The Sundowners

The Sundowners, an eighty-minute long color film from 1950, seems to include all the requisite elements of a typical mid-twentieth century Western: The lone rancher doing his best to hold out against more established ranchers, with only a younger brother and one neighbor to support his efforts; an ineffectual sheriff in the pay of or under the thumb of the most powerful rancher in the area; a female neighbor who doesn't seem too fond of her wimpy husband but is overly fond of the unattached lone rancher; a dead foreman, cattle rustling, more dead bodies, a secret, and of course a climactic gun battle. 

And into this mix comes a man with a name like that of an outlaw: Kid Wichita, who, for some reason unexplained until near the end of the movie, takes an interest in both the welfare of the lone rancher and the lonely wife.  The rancher welcomes Wichita's assistance and that of his two equally disreputable friends but gradually seems less sure that accepting his help is the right thing to do.  On the other hand, the rancher's younger brother, who at first wanted to kill Wichita--this gunslinger goes by Wichita, not Kid--eventually ends up practically hero-worshipping him.

The leads are Robert Sterling as the rancher, Tom Cloud, and Robert Preston as Kid Wichita, the outlaw.  Chill Wills (Bixby in The Biggest Game in the West) is the rancher's friend, and Jack Elam (Boot Coby in Bad Night in Big Butte) is the unloved husband.  Elam was unrecognizable but in the twenty-odd years between The Sundowners and his role in ASJ, Wills hadn't changed much.

Overwrought and melodramatic at times, The Sundowners was filmed in Texas and the location shots raise this movie slightly above average as a result.  A bonus feature consists of filmographies of the major actors and the director.

Law and Order

Having watched several Westerns starring one film icon, John Wayne, I figured it was time to vary my viewing habits so I decided to watch Law and Order, starring Ronald Reagan.  This 80-minute long color film also stars Dorothy Malone. 

The make-up was done by Bud Westmore, who also did the make-up for the ASJ Pilot.  Jack Kelly (Dr. Chauncey Beauregard in Night of the Red Dog) has a small role and Boyd “Red” Morgan (Augie Helms in The Fifth Victim) has an uncredited role but I only knew they were in this movie by looking at the credits.

Reagan is Frame Johnson, the law in Tombstone, Arizona.  But he gives up his job as marshal after bringing in one last outlaw and, along with his two brothers and the local undertaker, ride off with a hearse to Cottonwood, where they plan to be ranchers.  Naturally, their plan does not proceed as smoothly as they would like and the rest of Law and Order shows why. 

Chiefly because Cottonwood is run by a businessman whom Frame ran out of Dodge City years ago and the local sheriff is in his pocket.  The few honest people in Cottonwood, led by a judge, implore Frame to take on the marshal’s job for that town but his ladylove Jeannie, who runs a saloon back in Tombstone, like Mary in Exit from Wickenburg except that Jeannie inherited the establishment from her father instead of her husband, abhors the idea of Frame being a lawman because she is afraid he’ll be killed so he keeps refusing. 

But Law and Order is a Western from 1953 so ultimately Frame can’t help but take on the job to clean up the corrupt town, especially after tragedy strikes.  The relationship between Frame and his brothers, who were hard to distinguish from each other, and the undertaker, who provided the comic undertone, is what really drives Law and Order.  In that respect, it reminded me of Tombstone, with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.  There is also an element of Romeo and Juliet to the movie. 

Even though this is a Universal Studios production and was clearly filmed there as well as on location, the sets did not look at all like those in ASJ twenty or so years later.

The Ride Back

If The Bounty Hunter and the original 3:10 to Yuma crossed each other, the intersection would be The Ride Back.  Starring William Conrad as Hamish, a sheriff on the trail of an outlaw, played sympathetically by Anthony Quinn, this 1957 black-and-white film is a satisfying eighty minutes up until just before the very end.

The peace and tranquility of a typical Western town is shattered by a sudden gunfight and a man on a horse galloping furiously away.  The Ride Back then cuts to William Conrad, considerably thinner here than in his later TV appearances, who arrives at what appears to be the border between the United States and Mexico.  A halting conversation between Conrad, whom the audience learns is a lawman, and the official in charge, occurs in English and Spanish, which is not subtitled for the audience.  I appreciated the lack of translation into English as it created a more realistic feeling and connection to what Conrad’s character was going through.

Eventually, he encounters Robert Kallen, the man accused of murder whom Hamish intends to bring back to the U.S. to face trial—a fair trial, he keeps insisting as The Ride Back progresses.  But there are obstacles in the way before he achieves his objective: Kallen is unwilling to go without a struggle, reminding me of Heyes’ and Curry’s repeated attempts in The Bounty Hunter to escape captivity.  There’s even a scene where the outlaw grabs hold of a weapon and aims it at his captor and discovers…  Well, watch the movie and find out! 

The first problem is Kallen’s Mexican lover, played by Lita Milan, who refuses to stop trying to free him.  She is definitely not a simpering, insipid female of the sort often seen in Westerns!  Another obstacle that plays an important part in The Ride Back is the possibility of an attack by Apaches. 

The way the Indians are portrayed in this movie reminded me of Six Strangers in Apache Springs: They are nameless, mostly faceless, silent, and basically stereotypes.  In the second half of the film, a mute little girl is found and becomes attached to the two male leads.  This allows Hamish and Kallen to discuss various issues on the pretext of helping the child, even though she slows down their journey. 

