''Tennessee's Partner'' is a 1955 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by Allan Dwan, written by Graham Baker, D. D. Beauchamp, Milton Krims, and Teddi Sherman, with uncredited rewrites by Dwan, and starring John Payne, Ronald Reagan,

Rhonda Fleming Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamoro ...

, and

Coleen Gray Coleen Gray (born Doris Bernice Jensen; October 23, 1922 – August 3, 2015) was an American actress. She was best known for her roles in the films '' Nightmare Alley'' (1947), '' Red River'' (1948), and Stanley Kubrick's '' The Killing'' ...

. The film was released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

, which was then owned by industrialist

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

. While the film is based upon one of

Bret Harte Bret Harte (; born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a caree ...

's most popular short stories, " Tennessee’s Pardner," it departs significantly from the original storyline. The 1869 Harte story has also been filmed as ''

Tennessee's Pardner ''Tennessee's Pardner'' is a surviving 1916 American Western film directed by George Melford, written by Marion Fairfax, and starring Fannie Ward, Jack Dean, Charles Clary, Jessie Arnold, Ronald Bradbury, and Raymond Hatton. It was released Feb ...

'' (1916), '' The Flaming Forties'' (1924), and '' The Golden Princess'' (1925).

Plot

Cast

* John Payne as Tennessee * Ronald Reagan as Cowpoke *

as Elizabeth "Duchess" Farnham *

as Goldie Slater * Tony Caruso as Turner *

Morris Ankrum Morris Ankrum (born Morris Nussbaum; August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor. Early life Born in Danville in Vermilion County in eastern Illinois, Ankrum originally began a career in ...

as Judge Parker * Leo Gordon as the Sheriff *

Chubby Johnson Charles Randolph "Chubby" Johnson (August 13, 1903 – October 31, 1974) was an American film and television supporting character actor with a genial demeanor and warm, country-accented voice. Early years Johnson was the son of entertaine ...

as Grubstake McNiven * Joe Deviln as Prendergast *

Myron Healey Myron Daniel Healey (June 8, 1923 – December 21, 2005) was an American actor. He began his career in Hollywood, California during the early 1940s and eventually made hundreds of appearances in movies and on television during a career spa ...

as Reynolds * John Mansfield as Clifford *

Angie Dickinson Angeline Dickinson (née Brown; born September 30, 1931) is an American actress. She began her career on television, appearing in many anthology series during the 1950s, before gaining her breakthrough role in ''Gun the Man Down'' (1956) wit ...

(''uncredited'') as Abby Dean

Legacy

This film inspired one of the greatest hits of The Four Seasons. As the character based on Bob Gaudio explains in the musical ''

Jersey Boys ''Jersey Boys'' is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual break-up of the ...

'', "I'm watching the million dollar movie. Some cheesy John Payne western. He hauls off and smacks Rhonda Fleming across the mouth and says, 'What do you think of that?' She looks up at him defiant, proud, eyes glistening – and she says, 'Big girls don't cry.'"

References

External links

* * 1955 films RKO Pictures films 1955 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films Films based on short fiction Films directed by Allan Dwan Films shot in Los Angeles Films based on works by Bret Harte 1950s English-language films 1950s American films {{1950s-Western-film-stub

Plot

Cast

Legacy

See also

References

External links