Scott plays a man returning to the town of Red River to seek revenge on ranch owner Tuck Ordway (Robert Barrat). Years earlier Tuck publicly whipped Scott and ran him out of town when he attempted to marry Ordway's daughter, Corinna (Dorothy Malone), at the time considering him unworthy. On his way to the town Scott finds a man, Rex Willard (William Ching), being attacked by three others and saves him only to find out he's married to Scott's old dish. During the fight Scott kills one of the attackers and wicked saloon owner Cibo Pearlo (John Baragrey) frames the peaceful husband instead. Pearlo has designs on taking over Tuck Ordway's ranch, which Scott finds out will soon fall into the public domain and be up for grabs.
Scott's more intense here than usual as he fights to not only clear Rex Willard's name but also sets out to prove to Ordway and Corinna that he is indeed worthy of her love. At the same time fighting Cibo Perlo's right hand man, the slimy villainous Peso Kid (Paul Richards), and saving the Ordway Ranch from being taken over by Pearlo.
There's a great fight that begins in the sheriff's office that smashes the place to hell and spills out onto the streets and ends up underneath a stagecoach. **SPOILERS** Unknown to everyone in town is the fact that Tuck Ordway is going blind and has been for some time. Tuck challenges Scott to a gunfight in a darkened house so that the playing field is equal but Scott soon realizes what's going down and spares Ordway his life. But the public finds out about the ranch falling into public domain and there's a rush for the land.
Fast paced at 80 minutes like most of the Randolph Scott B-movies with lots of characters and backroom shenanigans, this one is a heckuva lot of fun. It's all mostly predictable but these aren't meant to be deep pictures just entertaining, and that it is! Blink and you'll miss Dub Taylor as one of the local townsfolk.
1955 - Behind the scenes photo of actress Dorothy Malone reading
a copy of the latest issue of Variety between takes.
That shootout in the dark is kind of amazing. The way Scott's on the wrong side gives this a reach towards some of the complexity of the later Ranown pictures.
ReplyDeleteI wish the Peso Kid had been a little better drawn -- he and Cibo Pearlo are interesting villains, racist as all get out in their way. Toilet water's no subsitute for a bath!
Yeah you can definitely see steps towards the later Ranown flicks. All too often in these b-movie the villians aren't quite fully fleshed out and are kinda one-note. The Ranown pictures flip that making the villians so likable you almost feel bad when they get it.
ReplyDeleteThe Peso Kid isn't given much to do but show up and shoot. Does he even get more than one line of dialogue? Cibo Pearlo fairs a bit better and the toilet water bit is great.
Tuck Ordway's blindness anicipates Donald Crisp as Alec Waggoman in THE MAN FROM LARAMIE.