JohnHowardReid Executive producer: Scott R. Dunlap. Copyright 1 May 1949 by Allied Artists Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 15 September 1949. U.S. release: 1 May 1949. U.K. release: 1 May 1950. Australian release through British Empire Films: 5 January 1950. Australian length: 7,332 feet. 81 minutes. Cut to 78 minutes (USA); 76 minutes (UK).COMMENT: A commendable Allied Artists attempt to make an "A" western (although the film was actually released as a "B" in England and Australia). It certainly demonstrates what the studio's usual contract talent (both in front of and behind the cameras) could do, given a halfway generous budget. True, the cast assembled here is more impressive than normal, with quickie players like Miljan and Hale giving particularly solid performances. Bit players include a number of well-known Monogram faces including Tim Ryan (as a drunk), Kenne Duncan, I. Stanford Jolley and stuntman Chuck Roberson.Director Lesley Selander has contrived some great action sequences. We especially remember a marvelous fist fight between husky Rod Cameron and two brutal assailants in a barn. But the general pace of the film is quite attractively slow, so as to show off the fine pictorial qualities of Neumann's sepia photography and the aural appeal of Kay's subdued, piano-tinkling score.The script, particularly in its heady dialogue, reveals the skillful hands of Sam Newman and W. Scott Darling.

boblipton This movie may be memorable for being Blake Edwards' second movie script, but it remains a B western with a good budget, one of Allied Artists' efforts to lift itself out of the shrinking market for Saturday morning kiddie fare. It does so by some adult themes and a bit of depth in its character study, as cattle rancher Rod Cameron denies water to the nesters coming onto the range, despite the obvious attraction he and Gale Storm have for each other.It's also visually darker than most B westerns, with the darkness lurking around the edge of the frame as people ride their horses, and in several still compositions shot, apparently, in dense forest. Everyone tries to make this a more important movie than it winds up being by techniques adopted from other film genres, but Rod Cameron's simple, muscular line readings defeat the effort.

bkoganbing Big budget is a relative term and while Stampede wouldn't pass muster as a B film at MGM, Paramount etc. it's a good and grim western from Allied Artists. It's a cut rate version with the same issues about ranchers and homesteaders that MGM's Sea Of Grass or Paramount's Shane have. In a far more humorous vein John Wayne's McLintock explores the same issues.Rod Cameron certainly sits as tall in the saddle as the Duke did. Unlike John Wayne, Cameron never escaped B pictures. He's the local McLintock in Stampede who built himself a nice cattle empire with his more easy going brother Don Castle. He's also built himself a dam and settlers who've bought parcels of land now have no water.There seems to be a lot of personal animus directed at Cameron by villains John Eldredge and John Miljan for no discernible reason other than jealousy. They seem to want to bring him down just on general principles. Among the settlers that Miljan and Eldredge bring are Steve Clark and his daughter Gale Storm.Cameron may never have cracked the A picture market as a star. But Stampede is a fine B western and the climax is the title.

ptb-8 Big budget Allied Artists western 'spectacular' has two really interesting moments: THE ALLIED ARTISTS LOGO done in a TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX style which is a very effective copy; and the big Stampede itself where hundreds of mad cows steer their way over a cliff. Maybe AA borrowed the Lydeckers from Republic or maybe they hopped over the studio fence to help out after hours, because it is a very well created scene in miniature that is quite convincing. From memory it is in a lightning storm...not a Gale Storm but a real studio storm. Gale Storm IS in this film, fresh from the Monogram musical blockbuster SUNBONNET SUE and perhaps some campus hi-jinks with Elyse Knox in another University set swing programmer (usually with Frankie Darro and Manton Moreland)....but I digress. STAMPEDE is a romantic western drama made with an attempt to showcase ALLIED ARTISTS as an arm of MONOGRAM that delivers bigger budget pix for the new age of 'competing with television' in the USA of 1949. Written by Blake Edwards!