Main Cast: Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr
Release Year: 1956
Country: US
Run Time: 92 minutes
Plot
When gold is discovered in the Colorado Territory at the start of the Civil War, Confederate Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) and Union agent Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol) battle with each other in a struggle to obtain the most gold to give to their respective armies. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Review
Great Day in the Morning has adherents who consider it a minor masterpiece, and there are some aspects of Morning that do support this point of view. Certainly, the action sequences that director Jacques Tourneur has staged and cinematographer William Snyder has shot are thrilling, with special praise due to the opening and to the climactic wagon chase. These two also display remarkable taste and talent in their clever use of color (or lack thereof) to make dramatic points, underscore an emotion or give hints to the viewer about a character and/or a character's relationship with another character. Lesser Samuels' screenplay is literate, much more so than is usually the case with a Western script. And Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, and Raymond Burr all turn in exceptional performances, with Roman especially deserving extended praise for taking what could have been a stock character and giving her numerous shades of humanity. Yet for many, these assets are not enough to make Morning into anything more than an unusual but ultimately unsuccessful take on the Western. They believe that Samuels' script raises many intriguing issues but doesn't explore them as deeply as it thinks it does, which in turn impedes the action sequences from having the impact they might. Some even find much of the script pretentious and Tourneur's direction more "arty" than actual art. And while Virginia Mayo is an undeniable eyeful, she's equally undeniably out of sync with her co-stars in terms of her style of performance. Whatever one's feelings, Great Day in the Morning is a Western that is really not quite like any other, and deserves to be seen by more people. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Jack Okey - Art Director, Gwen Wakeling - Costume Designer, Jacques Tourneur - Director, Harry Marker - Editor, Leith Stevens - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, William Snyder - Cinematographer, Edmund Grainger - Producer, Lesser Samuels - Screenwriter, Robert Hardy Andrews - Book Author
The film centers on Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) from North Carolina, who comes to Denver on a whim encounter with Ann Merry Alaine (Virginia Mayo) and her posse, who's going there to open a dress shop. When they get to Denver, Owen enters a hotel saloon, and wins a poker game with the owner, who bet his estate on this last game. Along with the hotel comes Boston Grant (Ruth Roman). Both of the women in the town begin to fall for Owen. Owen however has money on his mind, and the gold of the town's confederates is what is revealed he went there for originally. But the predominantly union town wants the gold, and with the civil war approaching, the town is split. Owen leads the Southerners into a last escape attempt with the gold.
Tout Ça ne Vaut pas l'Amour (1931) ·Pour Être Aimé (1933) ·Les Filles de la Concierge (1934) ·Romance of Radium (1937) ·The Man in the Barn (1937) ·They All Come Out (1939) ·Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)
