|
''The Hallelujah Trail'' is a 1965 American Western mockumentary spoof directed by John Sturges, with top-billed stars Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton and Pamela Tiffin. The film was one of several large-scale widescreen, long-form "epic" comedies produced in the 1960s, much like ''The Great Race'' and ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'', combined with the epic grandeur of the Western genre. Its running time is 2 hours, 45 minutes. The movie is part of a group, which was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and presented in selected theaters via the oversized Super Cinerama process.〔("Old West Lives Again For Capitol Premiere" (''The New York Times'', July 1, 1965, page 35) )〕 Stuntman Bill Williams was killed on November 13, 1964 while performing a stunt involving a wagon going over a cliff.〔("Stunt Man Is Killed / Bill Williams Misjudges Leap In Wagon Scene" (''Reading Eagle'', November 14, 1964, page 5) )〕 The scene was kept in the movie. On October 19, 1968, three years and four months after its release, the film had its television premiere in a three-hour timeslot on ''NBC Saturday Night at the Movies''.〔("Lancaster in Western" (''Schenectady Gazette'' TV section, October 19, 1968, page 18) )〕〔("'Hallelujah Trail' Stars Lancaster, Lee Remick" (''Schenectady Gazette'' TV section, December 6, 1969, page 8) )〕 ==Plot synopsis== In the year 1867, signs that the approaching winter will be a hard one produce agitation in the burgeoning mining town of Denver, as the hard-drinking citizenry fear a shortage of whiskey. Taking advice from Oracle Jones (Donald Pleasence), a local guide and seer (but only when under the influence of alcohol), the populace arrange for a mass shipment, forty wagons full of whiskey, from the Wallingham Freighting Company. The wagon train heads out, under the direction of company owner Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith), who describes himself as a "taxpayer and a good Republican".〔("Entertainment / In Rome/ 'Hallelujah Trai' Comedy Epic at DeSoto Theatre " (''Rome News-Tribune'', October 31, 1965, page 8) )〕 This cargo then becomes the target for several diverse groups, each with their own leaders and plans. Young Capt. Paul Slater (Jim Hutton) of the United States Cavalry is assigned by Fort Russell commander Col. Thaddeus Gearhart (Burt Lancaster) to escort the Wallingham Wagon Train, and merely wishes to carry out his orders. A group of Irish teamsters, hired as wagon drivers, wishes to strike unless whiskey rations are distributed. Crusading temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale (Lee Remick) and her followers, informed of the alcoholic cargo, wish to intercept the train and destroy its contents; the group is escorted by a second cavalry division under the command of a reluctant Col. Gearhart. Gearhart's daughter (Pamela Tiffin) is engaged to Slater and entranced by Mrs. Massingale's message. Despite their extremely different personalities and inability to see eye to eye, the weatherbeaten Gearhart and beautiful Cora Massingale fall in love. (Beneath her composure and grace, even her occasional ribbing against him, Cora is infatuated with Gearhart from the moment he rides into the fort and spends much of the film trying subtly to win his affection.)〔("'Hallelujah Trail': Lee Remick conducts a women's temperance meeting urging ladies to attack a wagon train bringing 1,600 barrels of booze into Denver…" (photo caption in ''The Tuscaloosa News'', January 30, 1966, page 40) )〕 Other interested parties include Sioux Indians, led by "real boozer" Chief Five Barrels (Robert J. Wilke) and Walks-Stooped-Over (Martin Landau), and a Denver citizens militia, led by Clayton Howell (Dub Taylor) and guided by Oracle, concerned about obtaining their precious supply of drinkables. Inevitably, the various groups converge, and the ensuing property struggle is played out through a series of comic set pieces and several diplomatic overtures by an increasingly weary Gearhart.〔("Green Sheet Movie Reviews / 'The Hallelujah Trail' Is Slapstick Comedy" (''The Herald-Tribune'' , November 7, 1965, page 6-D) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Hallelujah Trail」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|