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Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

MartinHafer Apart from some of the singing, I enjoyed "The Halliday Brand" quite a bit. While I am not normally a huge western fan, the Oedipal style story is timeless.When the story begins, Martha (Betsy Blair) is carrying on a covert relationship with a man who is half American Indian. Her father, Big Dan (Ward Bond), is a bigot and so she's been hiding this from him. When he does find out, he's predictably furious...but what happens next shocks everyone. Soon Big Dan stirs up the locals and the boyfriend is murdered. Big Dan's son, Daniel (Joseph Cotten), is furious and naturally blames his father. But Big Dan isn't finished....his infamy seems to know no bounds. Soon, however, he's pushed Daniel so hard that Daniel makes it his life's work to destroy the man.In many ways, this reminds me of one of the greatest westerns, "The Big Country". This film also is about the father-son relationship as well as two patriarchs who are too proud to bend in any way. Both should be watched...just try to ignore the moaning lady 'singing' some of the music...that "The Halliday Brand" could do without!

bkoganbing The same year that Ward Bond embarked on Wagon Train as Major Seth Adams the role that would give him star status at long last he did this rather grim western. The Halliday Brand casts him as both sheriff and local Ponderosa owner and he's one mean and bigoted man. His two sons Joseph Cotten and Bill Williams and daughter Betsy Blair are apples that have fallen far from the tree.In fact Bond is even concerned about the sex lives of the ranch hands he employs and he and Cotten go to check out who Christopher Dark who is a mixed race person in the Halliday employ is shacking up with. Bond is horrified to learn that it's Blair and they want to get married.Small wonder that when Dark is arrested on a rustling charge, sheriff Bond lets a lynch mob deal with Dark while he's conveniently out of town. Later on he kills Jay C. Flippen who is the father of Dark and of Viveca Lindfors who Cotten has a thing for.I'm agreeing with the reviewer that said this film should have had a bigger scope and budget. The Halliday Brand has elements of both Red River and The Big Country and Duel In The Sun and should have gotten that kind of treatment.Bond is proud, stubborn, and brutal. Joseph Cotten has recycled elements of his and Gregory Peck's character from Duel In The Sun in his relationship with Bond. It's not a totally satisfying welding of those two characters either. Cotten is way too much the classy gentleman to get down and dirty as he does in this film.Still fans of the other players should like The Halliday Brand.

classicsoncall Well there's certainly enough hate to go around in this picture, with the theme explored from various vantage points by director Josph Lewis. I've seen Ward Bond in a wide range of roles, mostly Westerns, but this is by far his most compelling performance. He's a character who just won't let go, and in turn, forces his own son to become a virtual mirror image of himself. The Halliday Brand is symbolized by various signposts along the way - the tree stump axe, Daniel's (Joseph Cotten) usurpation of the family trademark in the cattle stampede, and none more searing than the senior Halliday's declaration in my summary line. For he's willing to fight to keep his family blood line untainted by inter-racial marriage which threatens on two fronts. Daughter Martha (Betsy Blair) has sacrificed her entire life to be suffocated by the Halliday Brand, and when her betrothed is murdered by a lynch mob, brother Daniel takes up the cause to vindicate his death. Standing on the sidelines is brother Clay (Bill Williams), unable to prevail in the name of reason on either side. The emotional pitch gets intense as Daniel resorts to lawlessness and violence to confront his father's arrogance. It's not a comfortable picture to watch, made more harrowing by the absence of any breaks in the tension. The story never sets the viewer up for a reconciliation, and on that score it succeeds, as the Hallidays are finally left broken and dispirited by the paths they have chosen.

dougdoepke 1957 was just about the peak year for Westerns on TV and the theater screen. In fact, there was almost enough phony gunsmoke floating around to blot out the sun and maybe a few stars. Okay, I exaggerate a bit, but it's small wonder that a worthy little effort like this got lost in the six-gun crowd. Looks to me like a large-scale story done on a small-scale budget with a number of aging yet very skillful players. Never mind that dad Bond is only 3 years older than "son" Cotton or that Lindfors looks about as Indian as I do. When you've got Bond heading up the cast as a stubborn old patriarch and town sheriff, you've got the makings of strong drama. And a strong drama it is with Cotton feuding with Dad over the race mixing going on over at JC Flippen's place. Worse, Bond's daughter has eyes for Flippen's half- breed son, while Cotton's taking a fancy to the half-Indian daughter, Lindfors. At the same time, crusty old patriarch Bond insists on family tradition and, by golly, that doesn't include anyone who was there on the rock to meet the Pilgrims. Now all sorts of trouble are brewing since Bond not only represents family but the law as well.I suspect that if you dig into the screenplay a little, you can come up with a political allegory that reflects deeper social movements of the time. Be that as it may, the story is big enough and the cast strong enough to warrant much better production values than what we get. Too bad, the filming was limited to the ugly scrublands around LA. This is a package that needs a scale of landscape to match the scale of the story, which apparently was more than the independent producers could afford. It looks like sacrifices had to be made and it was setting more than cast or story that was sacrificed. Anyway, the contest of wills between father and son remains explosive, even though the racial theme has lost cutting edge to the years. In passing—note how we're never shown Cotton actually committing the harassing acts he resorts to, like burning the water tower, or scattering the bank papers. Instead, he's shown skulking around the site. My guess is that was so the audience would not turn against this sympathetic character, even though he commits questionable acts. All in all, it's a good chance to see some fine actors doing their thing, including the often overlooked Betsy Blair.