The Shepherd of the Hills (film)
7.2 /10 1 Votes
Director Henry Hathaway Adapted from The Shepherd of the Hills Duration Language English | 7/10 IMDb Genre Adventure, Drama, Western Music director Gerard Carbonara Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date July 18, 1941 (1941-07-18) Based on A novel
by Harold Bell Wright Writer Harold Bell Wright (novel), Grover Jones (screenplay), Stuart Anthony (screenplay) Cast John Wayne (Young Matt), Ward Bond (Wash Gibbs), Betty Field (Sammy Lane), Harry Carey (Daniel Howitt), Beulah Bondi (Aunt Mollie), James Barton (Old Matt)Similar movies Related Henry Hathaway movies Tagline Wayne's first film in color (Technicolor). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Shepherd of the Hills is a 1941 American drama film starring John Wayne, Betty Field and Harry Carey. The supporting cast includes Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Marjorie Main and John Qualen. The picture was Wayne's first film in Technicolor and was based on the novel of the same name by Harold Bell Wright. The director was Henry Hathaway, who directed several other Wayne films including True Grit almost three decades later.
Contents
The story was filmed previously in the silent era by author Wright himself in 1919, released on State Rights basis. It was filmed again, in 1928, at First National Pictures.
Cast
Differences from the novel
While the novel interposed fiction with portrayals of actual persons residing in the Missouri Ozarks, in the early Branson area, the film departed markedly from the book's presentations. Old Matt, a patriarch, mill owner and influential person within the community, is presented in the film as a doddering fool, henpecked by his wife, Aunt Mollie. In the novel she's a nurturing, kindly, loyal wife and friend, but in this film she is a shrill, nasty moonshiner. The "Shepherd" of the title, a cultured, sympathetic visitor from Chicago who contributes positively to the society he's visiting, in this film is an aging gunfighter with a guarded past and, in total odds with the book, is here Young Matt's (John Wayne's) father, with a shootout perpetrated by "Big John." Other characters differ as markedly from Wright's novel.
References
The Shepherd of the Hills (film) WikipediaThe Shepherd of the Hills (film) IMDb The Shepherd of the Hills (film) themoviedb.org