weezeralfalfa One of the main plot threads that runs through most of this Technicolor 1950 western is the question of whether younger brother Jeff((John Drew Barrymore) is going to continue to emulate brother Tom(Robert Sterling), who runs a legitimate cattle ranch in Texas, or brother James(Robert Preston), commonly referred to as Wichita. who is landless, and seems to roam around doing odd legitimate and illegitimate jobs. In contrast to the serious disposition of Tom, Wichita seems laid back, always chuckling, confident of himself, and of his popularity with women, as demonstrated by his pawing of Mrs. Kathy Boyce in her home, with her husband Earl(Jack Elam) absent......Against his better judgement, Tom finally accepts Wichita as a temporary member of his team, deciding that he needs a forceful leader in his battle with rustlers. But, besides protecting Tom's cattle from being stolen, Wichita and his small gang, including brother Jeff, engage in some rustling of their own. He kills one of the hands of neighbor John Gall, caught rustling with several others. Then, he sneaks into the sheriff's office afterhours and assassinates Sheriff Gall: son of John Gall. Apparently, he had connected the enemy rustlers, who had just exited from the sheriff's office, with Gall, and decided to cut off the head of the dragon. Interestingly, Father Gall decided to appoint himself the new sheriff! Then, he sneaked into the house of Earl and Kathy Boyce, and assassinated Earl, who was sitting at the kitchen table. It was not crystal clear why he did this, as Earl was not connected with the rustling. Probably, he wanted to eliminate Earl as a possible witness to his rumored killing of Tom's previous foreman, in a night raid. Also, possibly he wanted to eliminate him as Kathy's husband.......Then, there is the climactic shootout between Gall's rustlers and Wichita's gang plus Tom and Sam(Chill Wills), who arrived later. Brother Jeff is seriously wounded, and captured. But each of the brothers, including Jeff, kills one of the 3 rustlers. Tom takes Jeff to his cabin for recovery, and vows he will bring Wichita in to the new sheriff(meaning he will kill him), for his presumed(although unproven) guilt in killing the Sheriff and Earl Boyce. A second climax event happens when Wichita shows up at Tom's house, where Tom, Sam, Jeff, and Kathy are waiting. The atmosphere is tense, as the men spread themselves out some meters apart. One gun is pulled from it's holster, quickly followed by several others. Soon, one man is dead.....We wonder the fate of Tom. Is he arrested as an accomplice to Wichita's murders? Does he leave the area, as several have suggested? Does Kathy leave the area, as threatening to do?. Do Tom and Kathy resume their secret romantic dallying, now that she is a widow? Does brother Jeff resume his role as a hand for Tom, now that Wichita is dead? Or does he continue to seek a life like Wichita's....... As frequently cast, Robert Preston's character of Wichita doesn't seem all bad. He did his job of eliminating the rustling, but his methods weren't approved by the legal establishment, nor the town's people. Another classic example of a Preston character who is partly good and partly bad is seen in the Cecil DeMille epic "Union Pacific"......The action was filmed on site at several locations in north Texas, including Palo Dura Canyon, sometimes providing rather spectacular settings for battles or roaming.......See it at YouTube..Don't confuse this film with the 1960 film of the same title, but with quite a different setting and story.

classicsoncall The summary line above, spoken by James Cloud (Robert Preston) to his brother Tom (Robert Sterling) just about says it all. Jim, AKA Kid Wichita, has a way of making things happen, only trouble is, he usually leaves dead bodies where he's been. Not the sort of mentoring Tom envisions for younger brother Jeff, who likes what he sees in Jim, especially when defending their ranch against local Texas cattlemen.The opening credits state 'Introducing John Barrymore Jr. as the Younger Brother', in this his very first screen appearance. That seemed rather odd to me, particularly since he was addressed as Jeff almost immediately into the story. Approximately eighteen at the time of this movie, he bears a passing resemblance to Sean Penn. No stranger to personal and legal problems throughout his career as well as estrangement from his family, I was left wondering if his daughter Drew Barrymore might have ever seen this picture. I'm inclined to think not.On the subject of resemblances, I was also struck by the thought that the young Robert Sterling looked a bit like Roy Rogers early in his career. Knowing Sterling previously only from his role as George Kerby in the early 1950's TV series 'Topper', I thought he looked out of place in a Western, but that might just be me. His character becomes emboldened by his brother's resourcefulness at creating trouble, and provides some of the edginess to this not so typical story. Minor subplots abound, including the relationship rancher John Gall (John Litel) has with his son the Sheriff (who Kid Wichita kills), and the troubled marriage between Kathleen Boyce (Cathy Downs) and her husband Earl (who Kid Wichita kills). Chill Wills rounds out the main cast as one of Tom Cloud's hired hands, and figures in the somewhat predictable finale.What's not quite predictable is how things eventually wind up there, and for that reason, this Western earns points for following a less traveled, hence not quite as formulaic a plot as a lot of good brother/bad brother Westerns do. Combined with the eclectic casting of the principals, it's one I'd recommend, even if you have to endure some of the jump cuts and sloppy editing that I experienced with my copy.

bkoganbing It's entirely possible that the VHS that I watched of this film was badly edited because the film seemed to begin in the middle. The Cloud Brothers, Robert Sterling and John Drew Barrymore, have settled in some country where there's a nice range war in progress. They've got both big cattle baron John Litel and a group of smaller ranchers against them. All they want to do is be left alone, but neither group will allow that.A third brother, Robert Preston, arrives on the scene. He's a noted outlaw named Kid Wichita and he really ratchets up the violence quotient. That also includes killing the sheriff who is Litel's son and Jack Elam who's married to Cathy Downs who he's taking a fancy to.This is a nice cast and John Drew Barrymore certainly showed he had the potential to be an earlier version of James Dean. The heritage of that name proved too much for that man though. One of the more ambitious undertakings from Eagle-Lion Studios. But The Sundowners was flawed in the execution.The Robert Mitchum/Deborah Kerr Sundowners was far better.

chinaskee This is a decent Western that has a couple of fine performances by Robert Preston,who makes a great bad-guy, as "Kid Wichita" and Cathy Downs,veteran of numerous Westerns,Film-noirs and Comedies,as "Kathleen Boyce".The Technicolor and the great editing are a plus,and there's also a well-done shoot-out in a canyon.This is a B-Western that's definitely worth a look.