Cinema Revisited: Grand Canyon (1949)
Grand Canyon
Directed by Paul Landres. Cast: Richard Arlen, Mary Beth Hughes, Reed Hadley, James Millican, Olin Howard, Grady Sutton, Joyce Compton, Charles Williams, Margia Dean.
Released May 20, 1949. 65 minutes.
A low budget studio wants to shoot a western movie set in the grand canyon, and convinces the studio to allow them to do some location shooting. The director runs into some authentic cowboys and hires them to help out on the movie to add some authenticity. One of them, Mike Adams, is recruited to substitute for leading man Tex Hartford who has broken his leg. Mike ends up falling for his female co-star, Terry Lee, much to the Tex’s chagrin.
This western is from the poverty row studio Lippert Pictures, whose rock bottom budgets would offer a real challenge to any filmmaker. And yet, somehow, they gathered enough recognizable faces and creative ideas to make unpretentious, compact second-features that are amusing to watch all these years later.
"Grand Canyon" is directed by Paul Landres, who would become a top flight TV director, helming several episodes of such small-screen westerns as "The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp" with Hugh O’Brien, "The Lone Ranger," "The Cisco Kid," "Bonanza," "The Rifleman," and "The Adventures of Kit Carson." He would also direct non-western shows like Blondie, Topper, and 77 Sunset Strip. “Grand Canyon” was only his second directorial effort, but Landres works past his limited budget and offers a fun straightforward cleverness to the proceedings. This is supposed to be about a film unit shooting a low budget western, so the fake sets and process screens work as part of the narrative's main idea.
The fact that this is a low budget film about the shooting of a low budget production makes "Grand Canyon" sort of an inside look at the workings of a studio like Lippert. We see the harried director desperately trying to solve problems on the set while remaining within the confining parameters of lowe budget filmmaking. There is some amusement with the leading man’s self-important haughtiness as if he’s a bigger fish in a larger pond than his rather meager status would indicate. The earnestness of all involved, despite this being only a low budget second-feature, is an inspiring look at performers who take their work seriously
And speaking of performers, "Grand Canyon" is best defined by the actors who offer delightful performances. Richard Arlen, who plays Mike, was already a veteran actor, perhaps best known for co-starring with Buddy Rogers in the silent classic Wings (1927), notable as the first movie to win a Best Picture Oscar. Mary Beth Hughes, playing Terry, had already been in several westerns, and was known for everything from a B oater like "The Cowboy and the Lady," and an impactful classic like "The Ox Bow Incident." She had appeared the year before in a western with Arlen entitled "The Return of Wildfire" that was also from Lippert and co-directed by Landres. Olin Howard and Grady Sutton are on hand as typical western sidekicks who add a humorous touch to the proceedings. Their scene rehearsing the script to help cue Arlen’s character is a comic highlight, as is their attempt to stage a fight to show him how to perform such a thing on the set. In fact, most of the fun in "Grand Canyon"involves Mike trying to adapt to memorizing lines and playing to the camera – pretending to be mad and his people he has nothing against, making love to a woman with cameramen watching, etc. Rounding out the cast is Joyce Compton and Charles Williams, two welcome character actors who always add more to every scene in which they appear.
"Grand Canyon' is essentially a comedy western about the shooting of a serious western. It is a good example of director Landres working on a feature with a limited schedule and a very low budget, which helped prepare him for the confines of directing for television. And for fans of the western genre who have seen all of the classics and near-classics – "Grand Canyon" is an interesting tangent to explore, as are most B level movies from the vintage poverty row studios.
Grand Canyon can be found on DVD in a double feature with 1940s feature "G.I. Jane" (no, not the one with Demi Moore). It is available here.