There seems to be an aura of reverence for the Boetticher/Scott Western collaborations by any number of fans, but each time I see one I come away with the impression that I just watched a fairly competent movie but nothing really special. Ditto here with "The Tall T", I liked it well enough but it doesn't break new ground for the genre. What impressed me were the little things, like the mules instead of horses pulling the stagecoach in the early going; that was different. And the description of Randolph Scott's horse, it was a claybank; I never heard that one before. The term was used a couple of times, once by the young kid Jeff when he saw Pat Brennan (Scott) riding toward the way station, and later on by Rintoon (Arthur Hunnicutt) asking Brennan where his claybank was. It sounded cool, but I couldn't figure out what made it a claybank, it looked like a fairly average looking horse to me.
So Brennan finds himself in a desperate situation against an outlaw bunch headed by Frank Usher (Richard Boone). The other two desperadoes were kind of interesting, a cocky murderer by the name of Chink, admirably portrayed by Henry Silva, and a somewhat less than self confident gunman played by Skip Homeier. The dynamic here involves the seed of distrust Brennan plants with Chink when Usher takes off to secure a ransom demand from the wealthy father of a newlywed passenger (Maureen O'Sullivan) on the stage they just held up. Then Brennan conjures up a scenario for the kid intimating that the new widow Mims (Maureen O'Sullivan) might be open to a tryst with her husband put away by the bad guys.
The way Brennan takes out these two is convincing enough, but when Usher returns, I didn't quite understand why Brennan just didn't ambush him from the get-go. He had the time to set up for it, but instead allowed the competition to be met on fairer terms. From an earlier conversation between the two men, it was pretty transparent where this one was going, so I guess a more climactic showdown was called for. Personally, I would have taken the safer route.
One thing about Scott though, his character never loses his cool, even after learning about the station agent and his son in the well. You could tell he was seething but circumstances didn't warrant getting killed over it. You have to admire the man's supreme confidence and positive outlook on life, especially when it's all over and he confidently assures Doretta - "Come on now. It's gonna be a nice day".
So Brennan finds himself in a desperate situation against an outlaw bunch headed by Frank Usher (Richard Boone). The other two desperadoes were kind of interesting, a cocky murderer by the name of Chink, admirably portrayed by Henry Silva, and a somewhat less than self confident gunman played by Skip Homeier. The dynamic here involves the seed of distrust Brennan plants with Chink when Usher takes off to secure a ransom demand from the wealthy father of a newlywed passenger (Maureen O'Sullivan) on the stage they just held up. Then Brennan conjures up a scenario for the kid intimating that the new widow Mims (Maureen O'Sullivan) might be open to a tryst with her husband put away by the bad guys.
The way Brennan takes out these two is convincing enough, but when Usher returns, I didn't quite understand why Brennan just didn't ambush him from the get-go. He had the time to set up for it, but instead allowed the competition to be met on fairer terms. From an earlier conversation between the two men, it was pretty transparent where this one was going, so I guess a more climactic showdown was called for. Personally, I would have taken the safer route.
One thing about Scott though, his character never loses his cool, even after learning about the station agent and his son in the well. You could tell he was seething but circumstances didn't warrant getting killed over it. You have to admire the man's supreme confidence and positive outlook on life, especially when it's all over and he confidently assures Doretta - "Come on now. It's gonna be a nice day".