Screen Directors Playhouse Partners (1955–1956) Online

Slender story but pleasingly done. Young Terry (DeWilde) is an orphan employed by a cruel foreman (Wilke) on a small ranch. Rodeo champ Tibbs's borrowed car breaks down at the ranch one day where he meets Terry and the foreman. Sympathetic to the boy's situation, Tibbs accompanies the rodeo-ambitious lad to compete in his first rodeo, but without telling the youngster his well-known true name. The story goes on from there.

Frankly, I thought Tibbs the actor did a pretty good job, better than I would expect from a real-life rodeo roughneck. He and DeWilde make good low-key partners. Kind of sad to see the star-crossed DeWilde knowing how tragically his promising career would end. There're a couple bucking bronco scenes that may not appeal to everyone, but are pretty well blended in. All in all, it's a low-key entry without being anything memorable, unless you're old enough to recognize the name Casey Tibbs.

Veteran director Tay Garnett helms this very slight story in which Brandon DeWilde -- the kid from SHANE -- gets to exhibit hero worship, this time for real life rodeo star Casey Tibbs. Mr. Tibbs can't act for beans and Master DeWilde can't manage more than one emotion, but Garnett ekes out this run-away-and-join-the-rodeo piece with some nice shots of a rodeo in action.

Everything about this piece is well done, but it doesn't add up to more than the sum of its parts and occasionally you can see the calculation of sentimentality showing through. I'm all in favor of sentiment and happy endings, but the slightness of the story and the straightforward manner in which it is told is not particularly engaging. The result is adequate, but no more.

Screen Directors Playhouse: Partners (1956)

** (out of 4)

Average entry in the series has a young boy (Brandon DeWilde) working on a ranch where he's abused by the owner and another worker. He goes to a rodeo one day with a stranger (Casey Tibbs) not knowing he's actually the famous rodeo star. To say anything more would pretty much ruin the twists and turns in the story but if you've ever seen a movie before in your life then you're going to figure out what they are within the first ten-minutes anyways. Overall this is a fairly decent story but there are just a few problems with it including one major one. The biggest problem is the performance of Tibbs who is playing himself here but he seems to be trying to get away with a Dean or Brando impersonation. At times the performance is very laughable including one scene where he first shows up on the ranch and see the young boy get thrown from a horse. Just look at the expression on his face for one of the biggest laughs of your life. This is one of the most moments of overacting that I've ever seen and I can't believe that the director and producer would be mean enough to keep it in the film. DeWilde, best known for his role in SHANE, is pretty good in his part and makes it quite believable. I thought the story of friendship between the two was quite touching even if it is predictable from start to finish.