In the wilderness of Appalachia of the 1890s, the Hatfield clan and the McCoy clan hate each other. A long-time feud is reignited when young Roseanna McCoy runs off with Johnson Hatfield. A battle ensues.
It's Romeo and Juliet in the woods, far more than it's Montagues and Capulets or Hatfields and McCoys. It begins with a cloying love song. Here are some lyrics: "Roseanna, Roseanna, the wind breathes your name." (It's a good thing she wasn't named Betsy.) The focus is on Joan Evans as Roseanna and Farley Granger is Johnse. There is a surprising scene suggestive of rape. Granger has kidnapped Evans and they stand among the pines in the middle of the night. He kisses her forcefully, despite her objections, and pushes her back into a thicket. Dissolve to a glorious sunrise and heavenly music as the two ride a horse in tandem. For all that, Farley Granger is no Sheik of Araby, and Evans is no more than blandly pretty.
This is Hollywood's version of the 19th-century backwoods. Appalachia, you will be surprised to know, was actually sunny and pleasant and had many of the kinds of live oaks found in California. Flowers abounded. You can find other examples of this stylized milieu in "Sergeant York" and "Young Mr. Lincoln," two far better films. I wonder if Central Casting didn't send over the same wrinkled, bearded, tobacco-chewing, old men in battered hats.
The irony is that this movie pretty much sucks and yet has a fine supporting cast. With Hope Emerson and Aline McMahon as the competing matriarchs, it can't be all bad. And the writers, mostly, I would guess, John Collier, have included a subdued but tense scene between Richard Basehart (his hair shellacked in the traditional 1941 Hollywood fashion) and Joan Evans. The room is dark, the only light is from a flickering fire. She holds an empty pistol on him. He is caressing a knife -- and he's mad.
The tale itself -- the senseless, murderous feud between two extended families in a classic Appalachian backwoods culture -- has a great deal of promise. The place names alone evoke the proper atmosphere -- Pike County, The Big Sandy, Kentucky, Pikeville, The Tug Fork. Those names are hardly ever used in the film. Maybe that's one of the reasons this all adds up to one of the dullest movies ever made.
It's Romeo and Juliet in the woods, far more than it's Montagues and Capulets or Hatfields and McCoys. It begins with a cloying love song. Here are some lyrics: "Roseanna, Roseanna, the wind breathes your name." (It's a good thing she wasn't named Betsy.) The focus is on Joan Evans as Roseanna and Farley Granger is Johnse. There is a surprising scene suggestive of rape. Granger has kidnapped Evans and they stand among the pines in the middle of the night. He kisses her forcefully, despite her objections, and pushes her back into a thicket. Dissolve to a glorious sunrise and heavenly music as the two ride a horse in tandem. For all that, Farley Granger is no Sheik of Araby, and Evans is no more than blandly pretty.
This is Hollywood's version of the 19th-century backwoods. Appalachia, you will be surprised to know, was actually sunny and pleasant and had many of the kinds of live oaks found in California. Flowers abounded. You can find other examples of this stylized milieu in "Sergeant York" and "Young Mr. Lincoln," two far better films. I wonder if Central Casting didn't send over the same wrinkled, bearded, tobacco-chewing, old men in battered hats.
The irony is that this movie pretty much sucks and yet has a fine supporting cast. With Hope Emerson and Aline McMahon as the competing matriarchs, it can't be all bad. And the writers, mostly, I would guess, John Collier, have included a subdued but tense scene between Richard Basehart (his hair shellacked in the traditional 1941 Hollywood fashion) and Joan Evans. The room is dark, the only light is from a flickering fire. She holds an empty pistol on him. He is caressing a knife -- and he's mad.
The tale itself -- the senseless, murderous feud between two extended families in a classic Appalachian backwoods culture -- has a great deal of promise. The place names alone evoke the proper atmosphere -- Pike County, The Big Sandy, Kentucky, Pikeville, The Tug Fork. Those names are hardly ever used in the film. Maybe that's one of the reasons this all adds up to one of the dullest movies ever made.