1965 - THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL, big budget western comedy

 This large scale western/comedy wanted to be another Mad Mad Mad Mad World, but it's not really very funny.  The Hallelujah Trail was a disaster for the filmmaker John Sturges who up to this point was considered one of the best directors of action films during the 1960's.

Somehow Sturges got it in his head that the public wanted to see these kind of large scale epics.  The problem was that Sturges had never demonstrated any particular skill with crazy comedies throughout his career.

Although The Hallelujah Trail is generally considered a failure as a film I enjoyed it for the technical skill that the production team brought to the film.  Nobody knows how to stage a film in the great outdoors like John Sturges.

 

This epic film has an epic length, 165 minutes.  It was written by John Gay who usually wrote dramas.