FOUR SONS ATTEND THEIR MOTHER’S TEXAS FUNERAL AND AVENGE THEIR SLAIN FATHER.John Wayne recovered from his first bout with cancer to appear in this 1965 film as the brother of Dean Martin, Earl Holliman, and Michael Anderson Jr. All four characters are wandering souls prone to trouble, but after the funeral of their frontier mother, they set out to avenge her death. Directed by Henry Hathaway (Wayne’s director on True Grit), the film moves like a conventional, latter-day Western, with good performances from Wayne and Martin, who’d already costarred with the Duke in Howard Hawks’s Rio Bravo. Nice support from Dennis Hopper (who had a legendary conflict with Hathaway on this film), Strother Martin, and George Kennedy. –Tom Keogh
Buy “The Sons of Katie Elder” For Only $4.88
May 11, 2008
#1
This western has its moments – but there is a fatal mistake in the final shoot-out: John Wayne actually manages to fire 16 or 17 shots (just count them)with his six-shooter without having any second in the movie to re-load. Hathaway should have caught that! It is also unlikely that Wayne – who is nearly 60 – could be big-brother to Michael Anderson,Jr. – who is about 18 years old in the movie. If you watch closely, there are other mistakes. The director must have been tired. The movie could have been much better!
May 11, 2008
#2
The mystery of Katie Elder and her husband may have come from American history. Doc Holiday had a lady friend named “Big Nose Kate Elder”
I have often wondered if that had anything to do with this film.
dp
May 11, 2008
#3
Please, no more John Wayne-Dean Martin movies. Just as slow moving and horsey as they get.
May 11, 2008
#4
Wayne even kept Marvin ‘on the wagon’
in next movie, which starred a young
James Caan. Solid Western-Actioner,
sort of a revenge/ambush tale. Fourth
best Wayne Western of the Sixties!
May 11, 2008
#5
Katie Elder bore four sons . The day she is buried they all return home to Clearwater , Texas to pay their last respect . John Wayne (1907-1979) is the eldest and toughest son , a gunslinger . Tom ( Dean Martin 1917-1995) is good with a deck of cards and good with a gun when he has to be . Matt (Earl Holliman 1928- ) is the quiet one -noboby ever called him yellow..twice . Bud (Michael Anderson,Jr (1943- ) is the youngest . Any hope for respectability lies with him . Directed by Henry Hathaway (1898-1985) an acknowledged master of the western , the story has a dual theme : Not only this a he-man?s story but also a drama of the material influence of Katie Elder , movingly portrayed from Beginning to conclusion ! Is this a good Western Movie ! -No it?s a bad plot and nothing realy of sense happend here .Transfer in high Quality .