Cahill - U.S. Marshall [DVD] [1973]

The tagline for the 1973 western "Cahill U.S. Marshal" declares: "Break the law and he's the last man you want to see. And the last you ever will." But we know that because the title character is played by John Wayne, so it really goes without saying that he is as good as it gets. But this is the Duke near the end of his career and while he made a pretty good western the year before with "The Cowboys," he was now just coasting (e.g., "The Train Robbers," "Brannigan") before he actually had some fun making a movie with Katharine Hepburn ("Rooster Cogburn") and found an excellent coda to his legendary acting career with "The Shootist."

Wayne is J.D. Cahill, a tough U.S. marshal who is always on the trail of someone and never at home, which is why his sons Danny (Gary Grimes) and Billy Joe (Clay O'Brien) decide to teach the old man a lesson they go off with Abe Fraser (George Kennedy) and his gang to rob a bank. Actually they have a fairly complicated plan which involves being locked up in jail during the robbery so they have an alibi. Fraser promises no one will get hurt, but of course the sheriff and deputy are gunned down. The younger Cahill hides the loot and if either brother talks, Fraser will kill them both. With the sheriff dead, daddy shows up to track down the bank robbers and takes Danny along with him. They even capture a group of outlaws, who are sentenced to hang for the murders and the robbery.

The pivotal character in the film is actual Danny Cahill, who has to get the hidden loot to Fraser, avoid having four innocent men hung, and try and pray that his father never gets everything to add up. Of course he does, although how the dots get connected is not exactly clear. There was an opportunity for a really good scene here at the big moment, but it just is not there and then Wayne's efforts to make the best of a bad situation kind of gets lost in the film's end game. Basically whatever you think Cahill should do in that situation, he is not going to make you happy, which ever of the two opposing approaches you want him to take.

"Cahill United States Marshall" has an above average number of old familiar faces in supporting roles with Denver Pyle as the boy's caretaker, Royal Dano as a hermit, Jackie Coogan as Charlie the town drunk, and Harry Carey, Jr. as Hank the jailer. Neville Brand has a nice turn as Lightfoot, a half Comanche tracker, but Kennedy is not that memorable as a villain, which is rather surprising. Wayne has more than his fair share of bad lines in this one (e.g., "If a buzzard bites you, he'd never eat meat again"), and the fault here has to be with the script that sets up a fairly interesting situation and then really does not know what to do with it, which is why this becomes a pedestrian John Wayne film.

Over the Christmas period I was delighted to wake up one morning, rather late it must be admitted, and catch a programme about the travels of the famous chef Rick Stein in Mexico. It turns out he went there some thirty years before on the strength of his passion for westerns, and cited Sam Peckinpah as a major influence. Peckinpah made a number of movies including the marvellous, "The Wild Bunch" (69), in that beautiful country. On his travels Stein visited the old western film sets in Durango and also paid a visit to John Wayne's own ranch in the area, where he made three films in the seventies. "Big Jake" (71), "The Train Robbers (73), and lastly the film that I am reviewing, "Cahill United States Marshall" (73). The ranch was much as it had been then, and an old Mexican worker recalled Wayne as a workaholic, which he most certainly was when you look at his prodigious body of work in a long and illustrious Hollywood career. Interestingly the ranch is still owned by Wayne's oldest son Michael, who incidentally produced Cahill. The family have not visited the ranch in fifteen years and it seems to lie forgotten in old Mexico, as if waiting for "The Duke" to ride back into town and revive the western, like a King Arthur sleeping until Brittania needs him again in its hour of need. Sadly a forlorn hope! But yet again I digress!

On Cahill's release in 1973 I was mortified to find when I went to watch it, that it had been relegated to support film for the Paul Newman thriller, "The MacKintosh Man". On coming out of the cinema I had to admit to myself that Cahill was only a sad shadow of the great westerns the big man had made in the past. Wayne had taken himself and many familiar faces with him down to his ranch in Mexico, where they had no doubt had a lot of fun and went through the motions of making a motion picture. The finished product is alas a pretty tedious affair. It was purely a film for the likes of me, who were content to see Wayne shuffling through the usual situations with his air of invincibility. It was also a sign that Wayne was at last beginning to lose his box office appeal.

The film is flawed from the start with the premise that any sons of the Duke would stoop so low as to be involved on a bank robbery. His two young sons, who he later admits he had late in life, to cover for his now obvious signs of advancing years, manage to get involved with a bad crowd led by a very nasty George Kennedy in one of his weaker roles. Kennedy behaves like a menacing Bill Sykes towards the boys, and the Dickensian theme is further endorsed by a graveyard scene that seems to have come straight out of "Great Expectations". Having helped the gang rob the bank, during which a deputy is killed, the boys have second thoughts, especially when dad catches another innocent gang who will all hang for a crime they have not committed. The youngest son hides the loot from the robbery, much to the gangs displeasure. Wayne gets wind that something is not right. We head to a predictable climax where Wayne's six shooter is in action once again.

The films pedestrian direction was by Andrew V McLaglen, who it must be said was a director of limited ability. Wayne also made "McLintock" (63), "Hell fighters" (69), "The Undefeated" (69) and "Chisum" (70) with him. All very average films! McLaglen was easy going, compliant and was already experienced in catering to Wayne's screen image. It is nice to see many familiar western faces in the film like Neville Brand, Paul Fix, Harry Carey Jnr, Royal Dano, Denver Pyle, Hank Worden and the child star from the silent cinema Jackie Coogan, as a sort of Disney town drunk. All we were missing was the bug eyed Jack Elam and toothless Walter Brennan. Sadly none of them can make up for the deficiencies of a very weak script, containing many lines that should have been excised. Evidence of the stories weakness is the fact that during production the film was called "Wednesday Morning" an allusion to the time that the innocent men were to hang, but it became obvious when the film was completed that it did not contain the hoped for tension apposite to that title. It was quickly ditched and enabled the film to make use of the familiar treatment - "John Wayne IS Cahill". The film falls back on the Wayne's colossal screen image. But even this fails to lift the film out of tedium. Like many films in Wayne's later career it is poor fare. It was only when he journeyed out of his comfort zone with directors like Mark Rydell and Don Siegel that he produced better work. The film is purely for fans of the big man, like myself, which is why I am happy to give it three stars on the strength of watching Wayne whupping the bad guys.

John wayne made quite a few movies in the early 70s,not all are brilliant ,but a wayne fan will still enjoy this satisfactory and sentimental western tale of a father whose sons get mixed up in a bank robbery and murder,which co-stars gary grimes,neville brand and george kennedy.Extras consist of a vintage featurette "the man behind the star"(7:46),trailer and a commentary by director Andrew V.Mclaglen.