RIDE, VAQUERO!
(M.G.M.)
DON’T often see Westerns these days, but it always pleases me that I can still enjoy them, and I hope I shall go on enjoying the odd classic like Stagecoach or High Noon as often as it is revived. I mention this partly because a friend said the other day he intends to see no more of these fairy tales which he finds so much less interesting than the times they misrepresent. A more telling objection could probably be built around their easy acceptance of violence; but if it’s fairy tales you object to I think Westerns are, at any rate, more innocuous than pre-fabricated daydreams about present-day American life. Ride, Vaquero! which is in Ansco colour and directed by John Farrow, is no Western classic, but here and there it makes effective use of several of the old ingredients; and it includes an exciting performance by Anthony Quinn as the villain. The story is about the efforts of a young couple (Howard Keel and Ava Gardner) to establish a ranch in country which Mr. Quinn and his band of Mexicans consider their dominion. Among the ingredients I’ve mentioned are some of the beautiful long shots one expects in a Western, plenty of horses, an exciting raid and chase or two, and lots of gun play. Considering the spot they’re in, Mr. Keel and Miss Gardner look pretty normal most of the time, and as for the other star, Robert Taylor-he looks about, forever unsmiling, through half-closed eyes, and is much given to a sort of fatalistic philosophising in a voice which might have been specially created for the echo chamber. One gathers he knows all too well that it was laid down at the First Cause that Miss Gardner would kiss him and he would slap her face,
| en ee a ee ey tem and that after that it’s only a matter of time before guns blaze simultaneously in the bar-room. But don’t let Mr. Taylor put you off. Mr. Quinn’s name-may be in smgller type and his part may be a bit overwritten; but swaggering and shouting, laughing like Mephistopheles and swilling his wine as though The Lost Weeke had never been written or filmed, he carries the show magnificently. Mr. Quinn is an actor-as you probably guessed if you saw him in The Brave Bulls or Viva Zapata!
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540423.2.45.1.1
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 770, 23 April 1954, Page 20
Word count
Tapeke kupu
394RIDE, VAQUERO! New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 770, 23 April 1954, Page 20
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in