It is a performances centric movie

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It's rare to come across a cult movie that I can not only unreservedly recommend but that I feel fully justifies its cult reputation. Of course, maybe the cultists like the movie for the wrong reasons. But with The Shepherd of the Hills it's hard to find wrong reasons. Everything about the picture is so right. The luminous performances: Wayne, perfectly cast, giving one of the best of his entire career; Carey, so winning and sympathetic, making the title role so memorable it will become a point of reference for the rest of your life; Marjorie Main, equally unforgettable as the blind woman who sees too much too quickly; Beulah Bondi, never more embittered or meaner-spirited as the real head of the Matthews clan; Marc Lawrence, giving the finest and certainly the most unusual study he ever attempted as the pathetically inarticulate Pete. So many others - Ward Bond who has the realistic fight with Wayne, Fuzzy Knight as the singer, Olin Howland as the squirrelling storekeeper... And all brilliantly directed by Henry Hathaway too. Henry, as I've said before, is the sort of director I most admire. For a start, he doesn't direct actors. He expects them to know their craft and is equally impatient with amateurs and hams. Secondly he's a specialist in action and outdoors work. He once said that he always preferred location assignments because it took him well away from front office interference. Hathaway ran a tight unit, turning out the movies he wanted to make in the way he wanted to make them. He had an eye for natural scenery, and could see its dramatic and story possibilities. Weeping Meadow is just that. The hill country in Shepherd is both brutal and supremely picturesque. Of course it's the script's large array of bizarre, vividly realized characters, plus the unusual setting in which they move, and the age-old conflicts which they generate (particularly Youth against Age, Idealism against tainted or even repented Experience, Freedom and/or Libertarianism against Authority) which has propelled The Shepherd of the Hills into such firm favoritism with present-day cultists. The movie of course has these qualities. But it has something else which is not so popular to-day and which indeed, both when the novel was written back in 1907 and throughout its various film versions, was the main reason for its existence. It has a spirituality, a supernatural element, a discussion of the Two Ways, a depiction of the classic struggle between good and evil, and the power of Light to overcome Darkness.

Stranger Daniel Howitt (Harry Carey) arrives in an Ozarks mountain community and has a positive affect on those around him, including Matt Matthews (John Wayne), who is bent on killing his father who abandoned his mother when he was a baby. John Wayne's first color film is more of a starring vehicle for Harry Carey, despite the billing. Wayne gives a very nice performance. Carey is excellent and has a commanding presence throughout the film. He just owns every scene he's in, even when he's not saying anything. Pretty Betty Field is all kinds of adorable and likable as the girl in love with Wayne. The supporting cast is terrific. Beulah Bondi is great as Wayne's evil aunt. You can't really have a hillbilly movie without Marjorie Main, so she's here. It also wouldn't be a proper John Wayne movie without Ward Bond and John Qualen, so they're here too.There were quite a few hillbilly movies in the '30s and '40s. Some outright made fun or were judgmental and some were just that way incidentally. This is one of the rare ones that doesn't look down on the Ozarks people, although they do make use of stereotypes. It's a very pleasant movie, slow and soft throughout most of its running time. The climax leaves a little to be desired and the central twist you'll see coming immediately but it's still a good movie worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the actors involved.

Henry Hathaway's "The Shepherd of the Hills" represented the first time that John Wayne and he worked together. Hathaway was the director of record on other John Wayne movies, among them "Circus World," "The Sons of Katie Elder," and "Legend of the Lost." "The Shepherd of the Hills" is an early John Wayne saga, made just four years after "Stagecoach" catapulted the Duke to stardom. Wayne isn't really the hero of this saga. The hero is portrayed by none other than Harry Carey. Later, Carey would play the lawman opposite Wayne in "Angel and the Badman." He shows up in the Ozarks where the Wayne clan makes bootleg whiskey. Revenue agents raid the hills, wound a moonshiner, but they never find young Matt's family moonshine operation. Meantime, Matt visits his mother's grave in a valley. He has vowed to kill his father if he ever sees him again. Matt isn't particularly friendly toward Daniel Howitt (Harry Carey) when he meets him for the first time. Nevertheless, Matt's sweetheart Sammy Lane (Betty Field) likes him. She has seen him help extract a bullet from a moonshiner. Eventually, Howitt visits Matt's family and buys land in a sacred part of the county to the chagrin of Matt. You see, Matt didn't want anybody to live where his mother died. Grudgingly, he grows fond of Howitt. Howitt helps an older woman regain her sight. This is neither a typical Hathaway or Wayne movie. There is very little fighting. Some of the conversations are interesting. It is a shock to see veteran gangster Marc Lawrence playing a half-wit. Of course, Carey delivers an impeccable performance and he makes all this folksy baloney work better than it should.

**possible spoilers**Although it has John Wayne in the cast it is not really a western. It is more a study of the Ozarks and the people who live there. Although some scenes are filmed in the studio you do get a feeling of the landscape of the area and the kind of people it produces; sturdy, suspicious, superstitious, kindly, ignorant and wise. Much like any isolated community around the world. The film is surprisingly good. The acting is solid all round. John Wayne makes a good attempt at the Young Matt role, bringing out well the confusion and conflicts in his mind. Beulah Bondi is riveting as the bitter Aunt Mollie. Harry Carey is good as ever. Betty Field as Sammy Lane is excellent and it is her who holds the film together. It is through her eyes we mainly see things. She is also quite sexy in her tight jeans and short tops. Some of the scenes are exceptional; when Daniel Howitt is cashing a never seen before cheque, when Granny Becky has her eyes uncovered after an operation, when Young Matt talks about how love is so complicated, when Daniel Howitt takes possession of the old house in Moaning Meadow, when Aunt Mollie cremates her dead son and herself, when Pete the mute brother is discovered in a stream of light pouring through a window trying to catch dust motes. All directed without sentimentality but with real feeling.It is one of those films which did not promise much from the TV listings but actually delivers much more than one expects.