El enmascarado

Three thieves in the old west decide to split up their money and go their separate ways. However Lance and Jersey try to double-cross Charlie and leave him. Some time later Lance and Jersey come across Charlie, who appears to be doing well as a rancher. However the mysterious Black Bart is robbing Wells Fargo stagecoaches with help from inside information. Things are complicated by the arrival of the beautiful singer Lola Montes who attracts interest from Lance, Charlie and Black Bart himself.

This is a standard western that never threatens to replace John Ford's westerns at the top of the list of greatest of all time. However it does have plenty of things that make it entertaining to watch. The story is a mix of mystery with some nice twists before the tragic but witty finale. The film never really sags and manages to mix action with romance with humour with western. It's not the best film ever made but it is a gentle bit of entertainment.

Dan Duryea is not great as Charlie - he feels too wooden, and as Black Bart he is totally covered by a mask and can't manage to bring his character to life. Jeffrey Lynn is good as Lance and benefits from having a double act with Percy Kilbride's Jersey. Yvonne DeCarlo is stunning as Lola but she doesn't have much to do and is just part of the studio's habit of adding feisty female roles to westerns of the time.

Overall this is nowhere near a classic but it is well shot and is quite fun.

Three tricky outlaws part ways, only to meet up later on opposite sides.

Pretty good Western— somewhere between an A-production and a B. It's an unusually distinguished supporting cast from Lovejoy to McIntyre to Kilbride, along with some good scenic outdoor set-ups that keep the eye entertained even when the action slows down. Reviewer lorenellroy is right—the amorality of Lynn and Duryea is unusual for the period, 1948. It's hard at times to know where their loyalties lie, making the script somewhat—and refreshingly-- difficult to predict. Add a luscious De Carlo who looks ravishing in Technicolor, while turning in a surprisingly artful performance.

So, with these positives, why doesn't the movie impact more strongly than I believe it does. Now I'm as big a Duryea fan as anyone. In fact that's why I tuned in. But for some reason he looks less motivated than usual, draining Bart of needed character color. There's not the usual relish of his better performances. Add to that the other lead, Jeffrey Lynn, who's just naturally colorless, and there's not the needed drive at the movie's center. At the same time, director Sherman has to work in the romantic angle without sagging the tempo, which he does pretty well. But the staging of the final ambush scene is clumsily done—how could the ambushers miss their shots at such close range as Bart and Lance race for the cabin.

Anyway, there's real offbeat potential in the various ambiguities that the script doesn't develop adequately until the end. Nonetheless, the compensations are enough to make this a generally entertaining 80-minutes of cowboy intrigue.

Black Bart is an interesting movie and well above the norm for the standard studio product of its day.Not only is it splendidly photographed,with a lustrous use of colour that sets it apart from the herd,it has a wonderfully dry and laconic wit that adds a touch of verbal eloquence to proceedings.Indeed I was reminded at times of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"in the banter between characters some of which would have sat well in the mouths of characters in a Philip Barry movie or other practitioners of the drawing room comedy.The script is also insouciantly epigrammatical with a pleasing sense of amorality--its leading characters are outlaws and perfectly at home with themselves and their profession.Naturally.this being a 1948 movie they are not allowed to get away with it but the morality is quite unique for the period

We first meet Charles Bowers,later to become the title character,when he and his compadre "Lance"are about to be hung,a fact they greet with stoicism and flippant banter,when they are rescued by ex banker turned outlaw the grizzled veteran Jersey--well played by Percy Kilbride(old Pa Kettle Himself)They split up and Charles ,with the connivance of an old friend,sets himself up as Black Bart a black garbed highwayman making away with Wells Fargo bounty in a series of stagecoach robberies.Lance and Jersey re-appear,recognise him and try to cut in on the deal.Matters get complicated when Bart falls in love with Lola Montez the celebrated singer and dancer who reciprocates the feeling but insists Bart lay aside his illegal trade and turn to more legitimate pursuits

It is a well acted movie with Duryea and Kilbride especially fine and De Carlo enters into the spirit of things with a brash and outgoing performance

Minor but interesting and I enjoyed it .Give a go -you won't regret it

Can you be disappointed if you had no expectations in the first place? In this case: yes. This less than a classic western has an above average idea it fails to deliver. The triangle romance between the zorro- like masked villain, the posing- as- a- good- guy villain and the European dancer- and- mistress- to- the- emperor- of- Austria- turned- saloon singer is actually quite original.

The film, however, is not. The standard western imagery and unimaginative cinematography/direction condemns this film into the "forgettable"- category. Still it must be noted that there is no hero in this western: just two outlaws and a corrupt dame. Although they get their due in the "grand" finale, themes like that are not frequent in the westerns of the classic era but associated usually to westerns in the late 60's and 70's.

Dan Duryea is Charles Boles, a respectable rancher in Gold Rush California. He's also Black Bart, who holds up stage coaches. Wells Fargo has put a $10,000 reward on him. When his old confederates, Jeffrey Lynn and Percy Kilbride come to town, they take jobs with Wells Fargo. They're also working for themselves when they recognize Duryea and want in. However, Yvonne De Carlo has come to town -- she's Lola Montez -- and she and Duryea fall in love.

It's a highly entertaining and beautifully shot A western from Universal, directed by Henry Hathaway. It's also the ahistorical piffle that infused westerns. Lola Montez (real name: Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld) was indeed in the US and performing on stage by about this time, she died in 1861. The real Charles Boles/Black Bart flourished as a stagecoach robber from 1875 through 1883, was captured, spent four years in prison, was released in bad health and disappeared. No one in Hollywood ever let a little thing lack facts get in the way of telling an amusing story.

The highlight is Miss De Carlo's dances as Montez. She had spent half a decade playing uncredited eye-candy roles in Hollywood, before shooting to recognition in SALOME WHEN SHE DANCED. I remember her as Lily Munster, of course, and as one of the cast in Sondheim's FOLLIES; like many a beautiful woman, she had a great sense of humor and comedy about her beauty. She died in 2007, age 84.