Stars in My Crown

you'll only hear the singing if you leave your window open, or "there is hope". surprised brother Mentaculus hasn't rated this sincere attempt to constructively apply a christian perspective to a mismatched modernising world! tourneur runs ford's torch into dreyer territory (with added OX-BOW INCIDENT outrage), any didacticism overridden by quiet, unassuming sensitivity, depicting a community hopefully without sugarcoating its foibles and brutal challenges (thing hits different post-pandemic).

Funny how some thing never change. I feel we've just been through a variation of the story Stars in My Crown (1950) brings. It's a real fine drama of a young town and the preacher Joel McCrea who shapes it. Had hoped for more gun play, but it's more a moral exercise about dealing with disease and racism than the wild wild west.

Quasi-meditative Fordian like depiction of a small tight knit community that is somewhat reminiscent of How Green Was My Valley with more overt religious overtones. Tourneur captures an almost dream like rhythm, and there are several good performances and moments of real beauty combined with an underlying tension and sadness that adds depth and weight to a seemingly simple story. Arguably the highlight of Tourneur's wildly uneven career.

There's something so well-realized and immersive here that the high sugar content is easy to forgive.

This was marketed, seemingly, as about a shoot-em-up preacher in a shoot-em-up town, but it's nothing of the sort. It's more of a slice-of-life story about a small-town preacher, family-friendly and sentimental (though I've noticed sentimental has gotten a bad rap for some reason). Minus points to the movie because the characters should have known better how Typhoid is *not* spread. Minus points to me because I failed to recognize James Arness and Amanda Blake appearing years before Gunsmoke.

Western do Jacques tourneur #2 do dia: O Testamento de Deus. DVD Versátil Cinema Faroeste Volume 2. Estou dando boa nota porque é um filme dinâmico, que fique bem claro que sou atéia. Rá!

The ending is embarrassing but other than that good stuff.

Star Rating: ★★★★1/2

Sort of like a mixture of Fordian smalltown westerns and the miracles of Dreyer's 'Ordet'. Looking beyond the highly religious plot, the theme of 'the power of imagination' is universal, sentimentally yet powerfully presented by Tourneur.

Filled with sentiment rather than sentimentality, this account of the life of preacher Josiah Gray is a simple movie with a lot of integrity. Juano Hernandez delivers one of his rare and memorable performances, and the films treatment of the KKK (or its equivalent), although perhaps naive, is interesting and moving.