Review by Gary Tooze

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Audio:

• Audio Commentary with Film Historians Julie Kirgo, Paul Seydor, and Nick Redman
• Isolated Score Track
• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:47)

• Liner notes by Julie Kirgo

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Description: Another Western foray from the inimitable Delmer Daves, Cowboy (1958) - based on a book by the adventurous Frank Harris - tells the tale of a young Chicago hotel clerk (Jack Lemmon) who heads out on a cattle drive under the strict tutelage of a tough veteran (Glenn Ford). Featuring wonderful character turns by the likes of Brian Donlevy, Dick York, Richard Jaeckel, and Strother Martin, the film is supported by a sweeping George Duning score, available on this Twilight Time release as an isolated track.

 

 

The once-scandalous autobiography of Frank Harris was the source of the fascinating "adult" western Cowboy. Jack Lemmon plays Harris, who when first the audience meets him is a citified desk clerk in a frontier hotel. Harboring romantic notions of the West, Harris prevails upon hard-living, hard-drinking trail boss Tom Reece Glenn Ford to take him along on Reece's next cattle drive. In the months that follow, Harris' idealized notions of the West are cruelly dispelled, though he eventually becomes accustomed to the rough-and-tumble life on the trail and to the curious cameradie between the drovers. The film's most talked-about scene finds a group of cowboys planting a rattlesnake in one of their comrade's blankets as a joke; their regretful but oddly detached reaction when the bitten man dies speaks volumes about the Real West. Also memorable is the performance of Brian Donlevy as Doc Bender, an ageing gunfighter who can't stand the notion of becoming an anachronism. One of the more unorthodox westerns of the 1950s, Cowboy is also one of the best.

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BOTTOM LINE:
Cowboy is a above average western. I was expecting it to be lighter and humorous with Lemmon - but I was wrong. Delmar Daves is one of the greats and this is a very enjoyable film in the western genre. I'll watch anything with Glenn Ford regardless.  The Twilight Time Blu-ray provides their usual excellent a/v transfer for the film and further value with the commentary, isolated score and liner notes. It's a solid package of a rewarding and entertaining western - certainly recommended!