Is Chisum an underrated John Wayne Western?

Sheriff Brady was portrayed by the character actor Bruce Cabot, if that name is a little bit familiar it is because he saved Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) from King Kong in 1933. Around this time the 1960's to the early 1970s he became a regular in the westerns of John Wayne. They first acted together in 1947's 'Angel and the Badman'. Their last movie together was a year after this one 1971's 'Big Jake'. Cabot's last role before his passing was as Albert R Saxby with Sean Connery in 'Diamonds are Forever.'

I have to say I appreciate how you react to some real classics on your channel. There's such a wealth of classic and cult movies out there that nobody ever reacts to and a lot of reactor content seems to concentrate on very mainstream material - admittedly some of those are really good movies but ones everyone seems to do! Its nice to see someone mining more the classic depths and I've been impressed with what I've seen so far here.

Director Andrew V. McLaglen son of actor Victor McLaglen learned the trade working under John Ford in the 40's and 50's and then directing TV westerns before Wayne and his Batjac production company gave him the movie "McLintock" to do. Director McLaglen like Ford also had a stock company of actors he used in the multiple movies he did with Wayne in the 60's and 70's. McLaglen would end up in the late 70's and 80's doing the Roger Moore action movies "The Wild Geese", "The Sea Wolves" and "Fflokes"(North Sea Hijack).

You certainly chose a good one! Even at this ungodly hour of the morning I can enjoy. Thank you as always for the video and commentary

"You know, there's an old saying, Miss Sally. There's no law west of Dodge and no God west of the Pecos. Right, Mr. Chisum?" "Wrong, Mr. Pepper. Because no matter where people go, sooner or later there's the law. And sooner or later they find God's already been there." Fun Fact: Theatrical movie debut of Geoffrey Deuel. That's Hot Fact: Although they met some time earlier, Christopher George and Lynda Day George fell in love and later married after working on this project. Casting Notes Fact: Pamela McMyler received an "introducing" credit in the opening titles, even though it was not her first feature film role, it was actually her fourth feature film role. The film has a sort of class reunion feel, given that many of the cast members were veterans of previous Wayne pictures, even bit players like Hank Worden and Pedro Gonzales Gonzales. The Duke Fact: Speaking metaphorically, Chisum says he's a pretty good chess player. In real life, Wayne actually was. During filming, John Mitchum introduced John Wayne to his patriotic poetry. Seeing that Wayne was greatly moved by the word, Forrest Tucker suggested that the two collaborate to record some of the poetry, which resulted in a Grammy-nominated spoken-word album, America: Why I Love Her (1973). Historical Fact: In real life the siege of the McSween (Andrew Prine) house lasted 4 days. On July 15 1878, the Regulators were surrounded in Lincoln at the McSween house by the Murphy (Forrest Tucker)/Dolan (Edward Faulkner) faction and the Seven Rivers cowboys. On July 19, the house was set on fire. As the flames spread and night fell, Susan McSween (Lynda Day George) was granted safe passage out of the house while the men inside continued to fight the fire. By 9 o'clock, those left inside got set to break out the back door of the burning house. Jim French went out first, followed by Billy the Kid (Geoffrey Deuel), Tom O'Folliard (Christopher Mitchum), and Jose Chavez y Chavez. The Dolan men saw the running men and opened fire, killing Harvey Morris, Alexander McSween's law partner. Some troopers moved into the back yard to take those left into custody when a close-order gunfight erupted. Alex McSween was killed, as was Seven Rivers cowboy Bob Beckwith. With McSween dead the war was over. The cattle stampede and fight between Murphy and Chisum (John Wayne) shown here are entirely fictional.

One of the better late Wayne westerns. Andrew McLagen can be an uneven director, this is one of his better ones.

I think this film capitalises very heavily on the Wayne image with lots of echoes from the past. Eg the delayed reaction of John Wayne going to get Murphy is a bit like the Quiet Man . Ben Johnson as his alter ego is like Walter Brennan in Red River and so on. But Wayne's charisma is towering and as you say very good performance in the role. Nice review thanks.

I really like this one. Ranks up there with Cahill US Marshall.