeering on the back of his mule Sara. I have seen better westerns but it's not terrible either. 2/5.
- dieseldemon85
- Jun 29, 2023
- Permalink
Russell Metty
This early Audie Murphy western for Universal has Murphy as the feral son of Dean Jagger, a man "everyone knows" committed murder and then fled. No one believes in his innocence except for lawyer Wanda Hendrix (they were married at the time, but broke up soon after production ended).
Directed by Alfred Green, this movie is a master class in Technicolor camerawork by DP Russell Metty. The opening sequence in Cedar Breaks National Monument looks like an oil painting; the night scenes look like Rembrandt, and the entire movie has the rich, black undertoning that disappeared from the Technicolor lexicon soon after. Metty's reputation as an artist with the camera would continue to rise until he won an Oscar for SPARTACUS; his later work was mostly on undistinguished movies and distinguished TV specials. He died in 1978 at the age of 71.
There is quite a supporting cast, including Burl Ives -- who sings a few songs -- Tony Curtis, Sarah Allgood and James Arness. Mostly, though, I just enjoyed Metty's work.
Directed by Alfred Green, this movie is a master class in Technicolor camerawork by DP Russell Metty. The opening sequence in Cedar Breaks National Monument looks like an oil painting; the night scenes look like Rembrandt, and the entire movie has the rich, black undertoning that disappeared from the Technicolor lexicon soon after. Metty's reputation as an artist with the camera would continue to rise until he won an Oscar for SPARTACUS; his later work was mostly on undistinguished movies and distinguished TV specials. He died in 1978 at the age of 71.
There is quite a supporting cast, including Burl Ives -- who sings a few songs -- Tony Curtis, Sarah Allgood and James Arness. Mostly, though, I just enjoyed Metty's work.
A Lame Horse Opera with Audie Murphy
An average Audie Murphy western with Burl Ives' music
It has been a number of years since I have seen this film, but it contained a number of songs by Burl Ives I have never heard elsewhere. For me Burl Ives' music made an average film quite memorable. I would really like to buy a DVD, or even a VHS of it.
The first concert I ever attended was a Burl Ives concert in Ames Iowa about 1958. the last was one of his last, in Lubbock Texas, about a year before his death.
- gsmith-22151
- Feb 4, 2019
- Permalink
5 stars just for trying
Like I have said before in my previous reviews of westerns, I always wonder why directors don't try to be a little more realistic in their films. Example - chaps are worn as an extra layer of protection for a riders legs, both on and off a horse. Made of leather, they can be heavy and not particularly comfortable to wear walking around. Yet the hero in this movie NEVER takes them off. Even in the cabin at night having dinner by the fire. Terrible costuming, right along with the standard 50's trip to the studio wardrobe warehouse for all the other actor's "cowboy" outfits. And here's a thought. These had to be the bravest men in the west who thought nothing of charging, without hesitation, right into the middle of a gun fight with real bullets flying all around their heads. Brave, but not particularly smart, or again, realistic.
- gordonb-59587
- Dec 30, 2019
- Permalink
Another Audie Murphy early western
The same comment that I have previously made about GUNSMOKE. Audie Murphy was really young, not even chubby. It is also a pretty good little western, made by a Hollywood veteran Alfred Green, who was not that used to western, prefering dramas, musicals, light hearted comedies, and this since the mid 1910's...He also gave us INVASION USA, a couple of years after this western, an anti red war film. So here, watch it as a time waster, agreeable, colorful but without any surprise. Universal studios were a good grade B western provider; and I mean B, not Z, not one hour movies. The later Murphy's films will be directed by Nathan Juran, Jesse Hibbs, George Sherman. Not Alfred Green.
- searchanddestroy-1
- Nov 27, 2022
- Permalink
Bad Story, mediocre acting = not quite a B Western!
Audie Murphy would make better movies down the traiL. Your time would be better spent Night Passage.
Historical Interest More Than Anything!
This is ALMOST a western with a difference, but it just never really crosses that undefined line to enable it to really stand out amongst your typical 50's B grade oaters.
It has the sketchings of an interesting plot, great location cinematography in Utah and plenty of horseflesh on show. (I especially admired the piebald horse that Audie Murphy got to ride around.)
Unusually, there is very little gun-play in the movie. In fact I don't think any character is ever shot and killed during the entire film. Mind you that didn't stop me gasping in mock amazement, when a character is shot in the arm to save them (LOL!) from snakebite!
Wanda Hendrix's character had the chance to feature strongly as an independent woman carving out a legal career in the Wild West. But the script never allows a full exploration of the concept and she essentially ends up, as another typical damsel in distress, content to sink into the arms of Audie Murphy's Ring Hassard, seeking salvation from various encountered dangers.
Burl Ives's Lonesome is a welcome character to the story ... except when he continually breaks into song, or is seen singing and playing guitar, whilst riding his mule through the mountains! Such (fairly frequent) episodes dissipate any real sense of building drama in the story. Things reach their most absurd in this regard when Lonesome sings a compliant sheriff asleep, facilitating a jail break!
The characters themselves are pretty bland in what ends up being a rather routine affair. Murphy himself doesn't speak that much in the first act of this, his fifth film. We don't see enough of Dean Jagger's Jeff for him to make much impact. The villains are a pretty nondescript, non-threatening mob, when they raise their heads. However I did appreciate seeing "Anthony" Curtis and James Arness get an opportunity to show their respective spurs in fairly minor support roles in the second half of the movie.
It has the sketchings of an interesting plot, great location cinematography in Utah and plenty of horseflesh on show. (I especially admired the piebald horse that Audie Murphy got to ride around.)
Unusually, there is very little gun-play in the movie. In fact I don't think any character is ever shot and killed during the entire film. Mind you that didn't stop me gasping in mock amazement, when a character is shot in the arm to save them (LOL!) from snakebite!
Wanda Hendrix's character had the chance to feature strongly as an independent woman carving out a legal career in the Wild West. But the script never allows a full exploration of the concept and she essentially ends up, as another typical damsel in distress, content to sink into the arms of Audie Murphy's Ring Hassard, seeking salvation from various encountered dangers.
Burl Ives's Lonesome is a welcome character to the story ... except when he continually breaks into song, or is seen singing and playing guitar, whilst riding his mule through the mountains! Such (fairly frequent) episodes dissipate any real sense of building drama in the story. Things reach their most absurd in this regard when Lonesome sings a compliant sheriff asleep, facilitating a jail break!
The characters themselves are pretty bland in what ends up being a rather routine affair. Murphy himself doesn't speak that much in the first act of this, his fifth film. We don't see enough of Dean Jagger's Jeff for him to make much impact. The villains are a pretty nondescript, non-threatening mob, when they raise their heads. However I did appreciate seeing "Anthony" Curtis and James Arness get an opportunity to show their respective spurs in fairly minor support roles in the second half of the movie.
- spookyrat1
- Dec 21, 2018
- Permalink