Runtime: 77 minutes
Directed by: Budd Boetticher
Starring: Randolph Scott, John Carroll, Karen Steele, Valerie French, Noah Berry, Jr.
From: Columbia
Not the best collaboration between Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott, but it was the most interesting. This was another DVR recording made earlier in the month I finally got around to. I rate the others I've seen so far higher, although that is no slight against this as it was still pretty good and I'll give it props for presenting a different sort of story (based on a novel) than expected. It is different from even the other psychological Westerns I've experienced, without being a bad sort of different.
Things are more complex than they first seem when I mention that the story is of Scott's character seeking revenge against the guy who he blames for his wife's death. The villain is a little despot who effectively runs a town called Sundown-insert your own possible comparisons to any real life figures-through fear & intimidation. The wife is (unfortunately) “slut-shamed” and in what was a surprise to me, the main agent that moves the story along isn't always the lead character. At times the plot progresses through his presence and not his overt actions. Like I said, complex.
Even more thought-provoking is that the lead is not always the most likable character and in fact it is possible you may grow to dislike him the longer the story goes. With him, he probably thinks it's a shame when he's feeling better when he feels no pain... he's flawed and so was his wife, but that's easy for me to say. Still, getting lost in her love was probably his first mistake. Even if it not always successful, having such elements as “a Greek chorus” (as I've seen some others on Letterboxd remark) and acres of nice dialogue, meant that there was no regrets in spending 77 minutes w/ this universe.
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