Los despojadores

Had "The Spoilers" not been a remake (in fact, it was remade several times before 1955), I would have likely scored the film an 8....that, and the sloppy use of doubles at the end of the story.

The story is set in 1899 during the Alaska/Yukon gold rush...so, it's not exactly a western...though it often plays like one. A group of no-good scoundrels have come up with a scheme to steal gold mine claims...and at first, Roy (Jeff Chandler) tries to keep a level head and convinces his partner (John McIntire) to let the law run its course. Well, this clearly does not work and Roy doesn't realize how crooked and how deep the scheme runs. Eventually, when they learn the truth, Roy and the other miners are fighting mad. Along for the ride are a couple ladies....one a saloon owner and all-around dame and the other...well, she's keeping a few secrets.

While the film doesn't feature as impressive a cast as the previous version of the film (which starred John Wayne, Randolph Scott and Marlene Dietrich), the second-tier cast with Chandler, Rory Calhoun, Ray Danton, Anne Baxter and many others is quite good. Also, the studio apparently thought enough of the production to sink a buttload of money in creating a massive train wreck and the craziest fight scene I can remember seeing in a movie (although if you look closely, you can see that OFTEN the fighters are stuntmen and not Chandler and Calhoun!). Overall, the film is a lot of fun...and quite exciting. Well worth seeing.

A gang intent on stealing the gold mine owned by Jeff Chandler and John McIntire come to Nome during the Alaskan gold rush.

It's the fifth screen version of Reach Beach's sturdy novel, and Universal put its best foot forward in casting from among their stock company. Anne Baxter comes close to busting out of her decolletage as Cherry Malotte, Rory Calhoun gives a fine performance as the smooth Alex McNamara, and Ray Danton, Barbara Britton, Wallace Ford, Carl Benton Reid, Raymond Walburn (in his last big screen performance) and Ruth Donnelly show up. But Jesse Hibbs direction is adequate, and the stunt men doubling for Chandler and Calhoun don't actually try to kill each other, as William Farnum and Tom Santschi did in the 1914 version. It's quite enjoyable, but as with many a 1950s version of a durable property, it seems a bit rote, less connected to the characters Beach had met when he fell to gold fever in Alaska, and more to roles that had become a bit stereotyped over the decades. Still, it's always fun to see people fall into the thick, gluey mud.

All these Alaskan films are usually worth watching mainly for their splendid bar fights, in which the contestants usually conscientiously wreck the entire establishment, break all windows, smash all bottles, destroy the entire bar and make a perfect exorbitant havoc of the whole studio set-up. Anne Baxter is no Marlene Dietrich, but any film with Jeff Chandler is worth watching just for his sake if for nothing else, and although he is no John Wayne he is more likable and intelligent. Earlier films on this book of gold diggers being cheated of their mines by foul play were usually in black and white, while this one is in color. It doesn't make the story any better, but it adds color to the fights, making them more splendidly colorful. Still the earlier version with Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne is to be preferred, it was more alive, while the only truly genuine characters here are the old gold diggers defending what they waged their lives for.

The first scene gave me great hopes. The miner's dirty clothes, the looks of the town and the muddy street. Then my hopes were dashed when the lady showed up. This was Nome, Alaska in 1899 and she show up wearing a dress, hat and feathers that would be more appropriate at a San Francisco opera. During the rest of the movie, all the major characters wore clothes that were always clean, pressed and way too fancy for the time and place. I've never understood why directors would allow a movie to be made with such obvious flaws. Makes no sense. The movie had a pretty good plot but for me, the 1956 style acting, script and special effects could have been done so much better with a little more thought.

In the small western town of Nome, "spoiling" is rife – that is the practice of driving others off their land and jumping onto others' claims as if they were your own. Without law and order Dextry and his partner Roy Glennister risk losing their mine to a group of characters out to jump their claim. The law is controlled by Alexander McNamara who stands to greatly benefit from getting control of the mines. As if the tension between Glennister and McNamara isn't tight enough as a result of this, McNamara also has eyes for Glennister's longtime girlfriend, hostess Cherry Malotte.

Having seen several westerns from the 1950's recently, I came to this with the impression that it would be just yet another forgettable genre film and, in a way, I suppose it was. However this is not to say that it is an average film because it is actually a pretty enjoyable genre picture. The plot mixes gun fights with crime with semi-love triangles and an air of comedy. It doesn't all sit well together but it does enough to provide an entertaining 90 minutes in the way that films of this nature used to try and do for their audiences. I personally didn't buy the love conflict aspect of it and would have liked that toned down a little bit in favour of more of the claim-jumping aspect but it all did enough to distract me on a quiet evening in.

The cast are solid enough but none of them particularly stuck in my mind. Baxter is colourful and does bring life to the film but the two male leads didn't impress me at all. Calhoun is just a mould of a leading man – nice smile, big chest, big jaw but nothing specific or special about him. Meanwhile Chandler just seems too old and grey for the character he is asked to play and I kept feeling like I was losing sight of him among the extras. Support from McIntire, Danton and others is OK but mostly the cast are just doing what the genre requires and no more.

Overall this is an enjoyable genre picture and it will provide entertainment for fans. The casual viewer will note the weaknesses that are inherent in this type of film but to be fair to it, it only does what you expect and for me it did it well enough to be a distracting piece of fun when I was in the mood for a solid bawdry western and nothing more.