eternally Olivia

I had another errand down in that direction (picking up some books I'd ordered from a library), so I decided to drive by Olivia de Havilland's childhood home. There was a potted flower out in the middle of the front porch. Maybe it was in memoriam. ETA: It was.

I also decided to try another one of her movies. The one I found was a lot superior to Santa Fe Trail which I watched yesterday, even though it was by the same director. It was also nearly 20 years later, by which time a lot more people had figured out how to make good movies. The Proud Rebel (1958) is a domestic Western set in the late 1860s. Olivia de Havilland and Alan Ladd are tough, hardworking, competent, middle-aged farmers set against some thuggish sheep ranchers, one of whom is a young Harry Dean Stanton. The story is small-scale and sometimes a little dull, but it succeeds through characterization and some good acting. De Havilland's character is hard-bitten with inner tenderness, a part Katharine Hepburn could play, but I liked de Havilland's more sinewy and less overly dramatic approach. Alan Ladd is stoic; there's a little boy with his beloved dog who are not always too cloying, and most of the smaller parts are excellently played, especially Henry Hull as a local judge. Also the dog, who's quite histrionic. Just about only one other brief walkon woman in the entire movie. I liked the restraint in the story being almost a romance between de Havilland and Ladd, but it doesn't quite get there.