Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Lucia Ayala
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Jemima
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Scotty Burke
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
utgard14
Errol Flynn's last western is a fine one. The story begins near the end of the Civil War. Confederate soldiers led by Flynn are sent to California to recruit more men. But that mission is sidetracked when the men spot a stagecoach under attack by Indians and rush to help. They soon find themselves stranded on Rocky Mountain, along with Union hostages, as they await an Indian assault.This is a pretty underrated western. I didn't give it a chance for years simply because it was one of the movies made later in Errol Flynn's career and a lot of those depress me. It helps that this is in black & white, so the effects Flynn's lifestyle had taken on him aren't quite as noticeable as his color movies from the same period. It also helps that Flynn's character is supposed to be beaten down by the war. The movie has a simple story but it's told effectively with good performances and an elegiac quality about it that you might not expect. It's better than average for what is basically a cowboys vs Indians tale. Flynn's leading lady in this film, Patrice Wymore, would become his third and final wife in real life. It's a nice cast with some colorful characters actors like Guinn Williams, Howard Petrie, Chubby Johnson, Dickie Jones, and Slim Pickens in his film debut. Jones has a nice monologue about meeting Robert E. Lee. It's a fitting end to Errol Flynn's western career. Definitely one his fans will want to see.
Albert Mazeika
Slow moving, but watchable, tho' I think describing it as "John Ford Lite" is being more than charitable. This somewhat off-beat Civil War western pairs an in-decline Errol Flynn with his 3rd wife, Patrice Wymore. Flynn leads a small Confederate patrol out to California on a secret mission from Robert E. Lee to save the Confederacy. A dozen or so years earlier the film's director, William Keighly, had been replaced as director on THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. WB management was disappointed with the early rushes on ...ROBIN HOOD and brought in their workhorse and Master-Of-All-Genres, the great, Michael Curtiz, who picked up the reins and completed what is generally regarded as THE classic swashbuckler.
zardoz-13
"Rocky Mountain" represented Errol Flynn's last hurrah in a western at Warner Brothers. This stalwart little 83-minute oater occurs against the backdrop of the American Civil War with Captain Lafe Barstow (Errol Flynn of "Virgina City") and a squad of Confederate soldiers riding into California to rendezvous with Southern sympathizers. While they are waiting for the man they were told would show up, they spot a stagecoach under attack. Our heroes rescue Johanna Carterr (Patrice Wymore), but they discover to their chagrin that she is engaged to a Union officer at a nearby encampment. Our heroes are not able to complete their mission so they stick around on Rocky Mountain and later decide to help wipe out the Indians. The western convention that the U.S. Cavalry always rides to the rescue at the last moment doesn't happen here. The Southerners die fighting the Indians and the grateful Union officer holds a memorial for them. "G-Men" director William Keighley concluded his career with this feisty little western and "Rocky Mountain" is a good western, unlike the previous Flynn vehicle "Montana." Errol looks pretty tough in the opening scenes with a beard, but he shaves it off later so that he appears as he usually did with a mustache. Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams co-stars with Flynn as he did in both "Dodge City" and "Virginia City," and Slim Pickins made his cinematic debut as a Confederate scout. Sadly, "Rocky Mountain" was lensed in black & white, but the rugged mountain scenery is simply spectacular. Flynn doesn't romance the girl in this horse opera, but in real life he married Patrice Wymore and she was his third and final wife.
dr-holliday
I have to agree with mvescovi in an earlier review. One aspect of "Rocky Mountain" which is seldom mentioned is the remarkable horsemanship of the actors involved. For the most part these guys were real cowboys. Among them - Dickie Jones, a trick rider almost from the time he could walk; an amazing athlete. Slim Pickens - a rodeo performer in his youth and a rodeo clown. (Today those clowns prefer to be called "bull fighters" since they risk their lives daily to protect both amateur and pro bull riders). Sheb Wooley - a rodeo rider as a teen; one of the best in his home state of Oklahoma. He gets to show a bit of his expertise in the opening moments of "High Noon" in his role as Ben Miller. As another reviewer mentioned, this was the first feature film for both Pickens and Wooley.And let's not leave out Errol Flynn. That fellow could certainly ride with the best, as evidenced in this film and many others, and who looked better on a horse than Flynn? My fondest memories of this film as a child were those which included the dog and Dickie Jones' character, Buck Wheat. I always was a sucker for horses and dogs.All the characters were well-defined. You knew these men, their good points and their bad and you formed an opinion about each. You cared about what happened to them. How often can you say that about characters in one of today's movies? The photography was striking and I found the characters' tattered clothing remarkably realistic for a change - more authentic than many films. These men were, after all, weary travelers, soldiers on the losing side of a civil war - their country (the CSA) existing on what little remained to them.As to the romance part - to me there really wasn't one! Flynn's character is respectful and admiring of the lady and although there is certainly chemistry between them, there is no silly romance to mar the storyline or make it seem insipid. Flynn met his future wife, Patrice Wymore, on this set. They married after the film.Finally, the story itself is not overly sentimental. The soldiers ultimately behave as soldiers, doing their duty, going to their end bravely and with honor despite any previous differences. The ending shot, with the Union cavalryman riding to the top of the butte to install the Confederate Flag, was moving and again, the honorable thing to do. A brave man is a brave man no matter which side he fights upon.This is a fine film, a fine western and a fitting end to Flynn's career in oaters. What must we fans do to get "Rocky Mountain" out on video and DVD? It is an honor long overdue.