Hathaway Pines

The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine (Universal Backlot Series)

Description

Screen legends Henry Fonda and Fred MacMurray star in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine - one of the first films ever to be filmed outdoors in glorious Technicolor®! Deep in the undeveloped backwoods of the Blue Ridge Mountains, two young men are caught in the midst of an ancient and bitter feud between two families and fighting for the romantic attention of a beautiful woman (Sylvia Sidney). One of the most breathtaking movies ever to hit the silver screen, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is an exciting melodrama and a landmark cinematic achievement that continues to captivate audiences today.

Landmark films never lose the ozone-snap excitement of their special historic moment. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine was the first feature shot outdoors in three-strip Technicolor, and its exhilaration in forest and lake, mountain and cloud remains as fresh and privileged today as it must have been in 1936. Director Henry Hathaway, already a seasoned veteran, had a fine pictorial eye along with sturdy storytelling instincts; he knew just how to place his cast in dynamic settings without getting fussy about it (a talent still going strong 33 years later in True Grit). No one would mistake Trail for a great film, but it's abundantly enjoyable, and a model of golden-age craftsmanship.

This was Hollywood's fifth version of John William Fox's novel about a long-running Appalachian feud and its interruption by modernity in the form of a mining engineer (Fred MacMurray). The very young MacMurray, Henry Fonda (the scrappingest of the Tolliver clan), and Sylvia Sidney (as the cousin he loves) form an appealing romantic triangle, while elders Beulah Bondi and Fred Stone (the Tollivers) and Robert Barrat (patriarch of the rival Falins) nurse generations' worth of sorrows. Nigel Bruce is droll as MacMurray's colleague, Spanky McFarland represents the Great Smokies chapter of the Little Rascals, and hillbilly Greek chorus Fuzzy Knight gets to sing two peerless ballads, "Twilight on the Trail" and "Melody from the Sky." And if that eldest Falin boy seems familiar, add 20 years and a war bonnet and you've got The Searchers' Chief Scar, Henry Brandon (here Henry Kleinbach). --Richard T. Jameson

Reviews

Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2009-10-18
Summary: "Trail of the Lonesome Pine"

I have not yet viewed this product, so cannot judge it. I only gave one star as it is still an unknown. I enjoyed the movie as a young person, that's why I wanted to view it again. Memory is not sharp, looking back 65 years.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-09-12
Summary: "golden oldie"

Henry Fonda back when there really were actors and casts who could together tell a story and make you believe it. Wonderful color.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-06-30
Summary: "Technicolor is the Icing on the Cake"

A few years back I picked up a VHS edition of this 1936 and was pleasantly surprised at the reasonably good image quality including the color photography. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of these "back woods" Hatfield/McCoy type stories but I found myself making an exception for TRAIL. I've ordered the dvd version and I'm hoping it offers enhanced video over my old VHS version. Universal issued TRAIL's unofficial follow up film, 1941's SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS, a couple of years ago in a John Wayne dvd set. Another Technicolor tale of the back woods, the image quality was stunning so I'm anticipating the same thing with TRAIL. Too bad there's no bonus material (as far as I can tell) with information on the hardships of making early Technicolor films. It was a royal pain working under very hot lights and the Technicolor company insisted that all shots had to be color coordinated - certain colors simply could not be in the same frame with other colors! Some actresses complained about the way they looked in color - Carole Lombard said that she looked "funny" in color while Claudette Colbert refused to appear in another Technicolor film after 1939's DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. Viewing DRUMS today, it's a mystery what Colbert's objections were.

For those who don't know, Technicolor films like TRAIL were filmed using a special camera that ran three rolls of film simultaneously and a prism behind the lens split the image into three, one for each strip that registered blue, red and yellow. In the photo lab, each of the three rolls were run through to make one print and the three primary color dyes blended to produce the secondary colors such as green and orange. That's why Technicolor films are so vivid to the point of being somewhat unrealistic. The world would be a better place if we could see it in Technicolor. At any rate, kudos to Universal for issuing TRAIL and I'm hoping they've done right by this film otherwise there will be a real feud from film collectors!

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-05-28
Summary: ""In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia...""

Appearing in Henry Hathaway's historic full-color THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE is seven-year-old "Spanky," of Little Rascals fame, on loan from MGM.

For moviegoers in 1936, on-location cinematography in and around California's mountainous Big Bear Lake area must have been astonishing. (This was the first PARAMOUNT picture filmed in three-strip Technicolor.)

It's a Hatfield/McCoy-type story set in the Appalachians. The often-violent feud between the Falins and Tollivers has been going on for so long no one can remember how it started. Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney are distant Tolliver cousins who plan to marry. Fred MacMurray wants to run a railroad through the mountain folks' pristine lands, but he meets local resistance. MacMurray's romantic interest in Sidney greatly complicates matters.


Related item:
Henry Fonda also co-starred in the early Technicolor FOX western, JESSE JAMES (1939) with Tyrone Power, Randolph Scott, Brian Donlevy and John Carradine (as "the dirty little coward...").


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(7.2) The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) - Henry Fonda/Sylvia Sidney/Fred MacMurray/Fred Stone/Nigel Bruce/Beulah Bondi/Robert Barrat/George 'Spanky' McFarland/Fuzzy Knight/Otto Fries/Samuel S. Hinds/Alan Baxter/Richard Carle/Irving Bacon/Charles Middleton

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-05-02
Summary: "A TREAT? NO, A COLOR FEAST !"

It's all about three strip Technicolor, the second movie, after BECKY SHARP but with Californioa locations. If the Universal transfer (1935 PARAMOUNT film released in 1936) is great, you'll be stunned. Please look up my review at AMAZON.CO.UK . You won't need a multizone machine.