After watching Mustang Country, I'm convinced that Joel McCrea came out of retirement to do this film because he didn't want his last work on cinema to be Cry Blood Apache. This was a western done six years before in which Joel McCrea made a small appearance as an older version of the character that star Jody McCrea played. Jody also produced that rather worthless work and Joel must have regretted he didn't make retirement stick after Ride The High Country the way co-star Randolph Scott did.
While Mustang Country will never attain the classic status of Ride The High Country, it's still a nice family western drama. McCrea is on screen for 98% of it with young Nika Mina his Indian co-star. McCrea is a western old timer, former sheep rancher who lives with his daughter and her family, but is now on business of his own to catch a wild black stallion on whom a bounty's been put. But you don't just kill a magnificent animal like this. Along the way McCrea finds young Nika Mina in the wilderness making for home after leaving the white man's school. He's on his way back to the reservation to see his grandfather who raised him. When they get home, grandfather has died and McCrea is all this kid has.
So it's the old man, the kid, the old man's mare and his dog. What more do you need to make a family picture? There aren't any human villains, the closest Mustang Country has to a villain is a rogue grizzly bear old Three Toes. As for the stallion, he's up to all the tricks that man can devise. But what he isn't up to is a call to nature and the fact he's been alone himself in the woods for a long time. Good thing McCrea was riding a mare.
Only two other human actors have any substantial roles. Robert Fuller and Patrick Wayne play a couple of other cowboys looking to collect the bounty on the stallion, but he's up to their double teaming. They visit with McCrea at his camp for a bit and leave the film early.
The cinematography in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada is really first rate. That and Joel McCrea are the best things about Mustang Country.
While Mustang Country will never attain the classic status of Ride The High Country, it's still a nice family western drama. McCrea is on screen for 98% of it with young Nika Mina his Indian co-star. McCrea is a western old timer, former sheep rancher who lives with his daughter and her family, but is now on business of his own to catch a wild black stallion on whom a bounty's been put. But you don't just kill a magnificent animal like this. Along the way McCrea finds young Nika Mina in the wilderness making for home after leaving the white man's school. He's on his way back to the reservation to see his grandfather who raised him. When they get home, grandfather has died and McCrea is all this kid has.
So it's the old man, the kid, the old man's mare and his dog. What more do you need to make a family picture? There aren't any human villains, the closest Mustang Country has to a villain is a rogue grizzly bear old Three Toes. As for the stallion, he's up to all the tricks that man can devise. But what he isn't up to is a call to nature and the fact he's been alone himself in the woods for a long time. Good thing McCrea was riding a mare.
Only two other human actors have any substantial roles. Robert Fuller and Patrick Wayne play a couple of other cowboys looking to collect the bounty on the stallion, but he's up to their double teaming. They visit with McCrea at his camp for a bit and leave the film early.
The cinematography in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada is really first rate. That and Joel McCrea are the best things about Mustang Country.