The Kentuckian (1955)

It is the early 1820s and Big Eli Wakefield (Burt Lancaster) is heading west with his son, Little Eli (Donald McDonald).  They have big plans of relocating to Texas; Big Eli has enough money to get transport and get them started in a new land.  However, there are problems.  The Wakefields have a long-standing feud with the Fromes; Big Eli keeps a wary eye out.  Stopping in a town, Eli runs afoul of the local sheriff who tried to shoot his dog; the sheriff locks Eli in jail.  Hannah (Dianne Foster), an indentured servant, hears the sheriff send for the Frome brothers.  She frees Eli and flees as well, but the sheriff finds them.  To buy them out of trouble, Eli surrenders the Texas money.  Is Hannah now indentured to him?  How are they going to get to Texas?

Without funds, Eli finds himself working for his brother, Zack Wakefield (John McIntire), a tobacco farmer.  To avoid obvious scandal, Hannah works in a local tavern run by Stan Bodine (Walter Matthau).  Ziby Fletcher (John Carradine) is a local snake oil salesman who inexplicably stays in town for the rest of the movie, a gadfly at Bodine's tavern.  Susie Spann (Diana Lynn) is the local schoolteacher and has eyes for handsome Big Eli.  Eli is a man of the wild and is soon made the fool among 'civilized' folks.  He learns quickly but it may cost his dream of Texas.  Little Eli is especially set on Texas.

There is a lot of silliness.  The fight between Big Eli and Bodine was ludicrous.  The Frome brothers were a pair of statues who stood with grim looks on their faces and staring straight ahead.  Look menacing?  Sure.  Look human?  No.  The acting is mostly weak and many of the characters have inexplicable motivations.  Little Eli looks to be on the brink of tears, either of joy or sorrow.  Why did Bodine manufacture a fight between Little Eli and his classmate, Luke?  In a later scene, he tries to weasel out of something by saying he has a reputation to maintain as a local businessman.  Really?  After getting kids to fight each other?  Hannah, who escaped indentured servitude thanks to Eli, sold herself right back into it to pay him back.  What?  Helping him escape a date with the Fromes while locked in jail wasn't a fair trade?

Despite being in the South, there are no slaves to be seen.  There was a scene when the riverboat arrived in town and several black men in colorful attire sang about the glories of Texas, clearly trying to recruit immigrants.  Slaves?  Almost certainly, but they seemed a happy bunch.  The movie doesn't specify the year, but James Monroe is named as the President of the United States; he served from 1817 to 1825.  Also, Moses Austin - father of Stephen Austin and advocate for Texas migration - is mentioned as recently deceased.  Austin died in 1821.

Mediocre.