More and…Even More

A couple of posts back I wrote a critique of the 1959 film remake of The 39 Steps, in which I zeroed in on its star, Kenneth More, as being crucially miscast in the Richard Hannay role. And I’ve been musing on that post. Not that I’ve changed my mind—39/59 is, I maintain, a mediocre misfire of a film; and More (still) doesn’t persuade as Hannay. However, I don’t mean my essay to stand as a general putdown of More himself. He was, I also maintain, a charming, talented, and deeply likable actor, able to take unpromising material and spin it, like plates on sticks, into something adroit and graceful—not a small thing when it comes to the less-than-stellar stuff handed out to actors in Hollywoodland. In which case I specifically note his performance in a minor 1958 Western, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw. Produced by 20th-Century Fox, the film was directed by Raoul Walsh, considered today a major auteur—Andrew Sarris, in his book The American Cinema, places Walsh in ‘The Far Side of…