THE NAKED DAWN (1955)

Possibly Grade Z film auteur Edgar G. Ulmer’s last worthwhile film, and likely his most underappreciated; a South-of-the-Border character-study Western cum love triangle.  Arthur Kennedy (with a Mexicali accent Dick Van Dyke might blush at) starts it off by robbing a train with a doomed partner, a superbly economical set piece, then hiding out of town before returning to fence the goods.  Stumbling upon a young married farming couple (Betta St. John/Eugene Iglesias), he finds no expected love match, but a marriage of convenience.  And Kennedy takes an interest in both parties: Iglesias to help with the possibly dangerous payout (and party to excess with the windfall); St. John to seduce into running away with.  He ends up corrupting both of them . . . but perhaps not for the worse.  Handily staged on tiny, underdressed sets, it’s exceptionally well (and actively) scored by Herschel Burke Gilbert, making like Villa Lobos.  Music Ulmer’s secret weapon in many of his films.  Ironically, this little indie production (in TechniColor, yet!) was picked up by Universal for distribution, the studio where Ulmer had made his only major studio release, THE BLACK CAT back in 1934:  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-black-cat-1934-raven-1935.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Arthur Kennedy’s agent either unusually open-minded or deeply rapacious, bookending this micro-budget project between big mainstream fare the same year: Anthony Mann’s THE MAN FROM LARAMIE with James Stewart, and William Wyler’s THE DESPERATE HOURS with Bogart & Fredric March.