Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9097 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-01-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.com
The Tall Men was neither the first nor the last Western to steal liberally from Howard Hawks's Red River, but mark this one "all in the family": William Hawks, Howard's brother, was the producer. Raoul Walsh directed, and his lusty, back-slapping way with both male-female dust-ups and testy masculine friendships is on abundant CinemaScope display. Clark Gable stars (his first of three films in a row with Walsh) as an adventurer who, along with younger brother Cameron Mitchell, sets out to separate the coolly ambitious Robert Ryan from a considerable sum of money. Instead he and Ryan wind up on-again/off-again partners-cum-rivals. There's an epic cattle drive (of course), and the chance to get snowbound in a cabin with Jane Russell. The Western locations are 'Scope-worthy, and Gable and Russell keep up a running contest as to who can growl from deeper in the chest. Advantage Russell. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Great Clark Gable Western
Gable only made a handful of Westerns, but this ranks as his best period Western film. He plays a former Confederate who leads a cattle drive with brother Cameron Mitchell. Gable And Mitchell have formed an uneasy partenrship with Robert Ryan (who they tried to rob at the beginning of the film). Ryan is also romancing Jane Russell, whose a former flame of Gable's. She joins them on the cattle drive, much to the dismay of Gable, who doesn't want a woman along because it's dangerous, but who's also still brokenhearted over his and Russell's parting.

This is a very nice western with great scenery, good performances, and a simply smoldering performance by Russell in one of the alltime sexiest women's roles in a Western. Catch it when you can.

Gable Rules Once Again with his Charm and Masculinity
THE TALL MEN is a very entertaining Western primarily set on a cattle drive with Clark Gable and Cameron Mitchell signing on with boss Robert Ryan. They must contend not only with the natural elements and marauding Indians but also with their conflicting unbridled emotions for Jane Russell. Director Raoul Walsh this time out seems to display a keen sense of droll humor taking advantage of his three male stars vying for the attention of Russell. Clark Gable as usual turns in a fine performance with his carefree charm and looks and predictably steals this film once again from an accomplished veteran cast.

Tall Tale
To my mind, this is a woefully under-rated picture; one of my favorite Westerns of all time. It was produced by Howard Hawks' brother William and so unfavorably compared to the former's "Red River", but "The Tall Men" stands up fine on its own. Clark Gable was in a class by himself as an actor, completely inimitable, and he's great here as the trail boss working for a man he once robbed, who has returned the favor by robbing Gable of Jane Russell. The Mexican vacquero gets his historical due at last in this film, as Gable is using an Hispanic team of wranglers to drive a cattle herd from Texas to Montana. There's a great confrontation with a band of jayhawkers that also has a genuine historical flavor about it. Robert Ryan and Cameron Mitchell give some marvelous support work here, too. And again, sterling direction by Raoul Walsh, Hollywood's most under-appreciated helmsman.