Westerns Archive

This is a strange little film, a pacifist western with an ambiguous message. Clint Walker star of TV’s Cheyenne plays “Killer” Cain who upon release from prison after 18 years is determined to go straight and make an honest living. His reputation presedes however and unable to find decent work he’s ultimately forced to join a travelling sideshow and make money from his notorious past.

After a big opening action scene featuring a prison break that goes awry the film settles down to a more easy going pace with Walker travelling around looking for work, meeting artist Monica Alton (Anne Francis) and generally doing his best to avoid trouble. When he hooks up with Dan Ruffalo’s sideshow he takes the place of young sharpshooter Billy as the show’s main attraction. It’s here that the film really comes into it’s own as Billy, Ruffalo and Cain travel from town to town making an “honest” living. It’s Cain’s relationship with the two men that forms the cornerstone of the film.

As Ruffalo, Vincent Price steals every scene he’s in. He may be a conman but Price also brings a twisted decency to Ruffalo; he may be exploiting Cain but you get the feeling he’s also trying to help the guy. At the time price was usually seen either in his trademark horror roles or as a guest star on TV shows like Batman and this must have made a pleasant change for the criminaly underused actor.

The Wild Bunch meets The Dirty Dozen was probably how the studio execs were sold on this revenge western. A simple story – rancher John Benedict’s family are murdered and he recruits a group of convicts from a Mexican prison to make them pay – is enlivened by William Holden’s performance as the obsessed rancher.

After a quick introduction showing us his idyllic home life it’s not long before Benedict’s entire family are butchered my raiding Comancheros. He only takes enough time to bury them before riding off in pursuit of the bad guys, first with a posse and then, when they turn back after the trail leads into Texas, going on solo. Realising he’s going to need a little help he breaks a group of disparate felons out of prison and enlists their at first reluctant, assistance.

Holden is reunited with his Wild Bunch co-star Ernest Borgnine but unlike that classic, Borgnine is used here mostly for comic relief. Woody Strode as the one honest man in the bunch is as underused as Borgnine, in fact only Holden’s part has any real depth to it and that has more to do with his ability as an actor rather than the quality of the script.

Two years after Clint Eastwood made A Fistful of Dollars in Italy Audie Murphy went to Spain to make this revenge western but while Clint helped to reinvent the genre for the modern era Murphy was still playing the conventional cowboy hero complete with white hat.

It’s a simple story – Jess Carlin (Murphy) returns to the town he was driven out of by Luke Starr (a past his prime Broderick Crawford) when he hears that his brother has been killed in a gunfight, I bet you already guessed that Crawford’s the man who killed him, right? Throw in a little romance with Kit O’Neal (Spanish actress Diana Lorys) a lady Crawford also has his eye on (the dirty old man) and that’s about it for the plot.

I’ve always liked Audie Murphy but he was never the greatest actor in the world and rarely got the chance to break out of the western hero stereotype, The Quiet American and No Name on the Bullet being rare exceptions. Here, with just two films left before his untimely death, he seems to have accepted his lot and gives a workmanlike performance as Jess Carlin.

Crawford on the other hand was an Oscar nominated actor but by this stage of his career (he was in his mid 50’s) he couldn’t convince as a fast gun let alone as a romantic rival to Murphy. He’s clearly only there for the money and possibly some Spanish sunshine and sleepwalks through most of the film.

Kirk Douglas plays the title character but spends more time fighting his fellow white men than he does Indians. Returning to the West after the Civil War he hopes to broker a peace with the Sioux. Unfortunately he hasn’t taken into account the gold on the Indians land or how far men will go to get it.

The real bad guys here aren’t the Indians but a couple of greedy whites played by Walter Matthau and Lon Chaney. Matthau is probably best known for his later comedy roles but he could be a convincing villain and he makes the most of a fairly limited part here. Lon on the other hand just gets to act big and dumb.

This is an all action western with little time for character development. We never really learn why Douglas changed from Indian fighter to Indian lover (literally). With a star of lesser magnitude this might be a problem but Kirk carries the film with charisma to spare.

The movie is short and many of the scenes feel truncated but whether this is down to director André De Toth or interference from star/producer Douglas (this was the first venture for his new production company Bryna) I don’t know. One thing is for sure the film may lack depth but it doesn’t lack pace with eighty-five minute flying by. Toth made several westerns both for the big and small screen (he even directed a couple of episodes of Peckinpah’s short lived The Westerner series) but is probably best known for being at the helm of the Vincent Price version of House of Wax.

Star Dana Andrews made a few westerns but always seemed ill suited to them. Here he looks uncomfortable in western costume, walking around as if someone’s starched his long johns, although that could have more to do with his advancing years as he was well into his fifties when he made the film. He plays US Marshal Johnny Reno who arrives in a small western town accompanied by a prisoner he apprehended en route. He’s there to see old flame Nona Williams (Jane Russell). After finding that his prisoner is wanted by the townsfolk he holds up in the town jail, enlisting the aid of the town Sheriff to keep the outlaw safe when it becomes clear the Mayor wants him dead for reasons unknown.

I’ve never understood the appeal of Russell beyond the obvious and that appeal must have stared to sag by this point in her career. Like Andrews she was over the hill, just not quite as far over, only in her mid forties. Only Lon Chaney Jr. as the corrupt sheriff who gets a shot at redemption stands out from the supporting cast but he’s given little chance to really shine.

We’ve seen the lawman fighting off the mob who are trying to break the prisoner out of jail (either to hang or free him) far too often and this fails to offer anything new. It’s the sort of thing was done far better in Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and El Dorado but then Dana Andrews is no John Wayne.

Glenn Ford excelled at playing laid back laconic characters particularly in westerns and this film finds him on familiar ground. Here he’s John Stroud the only survivor of the Alamo and a man branded a coward for it. Of course he had a good reason; he left in the hope of protecting his family and the families of some of the other defenders of the mission. The men drew lots and Stroud “won” but he reaches the families too late, all have been massacred save a Mexican boy who tells him that it wasn’t Mexicans but white men dressed as Mexican soldiers that were responsible.

Ford is the best thing about this fairly average revenge oater, relying on star charisma to fill in for a script that has neither the time (the film only runs 76min) nor the inclination to be anything more than an action packed B western. He gets some decent support from a couple of western regulars; Chill Wills as a newspaper man and Neville Brand playing his standard villain role as one of the men who killed Stroud’s family.

Director Budd Boetticher is most famous for the series of western he made in the 50’s with Randolph Scott. He had a gift for action and here he does a decent job, keeping things moving at a cracking pace. Yet the film lacks any real depth, there’s no meat on its bones. You’re left with the feeling that had a little more time and effort been spent on the script this could have been a classic instead of just an enjoyable time waster that will not linger long in the memory.