Stand Up and Fight - DVD

Wallace Beery and Robert Taylor square off in a clash of wills and brawn in this frontier adventure set in 1844 Maryland. Beery with characteristic bluster and his career on the wane plays Boss Starkey a stagecoach line overseer confronting tough times brought by a teakettle on wheels the new steam locomotive. Taylor handsome heroic and on a career upswing that would last into the 1950s portrays Blake Cantrell a former plantation owner who suspects Boss may be compensating for his business losses by trafficking in slavery. Florence Rice daughter of famed sportswriter Grantland Rice plays the stagecoach line owner whose growing romance with Cantrell may be jeopardized by ties between her company and slave trading. W.S. Van Dyke II The Thin Man directs the action working from a script penned in part by the man who would become a key author in hardboiled crime: James M. Cain of Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity. Directed with customary haste by Woody Van Dyke Stand Up and Fight is an excellent dual vehicle for veteran Wallace Beery and up and coming Robert Taylor. Set in the American west in the mid 19th century the story concerns the efforts of empire building Blake Cantrell Taylor to construct a railroad across the wide open spaces. Cantrell is faced with obstacles at every turn none more obstreperous than stagecoach line owner Captain Boss Starkey Beery The film traces Cantrells progress from drunken roisterer to pioneering visionary and Starkeys parallel transition from deadly foe to trusted friend. The villlain of the piece is slave trader Arnold Charles Bickford who exploits his friendship with Starkey to Cantrells disadvantage. Romance enters the picture in the form of Southern belle Susan Griffith Florence Rice who has almost nothing to do but look demure and lovely in a series of attractive period costumes. Hal Erickson Rovi. Genre: ActionAdventure Drama. Sub Genre: ActionAdventure Classics. Release Date: 4 June 2013. Directed By: W.S. Van Dyke. Studio: WHV Archive WHVA . Running Time: 91. Region: 0. Discs: 1. Format: NTSC. Crew: Art Director: Cedric Gibbons Art Director: Urie McCleary Cinematographer: Leonard Smith Composer Music Score: Dr. William Axt Director: W.S. Van Dyke Producer: Mervyn LeRoy Screenwriter: Harvey Fergusson Screenwriter: James M. Cain Screenwriter: Jane Murfin. Extras: Dvd R Nr Clr Dvd Mod. Dimension: 7.5L x 0.5H x 5.4W.