OVP: The Sheepman (1958)

Film: The Sheepman (1958)
Stars: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Shaughnessy, Edgar Buchanan, Slim Pickens
Director: George Marshall
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

First off, I would like to acknowledge a fact on this site that I'm particularly proud of with this post.  With this review, I have officially gone the past thirty days with at least two posts every day.  For those of you who read regularly (super big thank you!), I hope you have been enjoying the increase in posts, as it will be continuing as I'm now shooting for fifty days in a row.  For those who are new to the blog, know that this is a labor of love (I have a day job, but try to make at least two posts about movies, politics, television, or whatever else is on my mind that day), and poke around, see what you like, and comment when you have something to say.

(Spoilers Ahead) But that's enough pontificating-it's time to jump into the world of cattle, err, sheep country with The Sheepman, a largely forgotten western from 1958 that was nonetheless an Oscar nominee and a pretty sizable hit for MGM.  The film starts out in a largely comical fashion, with Glenn Ford riding into town and basically making a mockery of all of the people as he tricks them into giving him cheap supplies and a horse to start his mysterious new mission (he is planning on raising sheep in cattle country, to the chagrin of everyone around him).  Thanks to a casting director who hired a series of stock western character actors (Mickey Shaughnessy, Edgar Buchanan, and of course Slim Pickens), we see the western a bit turned on its head in the first twenty minutes.  Normally when an outsider of some sorts comes to town, the townspeople give him the comeuppance, not the other way around.  Glenn Ford, he of the strong jaw and wide forehead, owns these scenes quite nicely, clearly getting the humor even if it might be lost on modern audiences unfamiliar with these character actors.

The film after that settles into a fairly routine pattern, unfortunately, though it has its moments.  The entire story between Ford's Jason Sweet and Leslie Nielsen's Stephen Bedford (which turns out to be a pseudonym) is frequently ripe with cliche (which is the western standard), and even in 1958 this would have been a tired formula of them fighting over a girl, or another girl, or a longstanding feud...the film kind of jumps all over the place in that fashion.  In fact, it has Pernell Roberts randomly show up as Jason's true rival, only to of course settle into Leslie Nielsen being the actual rival.  The film, which is a mere 85 minutes long, probably could have gained quite a bit from being about a half hour longer (not something I usually advocate for, but in this specific case I'll make an exception), giving more story to Roberts bad guy and maybe a little more shading to Nielsen's chief protagonist role.

That said, the best part of the film has nothing to do with the men and everything to do with one of my favorites, Shirley MacLaine.  While MacLaine is way too young to be the eighteen-years-older Ford's love interest, she still manages to find the humor and panache in this character.  1958 was a big year for our Shirl, as she received her first Oscar nomination for Some Came Running (though she lost, like she did for a good long while when it came to the Oscars).  Her performance here as Dell Payton is simple fun, but it's always watchable-MacLaine with her vibrant red hair pops from the screen, and perhaps why the giant showdowns are so dull is that you've largely moved beyond the glib Ford of the earlier twenty minutes of the movie (he goes back to his Glenn Ford style stiffness by the end), and instead are entirely focused on what MacLaine will do next.

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Has anyone seen (or even heard of) The Sheepman?  If so, what are your thoughts on this largely forgotten western?  And if not, weigh in on your favorite roles of MacLaine and Ford's-what are the gems of their long careers?