moonspinner55
Married couple from the east, traveling to California by horse-drawn wagon, seeks help from a mysterious man riding through Arizona with an agenda: he's a former-sheriff after the men who killed his wife. Western saga, with beautiful location shooting in Lone Pine, CA, was produced by John Wayne's company, Batjac, but seems a highly inappropriate vehicle for the Duke (one can't sense him displaying second-hand guilt over being unemployed which caused his working spouse to be killed on the job). Screenwriter Burt Kennedy brings in two sidewinders (Don Barry and a frothing-at-the-mouth Lee Marvin) to create tension between the couple and with Randolph Scott, but also throws in Apaches, bank robbers, as well as flirtations between the Mrs. (who has a 'soft' husband) and the ex-lawman. The constant clichés in Kennedy's writing--although probably a lot less stale in 1956 than today--are disheartening. Gail Russell is a lovely presence, but is given nothing to do beyond hanging laundry and offering everyone coffee; Scott is supposed to have feelings for her, but seems surprised every time she calls his name. Director Budd Boetticher has a good eye for composing action scenes, and he obviously enjoys setting up conflict between his characters (most preferably in tight quarters, to make the audience squirm), but he isn't very talented with actors. The picture revived Scott's career, but his handsomely-pained expression has no variance, and his Ben Stride is a dullard anyway. ** from ****
weezeralfalfa
Randolph Scott lucked out that, as John Wayne was preparing to star in this film, he got a call from John Ford, wanting him to star in "The Searchers". Wayne decided he couldn't star in both films, as the present film couldn't be put off until later. Hence, Scott was called upon to take his place. Thus, the serendipitous relationship between Scott and director Bud Boetticher began. It would continue for 6 more films(which ,unlike this film, were not financed by Wayne's company), during the next 4 years, and would serve as a model for Scott's final Hollywood film: "Ride the High Country", after Beotticher had become obsessed with doing a film about his favorite bull fighter. This is probably the most interesting of the Beotticher-Scott westerns, having the most complex plot and including the charismatic Lee Marvin as Scott's chief nemesis. You may also prefer the introverted, rather sad-faced, Gail Russell, with her beautiful blue eyes, over her successors. She doesn't really do a lot in her significant screen time. In this, she was rather typical of Boetticher's women, who served mainly as an object of desire for their looks, rather than for a forceful personality or fitness as a partner in the stark landscapes(mostly the spectacular Alabama hills) that Scott's characters inhabited. If you would like to see more of Gail, I would suggest the B&W "Angel and the Badman". Sylvia Sydney, in "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" also much reminds me of her in looks and personality.One of the common features of most of this film series is a young couple or married woman that Scott's character serendipitously becomes attached to, for a time. The husband is characterized as a weaker personality than Scott's character, not worthy of his desirable or wealthy wife, and eventually is killed(except in the case of "Comanche Station", where the husband is encountered only at the end, and is blind). We've seen this plot feature before, in Scott's "Hangman's Knot", for example. A largely unspoken and undemonstrative romantic relationship develops between the woman and Scott's character, but they maintain a formal emotional distance, often in respect for their present or deceased spouse. Also, Scott is usually about 30 years older than the woman. In some films, such as this one and "The Tall T" and "Westbound", the woman retains hope at the end that she can eventually wrangle at least an intermittent relationship with Scott. But, in the last 2 films of this series, plus the subsequent "Ride the High Country", the woman is encouraged to form or retain a romantic relationship with a younger character, often with a tarnished past.Another common thread of most of these films is a charismatic devious villain: in many ways the opposite of Scott's reserved, straight- forward, character.(In "Ride the High Country", Joel McCrea was cast in Scott's usual role). In most of the films, this character was previously known by Scott and spends much of the film riding with him. Often, as in the present film, there are two distinct villains, who are at cross purposes with each other. In this film, they are Bill Masters(Lee Marven) and Payte Bodeen(John Larch), who both hope to end up with the gold in that stolen Wells Fargo box. We also see this in "Westbound", "Ride Lonesome " and "Ride the High Country". Often, as in this film, one of these villains helps protect Scott(or McCrea)from death at times, to help achieve their goal.In most of these films, the traveling group reaches its apex in complexity at an isolated stagecoach way station which, for various reasons, has been recently abandoned by most or all of it's employees. "Ride Lonesome " and "Comanche Station" also follow the present film in having in depth discussions during several nights, in which they learn more about each other. These two films also mimic the present one in having one or more hostile encounters with Native Americans.In this film, Scott(as Stride) has dual goals relating to the Wells Fargo robbery, in recovering the gold and in gunning down the 7 men who killed his wife in the robbery. Masters(Marvin) is the charismatic sneering villain, well known to Scott, who seems to know about the individuals involved in the robbery, without having been directly involved himself!? He joins up with Scott and the Greer husband and wife traveling homesteaders(Walter Reed and Gail Russell), hoping Scott will lead him to the strong box in his quest to kill the 7 men. He saves Scott's life in an Apache attack, killing one of the 7 who mysteriously appears during the midst of this battle!? Later, he dispatches 2 more of the 7, including the colorless Bodeen leader of the thieves, who have come to ambush Scott, who now, unexpectedly, has the strong box. Of course, Masters wants the box for himself, preferably without having to kill Stride, whom he respects. But , Stride refuses to give up without a quick draw contest. End of story.I should point out some of the curious geographical name anomalies included. Clearly, this story takes place in SE Arizona, which did then include the mentioned Fort Crittenden. However, Flora Vista is in NW NM, and Silver Springs in is western NV!
winner55
Reading through the reviews here, it's pretty clear that this is a film best appreciated by fans of the Western genre. For one thing, genre fans will not only forgive the clichés, they insist on them - the repeated use of stereotypical plot devices, location photography, action sequences, characters and dialog, are conventional elements that make any genre.Of course fans of the genre should also know the history of the genre, and this helps in recognizing when a particular film is either transforming or inventing a cliché for use in future films. This film is clearly a transitional work in the history of the genre. Some of this has the same feeling as films by Ford and Hathaway of the same era, especially the use of the landscape, but a lot here feels like Sergio Leone's first two "Dollar" films, and they weren't to be made for another decade. Much of the story and dialog could have been written for Westerns made in the later 1940s, but Boetticher adds a considerable edge - and edginess - to the mix in his direction of the actors, especially Marvin. Technically, none of these characters ought to be likable, and a sense of doom should be pervasive. But we learn to like most of them, and are disappointed when some of them die. There is indeed a sense of doom, but it is not the heavy-handed gloomy morality based doom so popular in some '40s B-movie Westerns, but a brittle existentialist sense that action simply must be taken, because inaction makes life meaningless.Finally, others have remarked that this is a 'low-budget' Western - but in fact this looks as good as many 'A-list' films of the same era, showing that it isn't the amount of money but the use of available resources that really determines the quality of a film.So I confess that I am a fan of the Western genre; and for me this is one of the best of the genre I have seen to date.
