That's why I was more than a little pleased to see a whole day devoted to one of my all-time favorite actors, Ben Johnson. The real-life cowboy turned movie star is known for any number of movies including his teamings with John Ford in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande and also with Sam Peckinpah in The Wild Bunch, Major Dundee and The Getaway. Some of them were bit parts or supporting roles, but in a career that lasted into the 1990s before his death in 1996, Johnson was in just under a 100 movies. Not all of them are that well known, including 1952's Wild Stallion.
For over 10 years, 23-year old cowboy Dan Light (Johnson) has had his eyes set on one thing and one thing only. Growing up in the west, Dan came home one day to find his parents brutally killed by an Indian war party, and one of the family's horses, a beautiful white colt, escape and join a herd of wild horses. Working with the man who found him after the massacre, Johnny Wintergreen (Edgar Buchanan), Dan has grown up into quite the cowboy, bringing in wild horses to the U.S. cavalry at a lonely, far-off fort. The horse taunts Dan with his presence, but he's never able to bring in the horse and keep him for himself. Finally, he's able to catch him, spending several days with the animal and breaking the horse. It escapes once more though as a cavalry patrol is sent out from the fort, quickly coming under attack.
This is the definition of a western oater, a simple, straightforward story that has no allusions about being anything else than what it is. The budget is obviously pretty small, and the story and setting have no bigger scope, no aim to tell an epic story of the taming of the west. Cut away everything else, and at its most basic, this is a story about a young man and his horse. An IMDB review (the only review for the movie) points out 'Stallion' gets caught up in the sentiment, ending up like a Disney movie more than your typical western. It's not a bad movie by any means. At just 70 minutes, it isn't around long enough to be bad. On the other hand, it isn't very good either. A decent enough way to pass a little more than an hour, and nothing else. Probably for die-hard western fans alone.
Now if you couldn't figure out from my lead that touts Ben Johnson as one of my favorite actors, basically the only reason I watched this movie was Johnson in the lead role. The lone review I found was mixed, the IMDB rating came in at a straight down the line 5 out of 10, and the cast did little to grab my attention other than Johnson, Buchanan and Martha Hyer. Johnson was coming off three movies that helped define his career and put him into the public eye, all with John Ford ('Ribbon,' 'Rio Grande' and Wagon Master). Without Ford's guiding ways, Johnson was finding himself as an actor. He was most at home in the western genre -- appropriate considering his actual cowboy roots -- and he was coming off a strong part in 1951's Fort Defiance, an average western boosted by his down to Earth performance.
Wild Stallion was his next movie, and it seems like the most natural of choices for Johnson to play a cowboy and his relationship (is that the right word?) with a hard to reach white stallion. Before he got into the movies, Johnson was a rodeo star so that gives an added dimension to his characters. A great extended sequence has Johnson's Dan interacting with the wild stallion, a scene that is great to watch in its simplicity, just a man and animal figuring each other out. He does all his own stunts so anytime you see a rider whipping across the horizon at breakneck speed, that's him in the saddle, not a stunt double. Don't be tricked either. There are some badass, very cool riding stunts. On top of it all, I can add this. Rodeo star, movie cowboy, Johnson wasn't acting. He was just being himself. He was a great presence and an above average actor, and you know what? He's cooler than you.
Clocking in at just 70 minutes, there's no time to waste here. The story is told in flashback through Buchanan's character explaining Dan and the stallion -- dubbed Top Kick -- and their history. Buchanan is as solid and watchable as ever (when wasn't he?) with Hyer playing the requisite love interest, Hayden Rorke (later of I Dream of Jeannie) playing Major Cullen, the cavalry commander, Hugh Beaumont (later of Leave it to Beaver) as another cavalry officer, and Don Haggerty as Sgt. Keach, a trooper who has a bone to pick with Light. An innocent enough little western without a negative bone in its body. Mostly worth watching for Ben Johnson.
Wild Stallion <---TCM clips (1952): ** 1/2 /****
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