THE FAR COUNTRY

This 1954 Western is the fourth (of five) to be directed by Anthony Mann and to star James Stewart.

It's written by Borden Chase whose cv includes such classic Westerns as 'Red River', 'Winchester 73' and 'Vera Cruz'.  Although this might not be quite in the same class it comes close, one of its virtues being that it's never at all predictable.  It has an unusual setting and for most of its running time I found it pretty hard to pin down.

We start off in 1896 in Skagway, a town in Alaska, where Jeff (James Stewart) arrives with a herd of cattle, but straightaway the herd is confiscated by a guy called Gannon who has appointed himself the law.  For a bad guy he is surprisingly jovial and he has a grudging respect for Jeff.

But he's not amused when Jeff steals the herd back, and he vows vengeance.  In the meantime Jeff takes the herd to Dawson, in Canada, where the small population of goldminers are mighty glad to see him, tired as they are of a diet of bear soup and the like.

Jeff uses his money from selling the herd to buy a gold panning claim, and pretty soon he and his companion Ben (Walter Brennan) are well in the money and ready to skedaddle.

The other two main characters are a couple of contrasting females who have taken a shine to Jeff.  There's glamorous Ronda, a saloon owner who's in cahoots with Gannon (for the moment), and there's Renee, a young French Canadian girl who Jeff doesn't take seriously, much to her annoyance and frustration.

Whilst Jeff has been panning for gold Gannon has arrived in Dawson, and since it's a lawless disorganised kind of place he and his henchmen have taken over and are stealing people's claims with impunity.

The townspeople want Jeff to be marshal but he's not interested; his philosophy is to look after himself, and never to settle down. 

However Jeff's plan for him and Ben to sneak off with their gold by way of a river raft comes to grief when garrulous Ben accidentally tips off Gannon.  There's a shockingly dramatic scene where Gannon's men shoot Ben dead and wound Jeff, and make off with the gold.

This forces Jeff to take a stand, leading to a showdown with Gannon, and to the townspeople summoning up the courage to get involved as well.  Inevitably Ronda is fatally wounded in trying to prevent Jeff from getting shot, so that Renee is the one to get her man.

It's a film full of characters and incident, set against some magnificent mountain scenery.  

Very enjoyable!