http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043751/?ref_=nv_sr_4Lone Star (1952) 7.5/10 (TCM)
Cast, courtesy of wikipedia Clark Gable as Devereaux Burke
Ava Gardner as Martha Ronda
Broderick Crawford as Tom Craden
Lionel Barrymore as Andrew Jackson
Beulah Bondi as Minniver Bryan
Ed Begley as Anthony Demmet
James Burke as Luther Kilgore
William Farnum as Tom Crockett
Moroni Olsen as Sam Houston
Russell Simpson as Maynard Cole
William Conrad as Mizette
This movie takes place in 1845, about the struggle over whether Texas would be annexed to the USA or remain independent.
Clark Gable plays a Texas cattle man who at first is just hoping for Texas to join the Union cuz he figures that'll lead to a war with Mexico and then he can profit from selling beef to the army. But of course, Gable is eventually convinced to take a principled stand in favor of annexation.
Broderick Crawford is in favor of Texas remaining independent – but we soon learn that he is not in favor of this out of ideology, but cuz he figures that he, as a powerful Texan, will have more power/influence if Texas is an independent country than if it is just one of many states. So of course, Crawford here is the bad guy.
Ava Gardner is the girl they are fighting over.
Former President Andrew Jackson and Texas hero Sam Houston make cameos.
Gable and Crawford are good. I've never thought Ava Gardner was a good actress; she got where she did strictly for her looks. In general, watching her often feels like she is
acting, like she is a pretty movie star speaking as a woman who knows she is a pretty movie star would speak, not as a believable character would speak. Not that this movie offers her any opportunity to do anything special here – she is simply the woman for the two men to fight over, and hardly exists as on her own.
Catch this next time it plays on TCM; the print looked beautiful.
This is a pretty enjoyable movie, until the end.
You wanna talk about awful forced happy
endings, this movie is one of the worst: so Crawford and Gable are fighting it out all movie long, Crawford the bad guy with nefarious goals, and the whole Texas is taking sides between independence and annexation -- then at the end, there is a battle between the two sides, then Sam Houston shows up, announces he is in favor of annexation (a fact that the Crawford character was aware of all along) and then everyone decides to join sides together, to make nice and join up together to fight for Texas against the inevitable war against Mexico that they assume will happen once it is announced that Texas is joining the USA. So the movie ends with Crawford carrying the Texas flag, leading the whole cast – with Gable right beside him – together as one. All movie long – a good movie – they were sworn enemies, but then they screw up with an awfully dumbass ending that you roll your eyes at and laugh at.
But until the last couple of minutes, this is an enjoyable movie.
