So much average

Sadly Over-hyped

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Though I enjoyed the picture well enough, I kept getting sidetracked by events in the story that managed to distract. The main one had to do with the ages of the Elder Brothers, particularly John (John Wayne). The family Bible had a notation that Katie Elder married in 1850, so even if she were pregnant with her oldest son at the time, and John Wayne looking every bit of his fifty seven years, the story would have taken place around 1907!That certainly wouldn't have been the case, so let's say John Elder was in his forties. A reference was made by youngest son Bud (Michael Anderson Jr.) about the Dalton Gang, saying he wanted to ride with brother John and become famous just like them. John's response was intended to give Bud pause, stating that the Dalton's were hung. But that wasn't correct either - Grath and Bob Dalton were killed during an attempted bank holdup in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892 (another hint about when this story took place). Emmett Dalton was captured and sentenced to life in prison, though he was pardoned after fifteen years in 1907 (about the time John Wayne's character would have been fifty seven). So again, some simple math works against the picture if one wants to get technical.Be that as it may, there's something to be said about the basic premise of the picture. The recently departed Katie Elder must have been a saint of a woman as every resident of Clearwater, Texas held her in the highest regard. On the flip side, three of her four sons wound up on the questionable side of the law, and Bud was headed that way if his siblings didn't send him back to college. But first, things have to be set right regarding the death of Bass Elder and the loss of the Elder ranch to Morgan Hastings (James Gregory).What one might not expect in a film like this is the number of scenes written for humorous effect. The argument the brothers had about the Katie Monument was pretty comical, and Dean Martin's glass eye raffle was a hoot. It seemed only appropriate that Strother Martin would be the winner.Probably the film's biggest missed opportunity came when gunman Curley (George Kennedy) was killed in the ambush at the bridge. His character was introduced as the antidote to gunfighter John Elder's presence in Clearwater, hired by Morgan Hastings in case the brothers got too close to the truth about their father's death and the ranch's new ownership. So the expected showdown that was suggested never became a reality. On top of that, Curley wasn't curly, and if I had to guess, a screen writer who saw this movie might have been inspired to give the same name to the Jack Palance character in "City Slickers".

the music played as the soundtrack of this film is just so annoying, so irrelevant and so out of place exaggerated. the cast is also ridiculous, signed up john wayne to play the big brother, but he should actually play a father or even a grandfather role instead. the other three younger brothers also looked very ridiculous and just not quite convincing to be brothers. the town where the movie located also looked funny enough to be called a town, not enough residents, houses and business to be qualified as town, yet they had sheriff and an arrogant deputy sheriff. what a joke. but the most uncomfortable arrangement of this film is the cast, and the major miscast were the big brother, the 2nd brother, and the younger brother. the big brother was way too old, almost looked like a senior citizen and aarp member. the 2nd brother also looked way too old to play by dean martin. the 4th brother only made me feel very difficult to figure out how old when the mother was still able to conceive a baby and even so, the last one would have had don syndrome. the whole movie just felt awkward just by these four brothers combination. a gun fighter already pushing 60, but they had to hire john wayne to get better box office. 400 acres good land? where was it? in the barren wildness, middle of nowhere?

A good, but flawed, western. Had the makings of a great movie: a family relationship story and a mystery, all set against a Wild West backdrop. The relationship story had its moments, especially when learning of all that the mother had done for her sons, but was never concluded. As soon as the action started, that side of the story disappeared.The mystery side had more legs, but the suspense is not sustained and the cat gets let out of the bag far too early.With both the relationship-drama and the mystery-drama drama disappearing, it becomes a cowboy movie. Not a bad one, but not a great one either. Some plot holes and contrivances. This may seem sacrilegious: but John Wayne is miscast in his role. He is too old and too out of shape for the part. The part needed an actor in his late-40s at most (well, who at least looked mid- 40s...). John Wayne was 58 at the time and looked it.Dean Martin brings his showbiz charisma to his character and it works well. Good support from Earl Holliman, Michael Anderson Jr, Martha Hyer, James Gregory and George Kennedy. Good work from Dennis Hopper in one of his first cinematic roles. The hyper-active, constantly-nervous character seemed made for him.

A lot can be said about what John Wayne was becoming in the 1960s: old-fashioned; rampant, unquestioning patriot; militant right-winger, etc., etc. But there was something else that he still was: a Hollywood presence like few others before, and even fewer since. He was also undergoing a stark change in his life, one that can be seen to some extent in the film he made early in 1965 with old friend Henry Hathaway (NORTH TO ALASKA) in the director's seat—namely THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER.Wayne, Dean Martin (reuniting with The Duke from RIO BRAVO), and relative greenhorns Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson Jr. are four brothers who have returned to their former hometown of Clearwater, Texas to pay their respects to their mother Katie Elder, only to find that their family's ranch has been bought off under mighty peculiar circumstances, namely (and supposedly) a card game that their father lost, and was shot and killed for. The four brothers' reputations as overgrown juvenile reprobates (even Wayne), however, precede them; nobody's talking, not even the local sheriff (Paul Fix, of "Rifleman" and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD fame); and Fix's deputy (Jeremy Slate) has a lot against them. Then the four have it out with the man (James Gregory, who had played the manipulated politician in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE) who bought their family's ranch out in that suspicious way that he has, along with a beefy gunslinger (George Kennedy), and Gregory's vicious but none-too-sharp kid (Dennis Hopper).What was notable about KATIE ELDER was that it was the first film Wayne had done after having had one of his lungs removed (in late 1964) because of all the smoking and boozing he had done throughout his life. This required him to carry an oxygen tank with him on the set; and he had to use it a lot since he not only did a fair amount of his own stunts, but also because much of KATIE ELDER was filmed in the rarefied high-altitude air of Durango, Mexico. It didn't seem to affect his performance adversely, though; he was still doing his particular thing, being The Duke as he would be for practically every Western he did from this point forward (even in his Oscar-winning role as Rooster Cogburn in TRUE GRIT in 1969). He also was so taken with the scenery in Durango (and the cheap Mexican labor there) that a lot of the Westerns he made between this one and 1973's THE TRAIN ROBBERRS would be made in that locale.Even with Wayne's stoic presence here, he doesn't overshadow his co-stars too much. Martin, looking fairly sober, does his turn as the card-shark brother; and Gregory, Kennedy, and Hopper make for a trio of nasty villains. There is also the reassuring presence of Strother Martin in one of his many character roles; the great cinematography of Lucien Ballard; and a rousing score by Elmer Bernstein, with the title song done by the legendary Man In Black himself, Johnny Cash.While both the film and its Big Star may seem quite dated in a lot of ways, as an old-fashioned, traditional Western opus, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER delivers the goods in ways that you would expect any John Wayne film, especially one directed by Hathaway, to do. No one will mistake it for the more radical films that would soon alter the Western (THE WILD BUNCH; ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST; BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID); but for what it is and what it intends to do, one could do far, far worse.