Sierra Stranger

I've noticed that in many a B western the cowboy hero will 95% of the time see someone in trouble and instinctively help the underdog. You see that God knows how many times with Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and the rest. Sierra Stranger is a B western with a different proposition. Help goes to the wrong party.

Howard Duff is in the title role, he's the stranger and he helps Ed Kemmer when he sees Barton MacLane and Robert Foulk roughing him up and about to tie him to a horse to be dragged. Kemmer is of course grateful and tells him to look up Dick Foran when he gets to town for a grubstake.

But when Duff gets to town he has quite a reception awaiting him. Other than Dick Foran who turns out to be Kemmer's half brother and who owns the saloon public opinion is that Kemmer's a no good rat and probably guilty of the claim jumping that MacLane and Foulk claim he is. Even Eve McVeigh who is Foran's wife and Gloria McGhee who is Kemmer's girl friend don't have much good to say about Kemmer.

It all does end quite tragically.

Sierra Stranger is a no frills B western that Columbia Pictures released to fill some bottom bills in the Fifties. This was the kind of story that you could find in a Gunsmoke or a Have Gun Will Travel episode on television which was why the B western was rapidly going into extinction. The next decade would see the last of them.

Howard Duff, Dick Foran and the rest of the cast fit nicely into their parts. But it's Ed Kemmer who has the best role in the film as the unregenerate no good who everyone, but Dick Foran sees for what he is.

Duff and a nice supporting cast cannot propel this western quickie above borderline mediocre. From the opening scene it is obvious that this one was done fast on a small budget. Fast and small is not always bad, but the makers here lacked that talent to belie shortcomings, and what we see is a cheapie western at it's worst.

This kind of stuff is for western what fast food is for gourmets. This is a western not that crap but a movie that you'll rapidly forget after viewing. Howard Duff is totally bland, giving a wooden performance in a plot which you already know the whereabouts, the ending, everything. But it remains an acceptable time waster, and from Lee Sholem, the director, that's already a performance. A rare film too, so a good reason for western buffs not to miss it. This film maker Sholem was a real yes man but there was worst than him. He lacked more ambition than talent, but that doesn't mean he was a gifted director.

Like another reviewer said " I'll watch any western ". That fits me to a T. I'm not going to review the plot. Others have done that and like most westerns made in the 50s the plot was fairly simple. I guess what I didn't like about this movie is that a couple of the main characters acted unlike any person would. Meg, engaged to another man, meets Jesse and after 10 minutes is sure she's in love with him and not her fiance. Bert, refuses to believe his half brother is no good even after eye witness ' say he robbed a stage and shot the guard. Things like this ruin a movie for me, even a 50s western

The only thing I know - to my undying shame - about Lee Sholem is that he directed in excess of 1,300 B pictures in a 40-year span. In fact, the Hollywood industry tagged him Lee "Roll'em" Sholem because he cranked out films more often than he probably went to the toilet - but, at least on the strength of SIERRA STRANGER, quantity should not be confused with intestinal waste!

Crisp B&W cinematography by Sam Leavitt benefits from sharp editing by Leon Barsha, and the screenplay by Richard Dorso keeps you interested, even if the various characters' motivations could have done with neater clarification. For instance, I could not understand why Bert Gaines (Dick Foran) would stand as such a loyal friend to claim jumper Ed Kemmer, even as his very wife, played by Eve McVeagh, could see through his schemes, as could pretty much the rest of the town.

That said, penniless central character Jess Collins (Howard Duff) only gets some dosh and assistance at the claims department thanks to Gaines, after relieving Grover (Kemmer) from a rope pulled by the inevitably vicious Barton MacLane and sidekick Rob Foulk... who I mistook for the baddies.

Grover unfortunately disappears from the film for too long to make a credible mark as the heavy, plus his youth masks the evil in him. I do not rate deceiving the viewer a minus, but in this case it needed more polished, better built up treatment. The fact that both Collins and Grover have feelings for beautiful Meg (Gloria McGehee) adds to the tensions but they seem to have a loyal relation going and somehow their conflict left me with the impression that it amounted to little more than the proverbial teacup storm.

Worth a watch, though. 7/10.