The Cheyenne Social Club / Firecreek
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Features
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Dubbed
• DVD-Video
• Subtitled
• Widescreen
• NTSC
In Theaters : 12 June, 1970
DVD Release : 15 August, 2006 |
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The Cheyenne Social Club / Firecreek description
The teaming of James Stewart and Henry Fonda was a natural: not only were the two men veteran stars of their generation, but they'd actually been friends and even roommates since early in their careers. These two Westerns offer the stars in their relaxed end-of-career mode, with Stewart in the hero roles and Fonda as either villain or burr-under-the-saddle sidekick. Firecreek is a grim 1968 Western that carries a strong residual aroma of High Noon. Stewart plays a farmer who happens to be the nominal (but rarely needed) sheriff of Firecreek, which means he must go into service when Fonda and his scurvy bunch of desperados (among them Gary Lockwood and Jack Elam) come to town looking for trouble. This slow, stripped-down picture has a philosophical undertone, with Fonda's weary, wounded outlaw trading bitter wisdom with local girl Inger Stevens. It goes on too long and Stewart is in the phase of coasting on his familiar persona, but overall it's a decent little Western fable. The Cheyenne Social Club, from 1970, gets off to a marvelous start, with a sequence of saddle tramps Stewart and Fonda riding across half the West as Fonda maintains a fractured monologue throughout. Screenwriter James Lee Barrett was a veteran who worked frequently with Stewart (Shenandoah) and John Wayne, and some of the Western flavor is fine, but... things turn crass as soon as the pals realize Stewart has inherited a bordello in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Everybody except Fonda overacts mercilessly, and director Gene Kelly--yes, that Gene Kelly--indulges a leering style that undercuts some of the authentic laughs. Shirley Jones is around to provide comfort at the club; some predictable gunplay is mixed in with the jokes. However middling these two films might be in the filmographies of their formidable stars, it must be said that the widescreen transfer of both films to DVD is very good. --Robert Horton |
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The Cheyenne Social Club / Firecreek Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Tour de force performances by two Hollywood legends
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Unlike many movies made today, The Cheyenne Social Club and Firecreek pit two veteran actors whose consummate skill and ability to tell a story makes special effects unnecessary-the quality of the story and the acting carry both movies.
Both films feature great supporting casts, and Fonda and Stewart show why they qualify as screen legends in every scene. Cheyenne Social Club features Stewart as John O'Hanlon and Fonda as Harley Sullivan, two rough and tumble veteran Texas cowboys whose lives revolve around endless cattle drives and the stoic and simple life on the open range of the West.
O'Hanlon's brother D.J. dies and leaves him as the sole owner/proprietor of the Cheyenne Social Club, the most notorious brothel in the wild west. Fonda tags along for the ride as Stewart rides the 1000 mile journey to claim his inheritance. The men of Cheyenne consider the Social Club as a hallowed and precious shrine. O'Hanlon is shocked to discover the real meaning of his inheritance and announces to the madam, artfully played by Shirley Jones, and her bevy of beautiful women that he intends to close the brothel and open a respectable boarding house in it's place.
The firestorm against O'Hanlon by the townspeople and his employees begins a tour de force comedy romp with the befuddled Stewart trying to weather the storm while Sullivan watches bemused from the sidelines. This movie features two veteran actors and a superb supporting cast at their very best. The sex is suggested rather than "in your face" like today's movies, but gets the sexual points across gracefully without being crude, graphic or clumsy.
The end result of O'Hanlon's adventure is a classic cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for-you just might get it! The movie is bittersweet, ironic, and emotional without being maudlin, and shows why these stars from the golden age of Hollywood films set the standard for great acting and class performances.
While Fonda and Stewart give great performances in Firecreek, I find this movie to be rather Hollywood formula and too close to "High Noon" in the concept of the story. But, if you love Fonda and Stewart as actors, it's hard not to like how these legendary actors tell the story, as rivals pitted against each other on opposite sides of the law. The problem is not the actors, but the story they have been given has been done before. So they have little room to breathe fresh life and a new perspective into a basic formula western.
What Stewart does so well is make you sympathetic and willing to support his underdog character. He must use his wit and grit to overcome evil men and seemingly insurmountable odds, a classic position for Stewart in so many movies. Fonda gives a credible performance as the "bad-guy", but his performance in that type of role in such classics as "Once Upon A time in the West" gave him a better vehicle to explore his turn as an evil and criminal man with no scruples and little compassion. |
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The Cheyenne Social Club / Firecreek dvd movie.