No Place To Call Home

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
24 November 2006

The Wonderful Country finds Robert Mitchum as a gunslinger, a pistolero working for the local Mexican governor Pedro Armendariz. He had to flee Texas years ago after a shooting and Armendariz gave him shelter and work. Despite that Mitchum is sent across the border on a gun buying trip. Unfortunately he takes a bad fall from a horse and winds up with a broken leg. While on the mend in that bordertown and after, Mitchum finds himself in a series of situations that call him to question what he's been doing and just where he can call home.

One of those situations is Julie London, wife of army major Gary Merrill who's got a bit of a past herself. She throws quite a few complications in Mitchum's past. The Wonderful Country is a nicely put together western shot on location in Durango. It was one of the first westerns to use that town in Mexico, a whole lot more in the sixties would follow. Besides those already mentioned the performances to watch for in this film are those of Charles McGraw as the frontier doctor and that of Satchel Paige as the cavalry sergeant. A year later John Ford would come out with Sergeant Rutledge about a black cavalry sergeant and the men around him, but I do believe that baseball immortal Satchel Paige was the first in Hollywood to portray a black cavalry man in a major motion picture.

McGraw is something else. He's the doctor who tends to Mitchum's broken leg and befriends him, but then gets one big pang of jealousy about Julie London that leads to tragedy. In real life McGraw was as much the hellraiser as he is in the film.The Wonderful Country had the good fortune to be partially scripted by Tom Lea so his vision of the characters in his own novel remained pretty much intact. This was the only one of two novels by that writer/artist to be filmed.That's as good a reason as any to see a very fine western.

Surprisingly solid western with Mitchum and London

Author: funkyfry from Oakland CA
8 November 2002

Mitchum is an assassin in the employ of Mexican mafia/government, and London is the wife of an American major. He becomes involved in Mexican civil disputes and decides to extricate himself too late.The script brings the characters to life and reveals themes of self-loathing battling the ego in an extraordinary but low-key manner. The character performances are all convincing with the exception of a slight case of oversincerity on London's part. Gorgeous location filming in the deserts and in a Mexican town shot from a hilltop. The action scenes are pretty routine, but they and pretty much everything else is handled in a fairly realistic style, which adds greatly to the film's appeal.

nice elegiacal western

Author: fcasnette from United Kingdom
12 January 2006

just caught this thoughtful film on TV again.not a particular Mitchum fan, but here he is gives a wonderful world weary performance as the "outside man" gradually learning kindness and companionship and friendship against the odds of his upbringing and circumstances and the hand that fate has dealt him.

Not a particular shoot em up type western but a film about belonging and extricating yourself from a bad lot when down a blind alley. Just watch as he reacts to the little kindnesses as he recovers from his injury or the final scene with his beloved horse, lovely low key acting.Beautiful photography too. Passes a lazy afternoon very nicely.

What a pity then, that life is what we do, and not just what we feel.

Author: JohnRouseMerriottChard from United Kingdom
25 April 2010

Based on a story by artist Tom Lea (who cameos as a barber), The Wonderful Country stars Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Gary Merrill, Charles McGraw & Pedro Armendáriz. It's directed by Robert Parrish, the score is from Alex North with Floyd Crosby & Alex Phillips on cinematography around the Durango location shoot.A rich western that admirably crams in a lot of genre based themes and boasts a lead protagonist of high complex value. Tightly directed by Parrish (Saddle The Wind), who is aware that this needs no action overkill, it's really with Mitchum and Robert Ardrey's script that the film owes its success.

Give or take a couple of missteps with the accent (he is playing a gringo pistolero) Mitchum dominates with his stature and laconic form of acting. He's playing Martin Brady, a man who finds himself being pulled emotionally on both sides of the Mexican/American border, the contrast between both lands, and Brady's persona too (he's effectively a man without a country), is very interesting.

There's a number of well drawn characters who file in and out of Brady's life, all serving purpose to the plot, with Julie London's love interest thankfully having a more darker edge than others that were often seen in the genre. There's even an appearance of Baseball Hall Of Fame inductee Leroy 'Satchel' Paige as part of an all black army regiment. Yet another strand in this multi angled movie.

Very sedate in tone but with deep character drama at its core, Parrish's film is a thinking persons movie. Some critics have called it routine, while others have said it's complicated! I just think it's a film that needs to be watched more than once to fully digest its themes. It's not one for the action fan as such, but it is excellently written and performed by the principals. It's also a truly gorgeous movie visually and aurally. A fine film that rewards further on repeat viewings, especially for fans of the great Robert Mitchum. 7/10

Wonderful Country.....a wonderful movie

Author: redk61 from United States
19 March 2006

I think this movie is one of the better movies I'v seen and I have seen a lot of movies in my life time. I really like some of the lines in the movie. Like close to the end of the movie. They Martin Brady and Helen Colton are sanding next to the wall of a old mission talking to each other about what they had done. Helen make's the remark that she is ashame of the feelings she has for Brady knowing that her husband is not in the ground yet. Brady replies by saying what we did may have been wrong but the feelings they have for each other are not. Helen replies to him. Is'n it a pity then that life is what we do and not what we feel. At the last part when Brady had to shoot his horse named Tears. That got to me as I had a small dog and I loved her much. I had to put her down, her name was Tears. Maybe I'm just a old corn ball from the past. But some movies and the words in them get inside of me. I like that. They will always be apart of me and my life.