6.0
After serving a five year prison sentence for allowing his men to destroy a town in a drunken spree, a trail boss is hired by the same town's leading citizen to drive their cattle to Fort Clemson. Complicating matters, a rival cattle baron also hires the cattle driver to lead his herd.
Joel McCrea
John Cord
Gloria Talbott
Sandy Jeffrey
Don Haggerty
Ralph Hamilton
Phyllis Coates
Janice Hamilton
Bing Russell
Douglas Hamilton
Richard Shannon
Garth
Paul Brinegar
Tom Jefferson Jeffrey
Charles H. Gray
Tom Powis (as Charles Gray)
Art Felix
Vaquero (uncredited)
Ted Smile
Garth Cowhand (uncredited)
Howard Culver
Preacher (uncredited)
Steve Raines
Paul Corbo (uncredited)
Director
Charles Marquis Warren
Screenplay
Endre Bohem
Screenplay
Eric Norden
Story
Daniel B. Ullman
September 15, 2015
5
The Town Of Hamilton Bids You Welcome.
Joel McCrea stars as a trail boss falsely imprisoned for his men's misdemeanours. Released and suffering at the hands of an unforgiving and irate town, he's hired by a blind Don Haggerty to drive his herd - but Haggerty has his own agenda's on this trip.
A routine Western that is chiefly saved from the bottom rung by the presence of Joel McCrea. McCrea was a real life cowboy type who owned and worked out of a ranch in California, thus he gives this standard Oater a naturalistic core from which to tell the story. If only they could have given him some decent actors to work with, and, or, a bolder script, then this might have turned out better than it did.
Directed by Charles Marquis Warren (more famed for TV work like Gunsmoke and his writing than movie directing), the piece is scripted by Daniel B. Ullman, a prolific "B" western script specialist of the 1950s. This, however, is far from being a good effort from his pen. Shot in CinemaScope with colour by DeLuxe, it thankfully at least proves to be most pleasing on the eye. Brydon Baker proving to be yet another cinematographer seemingly inspired by the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, locations.
Away from the turgid story there's a classical big Western shoot-out to enjoy, while a Mano-Mano shoot out set among the Alabama rocks towards the end is nicely handled. But the good technical aspects are bogged down by the roll call of by the numbers gruff cowboy characters, and worse still is a two-fold romantic strand that is so weak it beggars belief. All of which is acted in keeping with such an unimaginatively put together series of sub-plots masquerading as a revenge thriller. For McCrea this film is worth a watch - as it is for its beauty (the print is excellent), but in spite of the old fashioned appeal, and a couple of action high points, it remains borderline dull.
McCrea and the audience deserve far better. 5/10
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00