Hollywood Offspring Give A Try


The Young Land (1959) Finishes Up The Whitney Trilogy

Publicity For Young Leads in The Young Land
Looked at this on Amazon Prime. Quality was poor, ratio wrong, but how else to see last of C.V. Whitney's "American Trilogy," which had begun with The Searchers? (middle one The Missouri Traveler) The Young Land came of Merian C. Cooper development, but he'd drop out, producer reins handed to Patrick Ford, son of John. Pat was gone by start of editing, the yarn bought in 1955, finessed through '56, put before cameras in summer 1957. Other of Hollywood offspring was lead Pat Wayne, teenaged and handsome chip off block that was John Wayne, creative group figuring maybe another Rick Nelson or some such could be forged, minus singing. Trouble was Pat's inexperience, lack of Dad's charisma, kid's voice and delivery a poor match for size and athleticism otherwise (he does a good fight with Ken Curtis, an almost sole highlight).

Lay Aside Your Hopes, As There's No Such Scene In The Young Land

Whitney put up cash, many suggestions, but otherwise stayed clear of day-to-day. He had a deal with Buena Vista to distribute The Missouri Traveler, was photographed with Walt Disney in fact, the two set upon pic-making teamwork it seemed, but Missouri did nothing, and The Young Land, for a while called Frontier Frenzy, got the go-by once Disney had a look. Warners considered releasing it, also did a pass. The thing sat around nearly two years with no one willing to distribute. Smell got in Variety's nostril when Columbiafinally took a flyer in Spring 1959. The review saw little good to The Young Land. Not that it was cheap --- a border village was built in toto, Dimitri Tiomkin did a muscular score, with a title song, but these made poverty of ideas stand out starker. I've suspected that John Ford helped out to at least partial degree on both The Missouri Traveler and The Young Land, judging by relationships he had with almost everyone involved. Outcome would have obviously been very different had he directed. Could Whitney's American Trilogy by John Ford have resulted in three features at Searchers level rather than just the one?

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