The script by Jack Natteford and Lillie Hayward has been described as "basically Captains Courageous on the prairie." McCrea plays Dan Matthews, a cowpoke who is driving a herd of cattle to San Diego when he comes upon a rich, spoiled adolescent (Dean Stockwell) who's lost in the middle of nowhere. Once the boy joins the cattle drive, he is forced to knuckle down and accept the fatherly guidance of Matthews, who teaches him the value of hard work and upstanding behavior.
Stockwell, who received equal billing with McCrea, was then 14 and facing the end of his stint as a child star, which he claimed not to have enjoyed -- although he would continue acting in adult roles. The year before he had played the key role of McCrea's nephew in Stars in My Crown (1950), another of McCrea's favorite vehicles. "I liked Joel," Stockwell said in a 1985 interview. "He was really good. Stars in My Crown I didn't enjoy doing; but in Cattle Drive I got to ride horses -- and that was like playing, the way a child is supposed to play."
McCrea's character is such a gentle soul that he even croons to the cattle to put them to sleep at night, in a voice pleasant enough to make one think that McCrea might have given Roy Rogers and Gene Autry some competition. (McCrea also offered a brief serenade to the herd in 1946's The Virginian.) And his patient, fair-minded character is so engaging that a final sequence even has him winning over the boy's all-business railroad-owner father, played by Leon Ames, so that the three can take an unlikely ride together into the sunset at film's end.
The supporting cast includes two other ace character actors. German-born Henry Brandon (whose long filmography was highlighted by the John Ford films The Searchers (1956) and 1961's Two Rode Together) plays an ornery cowhand who gives McCrea some trouble although, in keeping with the tone of the film, he eventually falls into line. Chill Wills, always a colorful addition to any film with a Western setting, is the kindly cattle drive cook whose specialties are beans and more beans.
Much of this handsome Technicolor production was shot on location in the Death Valley National Park, California, and Paria, Utah. Director Kurt Neumann, an old hand at adventure movies, keeps things interesting despite the fact that the movie is light on action. Two stampedes -- one with horses and another with cattle -- are staged in exciting fashion, and a subplot about McCrea's efforts to capture a beautiful wild stallion called Midnight is also engaging.
There are no women in the film, although at one point McCrea shows Stockwell a photo of the young woman who is waiting for him at trail's end. Pictured is none other than McCrea's real-life wife, Frances Dee!
Cattle Drive proved a popular success, and most of the reviews were supportive. The New York Times critic described the film as "casually entertaining summer fare" with McCrea and Stockwell delivering "quite winning performances."
McCrea owned Dollar, the horse with the expressive eyes that he rides in Cattle Drive and other films. There was a strict rule that no one else could ride Dollar -- a rule broken only once when McCrea lent the horse to Doris Day for her use in 1953's Calamity Jane.
Producer: Aaron Rosenberg
Director: Kurt Neumann
Screenplay: Jack Natteford, Lillie Hayward
Cinematography: Maury Gertsman
Editing: Danny B. Landres
Art Direction: Hilyard M. Brown, Bernard Herzbrun
Music: Milton Rosen
Cast: Joel McCrea (Dan Mathews), Dean Stockwell (Chester Graham Jr.), Chill Wills (Dallas), Leon Ames (Chester Graham Sr.), Henry Brandon (Jim Currie), Howard Petrie (Cap).
C-77m.
by Roger Fristoe
