Soporific ‘second-feature’ Western goes nowhere fast, other than sending rugged lead Hugh O’Brien, attempting to bust out of supporting roles at Universal, into his signature role as tv’s WYATT EARP. And perennial film ‘heavy’ Raymond Burr off to his even more identifying part as unbeatable lawyer Perry Mason. It also led to faceless tv gigs for director Gerd Oswald after just making his striking debut in the off-kilter I Was A College Serial Killer thriller A KISS BEFORE DYING/’56 (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-kiss-before-dying-1956.html), the one where handsome, young fortune-hunting psychopath Robert Wagner brings pregnant Joanne Woodward to a rooftop rendezvous and . . . Yikes! Alas, this programmer is as drab as KISS was CinemaScopically dynamic. Briefly: Wanted Man Raymond Burr is presumed dead, but spotted very much alive by young pup Donald MacDonald. Reporting back to Sheriff O’Brien, he’s immediately in danger for his own life as Burr has a posse of bad guys ready to shoot whomever tipped off O’Brien. Burr is quickly captured, but he’s got that posse of bad guys coming to town to kill the snitch and get him out jail. None of this makes a lot of sense, nor very exciting. Only Burr comes through, already quite heavy, yet with a lean, threatening face, and a jarring bit of near violent lovemaking to inamorata Rebecca Welles. Everyone else leaves no mark at all. Who was this one made for?
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: With scores of Westerns following similar narrative lines*, you only had to wait a year for a superior example in 3:10 TO YUMA. The 1957 original, not the 2007 remake.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Is the film’s ghastly guitar & harmonica score playing on a loop?
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *An old theory says all films can be boiled down to seven plots. Maybe. But with Westerns, we’d say you don’t even need seven; just one: Stranger Comes To Town. Certainly applies here, where it’s Raymond Burr’s Wanted Man.
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