During the recent war, Bishop’s only son Billy had joined Quantrill’s Missouri border raiders, and Bannon had led the Union cavalry that captured him, among others of Quantrill’s men. Bannon is unlikely to get much of a welcome from the local cattle baron Hardy Bishop (Barry Kelley), his half-brother. He finds that they are led by a man named Harper (George Neise), and, although they think they are going to California, they are far south of the normal trail, heading for Bishop Valley, from which there is no good trail farther west. Ned Bannon (Joel McCrea) returns home from the war to have it out with his brother (Barry Kelley). Bannon was wearing parts of a Union uniform, and most of them are southerners and former Confederates. There is some hostility toward him among members of the wagon train. He wakes up in a wagon heading west a wagon train had found him, and Ellen (Virginia Mayo), a widow with a young son, had found room for him. All he saw of his assailant was a gold-plated rifle, along with fancy spurs. Ned Bannon (Joel McCrea) is heading home to Bishop Valley in Colorado Territory from the Civil War, when he spots rustlers and one of them ambushes him, shooting him and killing his horse. But he is still Joel McCrea, and, like Gary Cooper, he can still hold our attention and make us forget about his age. The stranger of the title is played by Joel McCrea, coming toward the end of his career, and he’s a bit long in the tooth for the role he plays in this combination wagon train-range war story with a convoluted plot based on a story by Louis L’Amour. Horn: “Appears there might be some kind of a massacre.”Įli Jonas: “You men will be issued the same repeating rifles we used yesterday.”īo Greer: “And we’ll be repeatin’ the same dyin’ as yesterday.The Tall Stranger-Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Barry Kelley, Michael Ansara, Whit Bissell, Leo Gordon, George Neise, Michael Pate, Ray Teal (1957 Dir: Thomas Carr) Stokes: “Appears there’s been some kind of a slip up.” Tom Horn, spotting a wagon train: “Why didn’t they send some soldiers to protect those people? The Army’s always posted when a wagon train’s comin’ through.” Tom Horn: “Then you better quit now, while your head is still where it is.” Robert Strauss plays his part with a gusto some other cast members would have done well to immitate.īen Stokes: “What’s probably gonna happen is my head will wind up on an Indian lodge pole with a bunch of naked savages dancing, whooping and hollering all around me.” That said, it’s a pretty routine and sometimes illogical film - just watch how casually Dajin’s men sack a nearby town - further marred by the extensive use of stock footage for a wagon train attack and indoor sets that are way too obvious.ĭrector Lesley Selander does his best to keep the action going with frequent fistfights and a high body count between the scenes in which Mayo is yearning for her own fresh start in life. Lyles produced Westerns from the 1960s, this one has added interest because it marked Virginia Mayo’s last genre outing. And wondering where the cavalry troop that was supposed to occupy the fort has gone.Īnother of the many A.C. And Virginia Mayo is Linda Lee, a woman headed West as a singer … or a mail-order bride … or perhaps a prostitute … who tries to hide the truth from everyone but Horn.Īll find themselves in the abandoned Fort Utah, wondering who they’ll have to fight off - the Indians or the white renegades, led by Dajin (Scott Brady). Robert Strauss plays Ben Stokes, a grizzled Indian agent. John Russell plays Ela Jonas, a guide who lost one wagon train and desperately wants to lead this one to safety. He finds himself trying to save the members of a wagon train, first from the Indians, then from the renegade whites who massacred an Indian village to set the redskins on the warpath in the first place. John Ireland plays Tom Horn, a man trying to go from nowhere to somewhere who rides right into an Indian uprising in the process.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |