Spikeopath The Plunderers is directed by Joseph Pevney and written by Bob Barbash. It stars Jeff Chandler, John Saxon, Dolores Hart, Marsha Hunt and Jay C. Flippen. Music is by Leonard Rosenman and cinematography by Eugene Polito.Trail City, and 4 delinquent cowboys ride into town with attitude and carefree abandon. The Trail City residents - spineless, all except one man. One man who considers himself only half a man on account of his disability. That man is Civil War veteran Captain Sam...War didn't just destroy his arm.The few critical appraisals and reviews that exist for The Plunderers are keen to associate the picture with other notable pictures released previously, which in this instance is something of a curse when they happen to be well revered classics. Yet this is no knock off, it has its own identity. The four young delinquents here are not dashing dandy types, the makers make every effort to put their failings as human beings up at the front of the portrayals. These are young men, out of their depth, even spineless, but of course the town doesn't know this as they are too busy cowering in the shadows.The messages are obvious in the play, but Pevney doesn't use his sledgehammer to enforce those parts of the narrative. It's perhaps no surprise how things pan out with Chandler's embittered war veteran, as he wrestles with both his conscience and his disability, but Pevney has a good knack for slow burning the atmosphere to bring rewards for film's finale. Chandler, in his last Western, is suitably broody, Hunt and Hart are beauties to behold, while of the bad boys it's Saxon as a diabolical Mexican - with scary eyebrows - and the only one who is old enough to shave, who strikes the highest villain chords.Elsewhere there's a great musical score provided by double Academy Award Winner Rosenman, very much akin to something that the moody Twilight Zone episodes would use. It also at times has the feel of the score Alan Silvestri would rustle up for Predator some 27 years later. Polito's photography is crisp, where in conjunction with Pevney's camera angles and lighting techniques keeps the claustrophobia factor high in this one location setting.Crackerjack! A dandy of a black and white Oater waiting to be discovered by more Western fans. It's a keeper for sure. 8/10

bsmith5552 "The Plunderers" is essentially Marlon Brando's "The Wild One' (1953) in a western setting. Four youths having been run out of Dodge City, happen upon a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. They are led by Jeb Tyler (Ray Sticklyn) a young man with a chip on his shoulder. Riding with him are the hulking "Mule" Thompson (Roger Torrey), the Mexican Rondo (John Saxon) and Davy (Dee Pollock) the youngest of the gang.The gang sees an opportunity to take over the town when they are shown little resistance when they refuse to pay for their drinks from saloon owner Mike Barron (James Westerfield), for their new clothes from store owner Jess Walters (Vaughn Taylor) and for their hotel rooms from hotel owner Kate Miller (Marsha Hunt).Town sheriff McCauley (Jay C. Flippen) tries to reason with the gang but is unsuccessful. The town then turns to one-armed civil war hero Sam Christy (Jeff Chandler) for help. At first he refuses to get involved despite pleas from former girl friend Kate and the store keeper's daughter Ellie (Dolores Hart). Rondo has eyes for the young Ellie but her heart it seems belongs to Sam.Eventually, Sam agrees to help leading to a confrontation with the gang and.............The film has fine cast but curiously John Saxon, who is billed second over the title, has only a secondary role here. Jeff Chandler gives a fine performance as the one armed reluctant hero although Dolores Hart seems a little too young for the grey haired Chandler. Ray Stricklyn is a little James Deanish as the chief baddie. Veterans Jay C. Flippen and James Westerfield stand out among the supporting cast.I guess by now every one knows that Dolores Hart left the glamour of Hollywood and her fiancé to enter a convent where she remains to this day.Not to be confused with the 1948 film of the same name.

greenheart There is an underlying tension running through this movie from the first frame. Relationship tension between the residents, tension between the group of strangers and tension between the strangers and residents. I'd have liked to of seen 5 minutes at the beginning of the movie showing what the 4 strangers had been up to prior to them arriving at the town, it was briefly mentioned in the text but not in sufficient detail for me and I couldn't help wondering why they were sticking around as only 2 people in the entire town seemed to be under the age of 50. Jeff Chandler as the hero with only one working arm smoldered his way through the movie and although very watchable, never seemed to get out of second gear. Some nice use of angles by the director and a couple of very effective lighting shots particularly one with a swinging lamp in the bedroom. It was 75 minutes of waiting for the inevitable showdown but was still extremely watchable.

mag7bela The Plunderers are four youngsters who come to a peaceful little western town without any money. Actually they're no gunfighters at all but enjoy staying there getting all for free and watching how they can get the people more and more frightened. Onearmed Jeff Chandler wants to stay out of trouble but is increasingly convinced that something must be done to help the citizens against the troublemakers. Lovely Dolores Hart is the daughter of the local store owner and the Mexican youngster Rondo, played by John Saxon, pays a lot of attention to her. She tries to avoid him but with no success. The dramatic final scenes include an unusual fight with knives. This is a classic black-and-white western from 1960 highly recommended. You can easily find resemblances to Brando's 1954 motorcycle movie "The Wild One".