Spikeopath Dawn at Socorro is directed by George Sherman and written by George Zuckerman. It stars Rory Calhoun, Piper Laurie, David Brian, Kathleen Hughes, Alex Nicol and Edgar Buchanan. Music is by Joseph Gershenson and cinematography by Carl Guthrie.One Night In Socorro.A cracker-jack Western this. Plot essentially has Calhoun as Brett Wade, a tough gunfighter who is suffering badly from ill health. Taking advice from his doctor he decides to retire to healthier pastures, but his past and new enemies refuse to let him go. OK! So it's very much a composite of a number of famous Westerns, but to dismiss this as a cheap knock off would be foolish. The script is very literate and the screenplay never gets tired or preposterous. From an action stand point it scores favourably, right from the opening in Lordsburgh where we get a stockyard shoot-out, pic is never dull.I wont arrest you for being naked.There's good black humour in here as well, and some outstanding scenes such as Brett playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata at his own funeral (you will understand when you see it) and a poker game where the stake is the fetching Piper Laurie! There's a constant running feud between Wade and Jimmy Rapp (Nicol), a well written part of the film as it brings in codes and ethics that play opposite another character.The tech credits are bang on the money. Location photography out of Apple Valley and Victorville is gorgeous, as is Guthrie's colour lensing for the interiors. Props and set design is hugely appealing, including a super locomotive for the train enthusiasts to gorge on. While the front line cast members (Lee Van Cleef & Skip Homeier have small roles) turn in very good work, with Calhoun once again showing his qualities in the genre.My past - every dark miserable day of it!But it's with the characterisations where the film strikes the finest. Laurie's Rannah Hayes has been cast out the family home for apparently being a hussy, she's constantly carrying that baggage with her. She finds a soul mate in Wade, a man dragged down by his life, and the weight of such could be his downfall - and he knows it. Buchanan is wonderfully ebullient as the lawman trying to get Wade out of town ASAP, Nicol is hopped up on booze and a thirst for vengeance, whilst David Brian is entrepreneur Dick Braden, a devious man with no code or honour.Highly recommended to Western fans. 8/10

Robert J. Maxwell Real-life ex felon Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown) smirks his way through the role of gunfighter and professional gambler, Brett Wade. I don't know where screenwriters come up with these names for cowboys. I've done a scientific study of the subject and no cowboy was ever named Brett, Wade, Cole, Matt, or Dutch. As a matter of fact, the three most common names in the post-Civil War West were Montmorency, Governeur, and Bruce. Be that as it may, Calhoun, like some of the supporting cast, are well dressed in black frocks, ruffled white shirts, and those sparkly looking vests that gentlemen were supposed to wear.The opening scene is right out of "My Darling Clementine." Calhoun is the Doc Holliday figure, suffering from a hacking cough that's made only worse by the smoke, fetid air of Lordsberg, New Mexico. Lordsberg seems to have been a popular place to set Westerns, although it doesn't have the portent of a name like Contention ("The Gunfighter") or Big Whiskey ("Unforgiven"). But Lordsberg is the terminus of the stagecoach in John Ford's "Stagecoach." Calhoun wouldn't find the air in Lordsberg stifling today, if he could stay out the town's sole saloon. It's only an hour's drive from where I live and it's dry and dusty, speckled with the shabby gray boards of decrepit wooden buildings in the ghost towns scattered about the area.Oh, the movie. I was pretty well gemischt by the various allegiances of the townspeople. It was all explained by the narrator too quickly for me. Somebody doesn't like somebody else. Somebody else doesn't like somebody, and all for reasons never quite made clear, except that the Ferris family (quickly disposed of) are modeled on the Clanton boys from the shoot out at the O.K. corral.Calhoun decides to follow the doctor's advice and take the stage to Colorado Springs for his health. The other passengers are Piper Laurie and Alex Nicol. Piper Laurie's role could have been handled without a thought by any other second-tier actress of the time, Yvonne DeCarlo, Mari Blanchard, Mara Corday, Faith Domergue, zzzzz. It was a genuine surprise when, six years later, she did a magnificent job as an alcoholic cripple in "The Hustler." Here, she's merely pretty with a nose designed by a French curve and two plump lips. Alex Nicol, on the other hand, is vicious and hates Calhoun. His every utterance is an angry and contemptuous sneer. When he tries to be pleasant, it's obvious that he's TRYING to be pleasant. I don't mean Nicol himself, the actor, only the roles that he was always given. In real life he may have been a paragon of virtue and affability, his only passion being collecting Kachina Dolls or something. All three disencoach at Socorro for their own reasons. Laurie is fleeing a stern evangelical family. Nicol wants to kill Calhoun. And Calhoun wants to "get some things straight." Edgar Buchanan is on hand as the sheriff determined to keep Socorro peaceful. David Brian owns Socorro's Big Casino, a saloon and whorehouse. He's a businessman with an eye for pulchritude and he hires Piper Laurie as a "saloon girl".Not to worry. Calhoun saves her from her fate. I won't give away the ending but Calhoun is forced to shoot Nicol, Brien, and assorted henchmen before leaving town on the train with Piper Laurie, destination Colorado Springs and a better life for both of them.

classicsoncall The nods to "Gunfight at the OK Corral", the Earps and the Clanton Gang are more than evident only a few minutes into the picture, particularly when Rory Calhoun starts coughing up a storm in the middle of a card game. His take on gambler Brett Wade is a dead giveaway for Doc Holliday, but unless I'm mistaken, the brief description of the story line here on the IMDb and supported by a few reviewers is incorrect. The word tuberculosis wasn't used to describe Wade's condition; Doc Jameson (Roy Roberts) suggested that Wade hadn't properly taken care of himself after taking a slug in the ribs a couple of years earlier.Calhoun gives the impression of a strong, resolute gunman as he generously stares down his opposition in scene after scene. Taking a fancy to young Miss Rannah Hayes (Piper Laurie), Brett Wade decides to linger a while at Dick Braden's Big Casino as Hayes dons the flashy red dress of a working saloon gal. There's a high stakes poker showdown between Wade and Braden (David Brian) that goes against our hero, but he manages to turn things around by the final curtain.Altogether not a bad little flick, though some of the other reviews here are overly generous in it's praise in my opinion. Only the film's length and Technicolor format help it rise slightly over it's B Western origins, as the cast includes a nice sprinkling of cool supporting players like Lee Van Cleef, Edgar Buchanan, Stanley Andrews and Skip Homeier. There's a fair amount of clever dialog too; who could argue with Rory Calhoun's character when he proclaims "There's a lot of good shooting days before Christmas."

Keith Kjornes Not bad little movie, shows up on TCM every so often. And darned if Rory Calhoun doesn't look exactly like GEORGE CLOONEY at times, or is it vice versa? Anyway, interesting turn on the gunfighter trying to go straight story with an appealing Piper Laurie and mean gambling hall owner David Brian. They play cards and throw dice for the girl, with fortunes going back and forth. Edgar Buchanan plays a nervous sheriff and not the usual dimwit he's known for and Alex Nicol chews the furniture as the edgy slinger waiting to gun down Calhoun. But then comes the typical Hollywood ending where none of the characters show even a lick of common sense. Sorry to see that ending, this isn't a half bad film until the last five minutes, and then it's Universal Studios back lot fireworks. Too bad.