The Shepherd of the Hills (1941)

Riddled with bitterness and resentment, “Matt” (John Wayne) lives in a small farming community that seems tormented, generally, by events from it’s past. Then the arrival of the kindly stranger “Daniel” (Harry Carey) causes some consternation as he makes clear he wants to buy some land. Luckily, one of the few sane folk around, “Sammy” (Betty Field) takes a liking to him after he proves quite adept at removing bullets, and so she tries to help him acquire a meadow, but it seems this transaction is only going to pour oil on the fire. From fairly early on, it is clear to us just what caused the festering sore troubling “Matt” but perhaps with the intervention of time, and “Sammy”, a sworn blood oath might be unsworn instead of acted upon? Though Wayne takes top billing, the film really belongs to Carey, Field and to Beulah Bondi as the even more troubled “Aunt Mollie” who exemplifies the toxicity caused by grief and anger when augmented with a fair dose of poverty, a young son with learning difficulties and a granny (Marjorie Main) who is as blind as a mole. It’s really this last character who ultimately shines light for all to see - literally and metaphorically, and as an evaluation of the noxious potency of ill-informed bad blood, this resonates quite well. There’s some gorgeous scenery (of California rather than the Ozarks) and this is an altogether more considered outing for Wayne that’s worth a watch.