The talkie and theWestern at first seemed an incongruous combination; what good were wordsto a cowboy, especially in the early days of the sound film when allaction stopped perforce the minute the lips began to move? But if anyWestern were suited to sound, perhaps it was The Virginian, an alreadylangorously paced love story set against a Western backdrop. (Based on aclassic 1902 novel and then play by Owen Wister, it was made into a filmonce before, in 1914, by Cecil B. De Mille.) Gary Cooper is an instantclassic in the role of The Virginian, a lanky, laid-back infant to hisembittered and stern sheriff of High Noon some twenty years later.Smitten with schoolmarm Mary Brian, he's not above wrestling with thetown nihilist (Walter Huston) over a saloon girl (this is the source of"Smile when you call me that"), and is fully roused to action when hisgood buddy Richard Arlen goes bad and is hung for cattle rustling. Shoton location near Sonora in the Sierras, The Virginian is beautifullyphotographed and also includes some novel uses of the new sound medium,such as the haunting quail call as Richard Arlen is being hanged.