VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Michael Morrison Despite having everything in its favor, "The Sundowners," with great cast, good story, gorgeous scenery, is still slow and tame.No tension is ever present. I think how it will finally end is obvious rather early, but you will want to see it through, if only to test your judgment.Robert Sterling, a good-looking and talented actor, is not someone I had associated with Westerns, but he rides like a cowboy and seems absolutely real.Robert Preston has done everything, and I mean everything: He is probably still best known for "Professor Harold Hill" in "The Music Man" but he also was the wagon master in "How the West Was Won," and seemed right at home brandishing a whip and heading 'em up.Chill Wills can't do much wrong. (The ad campaign for him to win an Oscar for his role in "The Alamo" was a major exception, but maybe we can't blame him for that.) His character here is an example of great writing and he, as always, pulls it off perfectly.Cathy Downs is probably best known for the title role in the moronically a-historical "My Darling Clementine" (it is one my most disliked pieces of history twisting on film), and she died terribly young, 26 years after this film. She was a lovely and capable actress, and her character too was different and an example of good writing.Her character was the wife of the one played by Jack Elam, who had a different role for him. You might want to watch "The Sundowners" just to see Jack Elam in this unusual part, and to see how talented an actor he was.John Litel was a veteran performer, and always so believable, whether on horseback or as Thomas Jefferson or as the boss of the Secret Service. He is one of my favorite character actors -- which means one of my favorite actors.That writing, by the way, was by veteran Alan LeMay (known here as Alan Le May), perhaps best known for "The Searchers."God bless 'em, but Westerns on the Web has this available at YouTube and you should be quick to grab a chance to watch. At no time will you be on the edge of your seat, but you will admire the more than capable cast especially against some of the best scenery Texas has.

lost-in-limbo The Cloud brothers Tom and Jeff are in a mini war with some neighbouring ranchers who are stealing their cattle and want that land that they own. In these confrontations one of their ranch guys is found dead. Not too long James Cloud ('Kid Wichita') makes his way into the picture to help his brothers out on this outcome. Kid Wichita goes to any lengths to make sure that those neighbours pay back their interest. This means going out at night and herding their cattle to cover the costs, but there's more going on than that here. This situation gets more complicated when killing becomes apart of it and Tom can see his younger brother Jeff is turning out like Wichita and he doesn't see eye to eye to that. Realising now that he made a mistake by letting Wichita become apart of it, he must turn him into the law, alive or dead. Pretty much a typical Hollywood western that seems to have put a lot effort into the production side of things (especially the Technicolor), but the story and pacing seems to be stuck in first gear throughout most of the picture. It's mostly a melodramatic and slow moving story that is rather chatty but still engaging no matter what. This is because the tough cowboy dialog between them is incredibly taut and that thrives throughout. That kind of makes up for sparse action and tension, but the momentum does picks up in the last 15 minutes with a revelation, which you have already guessed and a climatic showdown in the caverns. This is where the best moments occur. The shootout between the Cloud brothers and some rustlers up in the rocky terrains with its classic cowboy banter is fairly well staged. Like some reviewer has mentioned that really goes to the whip crazy incident. But after all of that you'll be expecting uplifting showdown between the brothers after the biting conflict amongst them earlier on, but sadly it all ends in a small whimper. Being shot location also gives it a bit more credit. The Texas landscape helps for a nice backdrop, which makes for an easier viewing then actually just being made on sets. It one of the draw cards to make sure you keep on watching, that's for sure. Though saying that I was squinting to make out what's happening in those damn impossible moments in the dark. Some sequences felt liked they were chucked in without any thought, but that could be because of the editing. The editing was rather sharp and maybe too sharp, as some things were left open in the story with no much detail about certain scenarios that come to be. While the score was a bit over-bearing at times. But that's no real biggie. The characters in the film are well established and the performances are reasonably sound by the second-rate cast. Robert Preston as 'Kid Wichita' is the one and only enlightened character in the film. He spent most of the time amusing himself by making fun out of people he knew wouldn't fight back, well that changes. Robert Sterling as the flat Tom pales in comparison to the lively Preston and John Drew Barrymore as the younger Jeff wasn't too bad even if his performance was quite raw. Also Cathy Downs, John Litel and Jack Elam are decent in their roles.A western that provides the usual set-up and clichés, but still mildly amusing and has a bit of style to burn.

westerner357 I was kind of surprised that a low budget studio like Eagle-Lion would actually fork out the cost of Technicolor film (expensive) and on-location filming in Texas (also expensive) for what is essentially an A- (minus) western. An A- western being something that had more money spent on it than a B western, but lacks the star power an "A western" would usually carry. It's not bad although the plot seems a little disjointed at times. It could be because of what an earlier reviewer had said about the studio atrociously editing down the running time of the film, even after all the money they seemed to have spent on it.Robert Sterling and his "Younger Brother" (played by the recently departed John Drew Barrymore) are caught between competing ranch interests (led by John Litel) who want to lay claim to his land. The sheriff (Litel's son, played by Don Haggerty) even goes so far as to have one of Sterling's ranch hands killed. In walks Sterling's long lost brother, "Kid Wichita" (Robert Preston) who decides to do a little killing for his brother on his own. Sterling even weirdly agrees to it at first but then sees it getting out of hand and decides he has to kill his brother.There is one memorable scene of Preston being whipped by one of Litel's men as he hides under a rock outcropping, then he grabs the end of the whip and the man tumbles over the ledge to his death, but otherwise this is fairly dreary stuff. Even near the end where Sterling confronts Preston in a draw only to have Sterling's ranch hand Sam Beers (Chill Wills) shoot Preston from the side, seems anti-climatic. It's as if everyone was sleepwalking through their parts, except for Chill Wills and the young Barrymore, who spends most of his time grimacing at the camera, making faces like he's trying to act too hard. But hell, he was only 18 at the time and it was his first film so I guess that's understandable.Also notable for as an early role for Jack Elam as Earl Boyce, a neighboring rancher that Preston guns down in his own house, and Cathy Downs plays Elam's wife who may (or may not) have a thing for Sterling. That love interest looks like one of the things edited out of this film.The Texas scenery is more interesting than the film itself and gives the viewer a break from the usual California locations that we've seen a thousand times before. VCI used a pretty good print for their DVD with minor blemishes and scratches. Considering the film stock's age, it looks in pretty good shape.Worth a look. I'd give it a 5½ out of 10.

bobsluckycat This was an exceptional western in it's day. Filmed on location, in Technicolor no less, with top B-list stars Robert Sterling, the bland good-guy type and Robert Preston, the evil bad-man brother with good support by Cathy Downs, John Barrymore Jr., Chill Wills, John Litel among others including Jack Elam. After viewing this again after a long while, it's obvious that the more "adult" aspects of the story were eliminated or toned down so drastically that the drama was just too tame by todays' standards, but they had the "Code" in those days. It also appears as if the studio (Eagle-Lion)may have also edited some scenes down to fit a particular running time (approx. 83 minutes). It makes no sense to spend the money they did on this film and then cut it to it's running time. If this film had a couple of the Alan Bates, Susannha York, John Hurt scenes from "The Shout" written into this "re-make" it would be more explosive and make more sense. I would also explore and expand the strong-willed father, weak son sheriff sub-plot a little more. Yes it's watchable still as is, but when we bring back the Western some day, let's re-make this one early on.