Customer Reviews

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Fred MacMurray plays a city stranger getting caught up in the lives of a primitive Kentucky mountain family and their feud with a neighbouring clan. Sylvia Sidney is good as the girl he tries to educate and comes to love and Hank Fonda scores as the disapproving brother who is killed befored the feud is settled. Beulah Bondi is terrific as usual as is Fuzzy Knight in this saga filmed in the full-hue great outdoors. Paramount ventured away from black and white features for the first time since 1930 with THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE. The studio had been waiting for an improved 3-colour Technicolor to be perfected, and the new process enhanced the Walter Wanger production's appeal immensely, both on the screen and at the box-office. This was the third filming of John Fox, Jr.'s novel, and the best: the 1916 and 1923 versions had nothing to compare with the pictorial scope and cast strength of the modernised screenplay, written by Grover Jones, Harvey Thew and Horace McCoy. Henry Hathaway directed with a straighforward drive.

Excellent Movie. Great outdoor,scenic views. Great movie for children and grandchildren. I first saw this movie about 50 years ago and it is still exciting today. ..very heartwarming!

Appearing in Henry Hathaway's historic full-color THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE is seven-year-old "Spanky," of Little Rascals fame, on loan from MGM.

For moviegoers in 1936, on-location cinematography in and around California's mountainous Big Bear Lake area must have been astonishing. (This was the first PARAMOUNT picture filmed in three-strip Technicolor.)

It's a Hatfield/McCoy-type story set in the Appalachians. The often-violent feud between the Falins and Tollivers has been going on for so long no one can remember how it started. Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney are distant Tolliver cousins who plan to marry. Fred MacMurray wants to run a railroad through the mountain folks' pristine lands, but he meets local resistance. MacMurray's romantic interest in Sidney greatly complicates matters.


Related item:
Henry Fonda also co-starred in the early Technicolor FOX western, JESSE JAMES (1939) with Tyrone Power, Randolph Scott, Brian Donlevy and John Carradine (as "the dirty little coward...").


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(7.2) The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) - Henry Fonda/Sylvia Sidney/Fred MacMurray/Fred Stone/Nigel Bruce/Beulah Bondi/Robert Barrat/George 'Spanky' McFarland/Fuzzy Knight/Otto Fries/Samuel S. Hinds/Alan Baxter/Richard Carle/Irving Bacon/Charles Middleton

A few years back I picked up a VHS edition of this 1936 and was pleasantly surprised at the reasonably good image quality including the color photography. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of these "back woods" Hatfield/McCoy type stories but I found myself making an exception for TRAIL. I've ordered the dvd version and I'm hoping it offers enhanced video over my old VHS version. Universal issued TRAIL's unofficial follow up film, 1941's SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS, a couple of years ago in a John Wayne dvd set. Another Technicolor tale of the back woods, the image quality was stunning so I'm anticipating the same thing with TRAIL. Too bad there's no bonus material (as far as I can tell) with information on the hardships of making early Technicolor films. It was a royal pain working under very hot lights and the Technicolor company insisted that all shots had to be color coordinated - certain colors simply could not be in the same frame with other colors! Some actresses complained about the way they looked in color - Carole Lombard said that she looked "funny" in color while Claudette Colbert refused to appear in another Technicolor film after 1939's DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. Viewing DRUMS today, it's a mystery what Colbert's objections were.

For those who don't know, Technicolor films like TRAIL were filmed using a special camera that ran three rolls of film simultaneously and a prism behind the lens split the image into three, one for each strip that registered blue, red and yellow. In the photo lab, each of the three rolls were run through to make one print and the three primary color dyes blended to produce the secondary colors such as green and orange. That's why Technicolor films are so vivid to the point of being somewhat unrealistic. The world would be a better place if we could see it in Technicolor. At any rate, kudos to Universal for issuing TRAIL and I'm hoping they've done right by this film otherwise there will be a real feud from film collectors!

For a sixty three year old movie, the coloring, acting, and action were wonderful. Henery Fonda and Fred MacMurry were at their best.

Paramount Pictures presents "THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE" (1936) ~ (102 min/Color) ~ Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Nigel Bruce & Robert Barat

Directed by Henry Hathaway

To the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia comes Jack Hale (Fred MacMurray) to arrange the clearance of the path for a new railroad. Mountain girl June Tolliver (Sylvia Sidney) falls in love with Fred, which incurs the enmity of Sidney's boyfriend Dave Tolliver (Henry Fonda). It also puts Fred in the middle of a long-standing feud between June's family and another mountain clan. Hostilities alternately erupt and simmer until June's youngest brother Buddie is killed by a feud-inspired dynamite blast.

Paramount's first Technicolor feature and the first feature to be shot in Three-Strip Technicolor outside of a studio environment (on location), from the John Fox Jr. novel.

Oscar Nominated for Best Music Original Song ("A Melody from the Sky")

BIOS:
1. Henry Hathaway [aka: Marquis Henri Leonard de Fiennes] [Director]
Date of Birth: 13 March 1898 - Sacramento, California
Date of Death: 11 February 1985 - Hollywood, California

3. Sylvia Sidney [aka: Sophia Kosow]
Date of Birth: 8 August 1910 - Bronx, New York
Date of Death: 1 July 1999 - New York City, New York

3. Henry Fonda [aka: Henry Jaynes Fonda]
Date of Birth: 16 May 1905 - Grand Island, Nebraska
Date of Death: 12 August 1982 - Los Angeles, California

4, Fred MacMurray
Date of Birth: 30 August 1908, Kankakee, Illinois
Date of Death: 5 November 1991, Santa Monica, California

5. Fred Stone
Date of Birth: 19 August 1873 - Longmont, Colorado, USA
Date of Death: 6 March 1959 - North Hollywood, California, USA

6. Nigel Bruce (aka: William Nigel Ernle Bruce)
Date of Birth: 4 February 1895 - Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
Date of Death: 8 October 1953 - Santa Monica, California

7. Beulah Bondi
Date of Birth: 3 May 1888 - Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death: 11 January 1981 - Woodland Hills, California

8. Robert Barrat
Date of Birth: 10 July 1889 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 7 January 1970 - Hollywood, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 102 min on DVD ~ Paramount Pictures ~ (July 7, 2009)

It's all about three strip Technicolor, the second movie, after BECKY SHARP but with Californioa locations. If the Universal transfer (1935 PARAMOUNT film released in 1936) is great, you'll be stunned. Please look up my review at AMAZON.CO.UK . You won't need a multizone machine.

This was a gift for someone who never asks for anything. I knew just where to find it. This movie has been watched over and over since it has been received. It was an old favorite long ago and loved once again.

I got this movie because I'm a huge fan of Sylvia Sidney, and as always she's brilliant. The outdoor scenes are beautiful to behold, and it always makes me wonder why they didn't shoot more in color back then after it was invented. They had the technology, so why the heck didn't they do it more often ?. Don't get me wrong, I love b/w films, but it would've been nice to see more movies shot in color. -Take good old Nigel Bruce, this could very well be his only color film, although I'm not sure on that. The only thing that is a little annoying, is the constant singing of a pretty awful song, which seem more than a bit out of place. (-I understand it was even nominated for an Oscar !.) Sidney's character's quick rise to success in the big city is also a little strange and sudden, we don't get the feeling she's been gone very long. Other than that I liked it. All Fonda and Sidney fans should have this movie, and I'm sure they already do.

Please put this great early technicolor film classic in DVD so that humble people such as myself can afford it. Thanks!!!