Real-life ex felon Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown) smirks his way through the role of gunfighter and professional gambler, Brett Wade. I don't know where screenwriters come up with these names for cowboys. I've done a scientific study of the subject and no cowboy was ever named Brett, Wade, Cole, Matt, or Dutch. As a matter of fact, the three most common names in the post-Civil War West were Montmorency, Governeur, and Bruce. Be that as it may, Calhoun, like some of the supporting cast, are well dressed in black frocks, ruffled white shirts, and those sparkly looking vests that gentlemen were supposed to wear.
The opening scene is right out of "My Darling Clementine." Calhoun is the Doc Holliday figure, suffering from a hacking cough that's made only worse by the smoke, fetid air of Lordsberg, New Mexico. Lordsberg seems to have been a popular place to set Westerns, although it doesn't have the portent of a name like Contention ("The Gunfighter") or Big Whiskey ("Unforgiven"). But Lordsberg is the terminus of the stagecoach in John Ford's "Stagecoach." Calhoun wouldn't find the air in Lordsberg stifling today, if he could stay out the town's sole saloon. It's only an hour's drive from where I live and it's dry and dusty, speckled with the shabby gray boards of decrepit wooden buildings in the ghost towns scattered about the area.
Oh, the movie. I was pretty well gemischt by the various allegiances of the townspeople. It was all explained by the narrator too quickly for me. Somebody doesn't like somebody else. Somebody else doesn't like somebody, and all for reasons never quite made clear, except that the Ferris family (quickly disposed of) are modeled on the Clanton boys from the shoot out at the O.K. corral.
Calhoun decides to follow the doctor's advice and take the stage to Colorado Springs for his health. The other passengers are Piper Laurie and Alex Nicol. Piper Laurie's role could have been handled without a thought by any other second-tier actress of the time, Yvonne DeCarlo, Mari Blanchard, Mara Corday, Faith Domergue, zzzzz. It was a genuine surprise when, six years later, she did a magnificent job as an alcoholic cripple in "The Hustler." Here, she's merely pretty with a nose designed by a French curve and two plump lips. Alex Nicol, on the other hand, is vicious and hates Calhoun. His every utterance is an angry and contemptuous sneer. When he tries to be pleasant, it's obvious that he's TRYING to be pleasant. I don't mean Nicol himself, the actor, only the roles that he was always given. In real life he may have been a paragon of virtue and affability, his only passion being collecting Kachina Dolls or something. All three disencoach at Socorro for their own reasons. Laurie is fleeing a stern evangelical family. Nicol wants to kill Calhoun. And Calhoun wants to "get some things straight." Edgar Buchanan is on hand as the sheriff determined to keep Socorro peaceful. David Brian owns Socorro's Big Casino, a saloon and whorehouse. He's a businessman with an eye for pulchritude and he hires Piper Laurie as a "saloon girl".
Not to worry. Calhoun saves her from her fate. I won't give away the ending but Calhoun is forced to shoot Nicol, Brien, and assorted henchmen before leaving town on the train with Piper Laurie, destination Colorado Springs and a better life for both of them.
The opening scene is right out of "My Darling Clementine." Calhoun is the Doc Holliday figure, suffering from a hacking cough that's made only worse by the smoke, fetid air of Lordsberg, New Mexico. Lordsberg seems to have been a popular place to set Westerns, although it doesn't have the portent of a name like Contention ("The Gunfighter") or Big Whiskey ("Unforgiven"). But Lordsberg is the terminus of the stagecoach in John Ford's "Stagecoach." Calhoun wouldn't find the air in Lordsberg stifling today, if he could stay out the town's sole saloon. It's only an hour's drive from where I live and it's dry and dusty, speckled with the shabby gray boards of decrepit wooden buildings in the ghost towns scattered about the area.
Oh, the movie. I was pretty well gemischt by the various allegiances of the townspeople. It was all explained by the narrator too quickly for me. Somebody doesn't like somebody else. Somebody else doesn't like somebody, and all for reasons never quite made clear, except that the Ferris family (quickly disposed of) are modeled on the Clanton boys from the shoot out at the O.K. corral.
Calhoun decides to follow the doctor's advice and take the stage to Colorado Springs for his health. The other passengers are Piper Laurie and Alex Nicol. Piper Laurie's role could have been handled without a thought by any other second-tier actress of the time, Yvonne DeCarlo, Mari Blanchard, Mara Corday, Faith Domergue, zzzzz. It was a genuine surprise when, six years later, she did a magnificent job as an alcoholic cripple in "The Hustler." Here, she's merely pretty with a nose designed by a French curve and two plump lips. Alex Nicol, on the other hand, is vicious and hates Calhoun. His every utterance is an angry and contemptuous sneer. When he tries to be pleasant, it's obvious that he's TRYING to be pleasant. I don't mean Nicol himself, the actor, only the roles that he was always given. In real life he may have been a paragon of virtue and affability, his only passion being collecting Kachina Dolls or something. All three disencoach at Socorro for their own reasons. Laurie is fleeing a stern evangelical family. Nicol wants to kill Calhoun. And Calhoun wants to "get some things straight." Edgar Buchanan is on hand as the sheriff determined to keep Socorro peaceful. David Brian owns Socorro's Big Casino, a saloon and whorehouse. He's a businessman with an eye for pulchritude and he hires Piper Laurie as a "saloon girl".
Not to worry. Calhoun saves her from her fate. I won't give away the ending but Calhoun is forced to shoot Nicol, Brien, and assorted henchmen before leaving town on the train with Piper Laurie, destination Colorado Springs and a better life for both of them.