At one point towards the end, Hamish makes a very moving speech explaining why he's so intent on bringing in the outlaw.  Kallen’s behavior reminded me a lot of the way Glenn Ford behaved in 3:10 to Yuma, especially in the hotel room when the characters were waiting for the train to arrive.  Both William Conrad and Anthony Quinn are excellent in their roles in The Ride Back and it is very interesting to listen to Quinn speaking Spanish.  The audio at times is difficult to hear, however, even with the volume as high as it could go. 

Unfortunately, the ending of The Ride Back is abrupt and completely predictable but aside from the last minute or so, this is a very enjoyable movie of two men on opposite sides of the law who face off against each other and slowly, grudgingly, come to respect each other.

Hellfire

Opening with scenes of such wicked and sinful behavior as beatings and shootings, the first several minutes of Hellfire are shown through vivid red flames that surround the action on screen and highlight the B-movie nature of the film.  Shot in something called Trucolor in 1949, the colors have now faded and the movie would benefit from being remastered as the plot, while melodramatic in places, rises above its origins and holds the viewer’s interest for all its ninety minutes.

Hellfire stars Marie Windsor (Helen Archer in High, Lonesome Country) as Doll Brown, an outlaw on a quest, whom we only meet about thirteen minutes into the movie.  It first focuses on a cardsharp, whom we come to find out is named Zebediah Smith, played by William Elliott.  Zeb is also on a mission and when he encounters Doll, they end up riding together as he tries to help her. 

A young-looking Forrest Tucker (Deputy Harker Wilkins in the Pilot) plays Bucky McLean, a marshal who is friends with Zeb and is on the trail of Doll.  Paul Fix (Tom Hansen in The Day They Hanged Kid Curry, Clarence Bowles in Night of the Red Dog, and Bronc in Only Three to a Bed) has a small role as one of a trio of mean brothers out to get Doll.

Additional connections to ASJ abound: There is an interesting discussion about faith, reminding me of Heyes’ line in The Man Who Broke the Bank at Red Gap where he tells Kid, “You gotta put a little more faith in your fellow man.”  Doll’s cynical response: “Faith—you can have it!”  Doll Brown sings in a saloon; however, she is rather more successful at getting the patrons to give her money than Michelle Monet was in Journey from San Juan, and her songs, “Shoofly” and “Bringing in the Sheaves” were a lot more enjoyable.  Zeb preaches to uncaring cowboys and at first is just as unsuccessful as Sister Grace was in Six Strangers at Apache Springs in getting them to contribute to the Lord but at the end of Hellfire, despite his lack of fire-and-brimstone-sounding sermons, he manages to persuade a few people to donate to his cause.

Filmed partially in Sedona, Arizona, I recognized one location shot right away.  Although the angle is slightly different, it's very interesting to see that not much has changed in what the scenery looks like between 1949, when this movie was filmed, and 2011, when I was there.  The top photo at the right is a screenshot from Hellfire and underneath is the photo I took sixty-one years later.

The ending of Hellfire is surprisingly suspenseful and even sad.  The acting is good and the plot, while overwrought at times, contains excellent banter between the major characters.  All in all, this is a movie well worth watching.

The Westerner

Gary Cooper in The Westerner is the epitome of the movie Western hero: a loner, taciturn yet able to persuade others to follow him, slow to draw his gun but deadly when he does, a reluctant love interest who gets the girl in the end.  Walter Brennan (Silky in The Day They Hanged Kid Curry and Don't Get Mad, Get Even, Gantry in Twenty-One Days to Tenstrike), on the other hand, is the epitome of the Western bad guy: surrounded by lackeys, takes the law into his own hands, greedy and ultimately overreaching, a bachelor with lots of cronies but no woman to soften all the rough edges. 

In an Oscar-winning role, Brennan was almost unrecognizable in this movie.  Chill Wills (Bixby in The Biggest Game in the West) plays one of the cronies and Forrest Tucker (Harker Wilkins in the Pilot) plays a homesteader; they also were virtually unrecognizable.  Interestingly, Jo Swerling, the father of Jo Swerling, Jr. who was the associate executive producer/producer of ASJ, co-wrote the screenplay for this film.

Set in Texas shortly after the Civil War ends, The Westerner is the classic story of farmers versus cattle ranchers.  Gary Cooper, as Cole Harden, rides into town but, unlike Shane, is under arrest and likely to be sentenced to hang by Judge Roy Bean, played by Walter Brennan.  However, noting that the walls of the saloon-cum-courtroom are plastered with pictures of Lily Langtry, Harden uses his silver tongue—much like Heyes would--to talk himself out of the death sentence.  From there, an unlikely friendship develops between him and the judge.

And then there are the sodbusters, as Bean refers to them, reminding me of Joe Briggs in The McCreedy Bust: Going, Going, Gone.  In fact, the judge and his friends torment the farmers just as Briggs and his friends do in that ASJ episode.  Harden, attracted to the strong farm girl who stands up to the judge, tries to work a compromise between the two opposing sides.  The end of The Westerner reveals who the winner is. 

Ultimately, The Westerner is about the meaning of friendship and love and what a man will do for it.  There are no bonus features but this 102-minute long black-and-white film from 1940 is briskly paced and contains enough flashes of humor among the action scenes to raise it substantially above the average movie Western.