BY DOUG OSWALD
Steve
McQueen steals a high valued automobile from a wealthy Mississippi family and heads
to Memphis with two friends in order to woo a prostitute. He gets involved with
a horse race and learns a thing or two about life. This isn’t a Steve McQueen
action movie, but it is the basic plot of “The Reivers,†a 1969 movie based on
the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by William Faulkner and available on Blu-ray from
Kino Lorber. Part road movie and part coming-of-age story, this is the second
feature directed by Mark Rydell. “The Reivers†is dipped in Southern
sensibility and cinematographer Richard Moore gives 1905 Mississippi a
nostalgic dream-like appearance. A reiver is a thief and Steve McQueen plays
Boon Hogganbeck, a friend and employee of the McCaslins who run a plantation in
rural Mississippi. Boon was adopted by the family at a young age and is a sort
of mentor to 11-year old Lucius (Mitch Vogel). When “Boss†McCaslin (Will Geer)
purchases the first automobile in the county, it’s not just any car, but a
brand new yellow Winton Flyer.
Boss,
Lucius’ grandfather, runs the family and farm with a firm, but thoughtful hand.
A death in the family requires Boss and Lucius’ parents to depart for four days
to attend the funeral. Lucius is left in the care of Boon with strict orders for
the car to remain locked up. Boon takes Lucius home in the Flyer after dropping
the family at the train station. He gives Lucius a driving lesson and informs him
of his intentions to take the Flyer on a trip to Memphis so he can meet up with
his girlfriend Corrie (Sharon Farrell) and invites Lucius to join him. They
devise a tangled web of white lies and misinformation to deceive various
relatives and soon head off for Memphis. Shortly after departing, Ned McCalin
(Rupert Crosse) is discovered hiding in the back seat under a blanket (how he
went undiscovered back there is hard to explain, but it’s not important). Ned
is a bi-racial cousin to the McCaslins and, like Boon, works for the family. Along
the way the three reivers get stuck in a mud trap set by a local farmer named
Edmonds (played to the hilt with dripping chewing tobacco by character actor Charles
Tyner) who sits in wait after flooding a depression in the road making it
impossible for horse carts or automobiles to get through without his mule
towing services. The three clean their muddy mess after stopping at a local
pond.
Entering
Memphis is a big deal and Lucius is given the honor of driving the Flyer into
town as they arrive at a boarding house run by Mr. Binford (Michael
Constantine) and Miss Reba (Ruth White). Ned departs to stay in the black side
of town (this is 1905 Mississippi) and Lucius is introduced to Miss Corrie who
he perceives as an angelic vision of motherly virtue. The wonders of adult life
are presented to Lucius in quick order when he is offered beer at dinner and gets
into a fight with Corrie’s nephew Otis (Lindy Davis) who informs Lucius that
Corrie is in fact a whore and they are staying in a brothel. Defending her
honor, Lucius starts punching and Otis cuts Lucius in the hand with a knife before
Boon arrives. Touched by Lucius’ gesture, Corrie vows to give up her life as a
prostitute and be the virtuous woman Lucius sees in her.
Just
when you think Lucius’ world can not be turned further upside down, Ned arrives
with a horse which he traded for the Flyer. The good news, according to Ned, is
they can race the horse and if they win they keep both the horse and the Flyer.
Ned rationalizes they will be in Boss’s good graces if they return home with a
winning race horse. The next morning the trio meet at Uncle Possum’s (Juano
Hernandez) farm, which also happens to be located next to a race track, so they
can strategize and make plans for the horse race. The horse refuses to run and
Boon contemplates suicide and even manages to hang from a rope around his neck,
but the cross beam snaps and he falls to the floor. The local sheriff, Butch
Lovemaiden (Clifton James), arrives at Uncle Possum’s farm and wants to know
why two adult men, one white, the other black, are staying at Uncle Possum’s
with a young boy. Boon and Ned get into a fight with Butch and are taken away
to the county jail. The two are released the next morning in time to prepare
for the race. Lucius, having spent the night with Uncle Possum, is now having
second thoughts about the race and his role as jockey, especially after
discovering Corrie has a black eye having been hit by Boon after learning
Corrie has discovered her virtue. The boy’s world has been upended, but after
Boon and Ned talk with him, Lucius changes his mind.
The
movie is narrated to perfection by Burgess Meredith as the 70-year-old Lucius
looking back at his life in this transformative period where he learned to
behave like an adult. I’m not going to spoil the ending except to state that
things work out for the best. The movie touches on, but only offers a
simplistic view of, racism and the treatment of women in the first decade of
the 20th century. Even the racist sheriff comes across as more earnest and firm
than threatening. If there’s a fault in the movie it’s the way important issues
such as racism are glossed over. The movie was marketed at the time of its
release as a Steve McQueen comedy, but it does play well as a coming-of-age
story with humorous elements. McQueen gets a pass after punching Corrie because
we don’t see the punch, just the aftermath and his apology. Unlike a book, it’s
hard to get inside a character’s head in a movie but we do get inside Lucius’s
head as an older man reflecting on his life.
McQueen
is terrific as Boon in what was an atypical choice for the actor at this time
in his career. One of the things I like about the movie is that it’s really not
a “Steve McQueen movieâ€, but more a period piece that features Steve McQueen. According
to the 1993 biography, “Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel†by
Marshall Terrill, McQueen was concerned about how “The Reivers†would affect
his image and his career, believing the movie would be a disaster because he
was betraying his fans by doing a comedy. Director Rydell knew McQueen going
back to the 1950s and says McQueen was the most difficult actor he’s worked
with. McQueen felt he would be able to control the production and the director,
but Rydell asserted himself and the temperamental and insecure actor backed
down. McQueen also clashed with Rydell over his co-star Rupert Crosse, who was
taller than McQueen at six- foot five inches, attractive and a good actor to
boot which the insecure McQueen thought would take the focus off of him. (His
insecurities proved to be justified, as Crosse received an Oscar nomination for
his performance.) I think Rydell deserves a great deal of credit for keeping
the story focused on the three protagonists rather than on McQueen. Rydell
would go on to direct “The Cowboys,†“Cinderella Liberty,†“Harry and Walter Go
to New York,†“The Rose†and “On Golden Pond.†The story is terrific with a
screenplay adapted by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch who worked together
on many classic movies from “Hud†to “The Cowboys.â€
The
recognizable supporting cast is enjoyable, from Dub Taylor as Dr. Peabody and
Lonny Chapman as Lucius’ father to Diane Ladd as a prostitute named Phoebe. The
yellow Winton Flyer is without a doubt also a co-star and was specially-built
for the movie, as no such car ever existed and a vehicle was needed thath could
withstand the rough and tumble of filmmaking. According to IMDB, McQueen stated
the Winton Flyer is “the real star of the picture.†McQueen kept the car after filming
and it was a part of his personal collection until his death.
The
movie clocks in at a breezy 106 minutes and includes a terrific early score by
John Williams. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks and sounds great with a nice
widescreen image, but the disc is bare bones without even a trailer. I think
the release could have benefitted from an audio commentary by the director or
someone familiar with the works of McQueen and Falkner. This is a minor quibble
because the Blu-ray is a welcome addition to fans of Falkner and McQueen as
well as those looking for a nostalgic view of early 20th century America in the
rural South.
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