Bitter Creek (1954) User Reviews

The Peaceable Man has departed

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 29 June 2011]

Way back in the day when he was Wild Bill Hickok or Red Ryder or any number of other western characters Bill Elliott always got in that tag line that became his catchphrase that he was a peaceable man before committing a whole lot of violence on some villains. By the next to last western film he did, this one for Allied Artists, there was no more pretensions or being a peaceable man.

This Elliott is out for the guy who shot his rancher brother in the back and signs point to Carleton Young who was the owner of the local Ponderosa at Bitter Creek and who moved in on the brother's spread. He's got a mean crew of gunslingers working for him including Claude Akins in one of his earliest films.

And if that isn't enough Elliott's showing an interest in Beverly Garland the prospective bride of Young. I think anyone who's seen even a handful of B westerns back in the days of the studio system knows exactly where this is going.

Allied Artists films aren't known for their production values. Bitter Creek is a lean and mean western in the latter days of Bill Elliott's career when he was specializing in lean and mean.

Wild Bill Elliott's last screen appearance in a western

[bux · 5/10 · 9 June 2000]

This was to be Elliott's last western picture. Gone are the slick production values Elliott enjoyed while at Republic, and this entry from Allied Artists is an obvious low budget formula western. Elliott plays the part of the revenge seeking gunslinger to the hilt, but is hampered by pedestrian direction, a soft script, and cheap sets. But somehow the presence of Elliott, as the tight-lipped non-compromising anti-hero shines through, and we are left with a very watchable picture.

Superb actors and director back up Bill Elliott

[morrisonhimself · 9/10 · 19 April 2015]

Most of the players around William Elliott did not become household words, with the possible exceptions of Beverly Garland and Claude Akins, who became big TV stars.

But all of them were superior actors, people just loaded with talent.

To name two, Jim Hayward and John Harmon, who played best friends to the hero, performed so believably one has to wonder why stardom did not knock on their doors.

The story was somewhat pedestrian, or at least frequently used, but it is always a good vehicle for action and emotion.

And, since this was an Allied Artists production, the music was excellent, another of those lush scores by the amazing Raoul Kraushaar, a composer of extraordinary talent, and sadly little known today.

Bill Elliott grew up around horses, according to the bio here at IMDb, and he made a believable cowboy and a hero one could always cheer on.

There were so many great actors, from Carleton Young to Veda Ann Borg to John Pickard to Forrest Taylor and John Larch, whose character doesn't even have a name, and we must mention that great ol' pro Dabs Greer, who probably never gave a bad performance.

Perhaps they were as good as they were because R.G. Springsteen was such a good director, one of my favorites among the lesser known directors.

I recommend "Bitter Creek," which is available in an unfortunately too-dark print at YouTube. It is copied from a presentation on Turner Classic Movies, which surely will broadcast it again. Watch it and copy it for yourself.

Bitter Creek

[coltras35 · 5/10 · 4 February 2022]

Wild" Bill Elliott is a cowboy who goes in search of the man who killed his brother, and finds himself in the small town of Bitter Creek, and ends up locking horns with cattle baron Quentin Allen's henchmen, suspecting them of his brother's murder.

An ordinary western featuring a good performance from Wild Bill Elliott and Carlton Young as the main villain. They make this film watchable in an otherwise lukewarm film that just ponders at times. The last 15 minutes, though, has some good gunplay, and there's Claude Akins as the heavy. Nothing earth shattering, but not a bad watch.

Very disappointing!

[JohnHowardReid · 3/10 · 20 February 2018]

Copyright 21 February 1954 by Allied Artists Pictures Corp. Released in the U.S.A. on the same date by Monogram Pictures Corp. U.K. release through Associated British-Pathé: floating from April 1957 (sic). Australian release through Paramount: 12 September 1957 (sic). 6,689 feet. 74 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Clay Tyndall, arriving in the Bitter Creek country to avenge the death of his rancher brother, suspects the criminals are the Lazy Q men, working for Quentin Allen. Clay questions Gail Bonner (who is engaged to Quentin Allen), Doc Prentiss, and an old-time stage-driver named Platte.

COMMENT: Tame Poverty Row western. Except for a held-too-long burst of gun-fire in a darkened corridor, Thomas Carr's direction is noticeably lacking in distinction.

George Waggner's screenplay is fair. It has some good dialogue (particularly in the confrontation scene between Elliott and Young) and situations that could have amounted to something in the hands of a better director - and a better cast! Beverly Garland is one of the least attractive heroines we have met in many a day, and Mr Elliott is rather glum - understandably, perhaps, as he seems to have put up some of the money for this effort.

There's not much action and production values are generally as dreary as Ernest Miller's flat photography. Only Raoul Kraushaar's music score is a cut above the average.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING PROCEDURE: Turn up the sound for the credits and following rolling title, then turn down for the opening gun-fire in the darkened corridor sequence, then turn the whole thing off!

Only for Bill Elliott die hard fans

[searchanddestroy-1 · 18 June 2023]

This western is forgettable, not worth watching if you have something else to do, for instance painting the fence wall of your house, shopping, cleaning the kitchen.... If you are a die hard fan of Bill Elliott, whom I am not, maybe, I say maybe, you can foresee one hour and fourteen minutes to watch this one. It is bland, flat, with the forever wooden Bill Elliott, who lost in best years back in the late forties at Republic Pictures under the direction of Joseph Kane. But here, Thomas Carr was still a beginner for the company, as also were Harry Keller and RG Springsteen, whilst Joe Kane was already an old timer. I think that under Kane's direction, the result would have been a bit better. I guess.