Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 1958 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening: not recorded. U.S. release: 15 April 1958. U.K. release: May 1958. Australian release: 1 May 1958. 7,459 feet. 83 minutes.SYNOPSIS: When John Cord, tough and hated cattle boss, returns to Hamilton after spending five years in prison for allowing his men to shoot up the town after a cattle drive, he is attacked by a mob. Later, local leaders approach him and ask him to drive their cattle to Fort Clemson. The drive is long and tough and only Cord has the kind of experience that can get the job done. He agrees and plans a double-cross.NOTES: Claimed to be the 100th film in which Joel McCrea appears.COMMENT: A good cast and promising plot, somewhat undermined by routine handling and lack of development. All the same, it looks grand enough in 'Scope to more than carry the entertainment day. Mr. McCrea is his usual rugged self (though it's hard to believe that any judge and jury would be so collectively lacking in character insight as to convict him). Miss Talbott makes not only a mighty fetching heroine, but according to the studio Press Sheet, "she did all her own stunts. She owns a riding stable near Glendale, California, which keeps her fit for such acrobatics. This is her 2nd appearance opposite McCrea, her first being The Oklahoman." Also in the cast, serial queen Phyllis Coates ("Jungle Drums of Africa", "Panther Girl of the Kongo").

dukeakasmudge ***Spoilers Ahead, Maybe*** I mainly watched this movie because I was flipping through the movie channels looking for something to watch & I was lucky enough to catch it right when it started.The only time anything really happens in Cattle Drive is when what really happened when John Cord & his men shot up the town is revealed & the foiled ambush/shootout at the end.Those were the most exciting things to happen in the movie.Oh yeah, and when John Cord is dragged through town at the beginning.Nothing really happens in Cattle Drive except a...... cattle drive.Cattle Drive was boring at times but it's not a bad enough movie that I'd turn it off before it ended.It's definitely not a movie I'd recommend somebody go see even if you're a Western fan like I am.There are better Westerns or even better movies out there you could be watching

gary1792-1 There are plenty of good B westerns out there. This isn't one of them. To be brutally honest, this movie plays like it was written by 10-year-olds. Even the great Joel McCrae can't save it. I noticed that one other reviewer complained that the film was too short. I disagree. I think it was too long. In addition to the weak plot and some truly awful dialogue, the supporting cast is none too good either.The story concerns a man just out of prison, having been wrongly accused of letting his trail crew shoot up a town. He returns to the same town at the request of its leading citizen (who was blinded in the ruckus created by the trail crew, no less) in order to head up a cattle drive which is supposed to save the town. I'm not sure I've ever encountered such a lame premise for a dramatic film. Maybe a comedy, but that's not what "Cattle Empire" purports to be.All in all, I'm sorry I sat through the whole thing, but I guess I just expected it to get better. It didn't.

Spikeopath Joel McCrea stars as a trail boss falsely imprisoned for his men's misdemeanours. Released and suffering at the hands of an unforgiving and irate town, he's hired by a blind Don Haggerty to drive his herd - but Haggerty has his own agenda's on this trip.A routine Western that is chiefly saved from the bottom rung by the presence of Joel McCrea. McCrea was a real life cowboy type who owned and worked out of a ranch in California, thus he gives this standard Oater a naturalistic core from which to tell the story. If only they could have given him some decent actors to work with, and, or, a bolder script, then this might have turned out better than it did.Directed by Charles Marquis Warren (more famed for TV work like Gunsmoke and his writing than movie directing), the piece is scripted by Daniel B. Ullman, a prolific "B" western script specialist of the 1950s. This, however, is far from being a good effort from his pen. Shot in CinemaScope with colour by DeLuxe, it thankfully at least proves to be most pleasing on the eye. Brydon Baker proving to be yet another cinematographer seemingly inspired by the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, locations.Away from the turgid story there's a classical big Western shoot-out to enjoy, while a Mano-Mano shoot out set among the Alabama rocks towards the end is nicely handled. But the good technical aspects are bogged down by the roll call of by the numbers gruff cowboy characters, and worse still is a two-fold romantic strand that is so weak it beggars belief. All of which is acted in keeping with such an unimaginatively put together series of sub-plots masquerading as a revenge thriller. For McCrea this film is worth a watch - as it is for its beauty (the print is excellent), but in spite of the old fashioned appeal, and a couple of action high points, it remains borderline dull. McCrea and the audience deserve far better. 5/10