La rançon de la peur

The Plunderers is directed by Joseph Pevney and written by Bob Barbash. It stars Jeff Chandler, John Saxon, Dolores Hart, Marsha Hunt and Jay C. Flippen. Music is by Leonard Rosenman and cinematography by Eugene Polito.

Trail City, and 4 delinquent cowboys ride into town with attitude and carefree abandon. The Trail City residents - spineless, all except one man. One man who considers himself only half a man on account of his disability. That man is Civil War veteran Captain Sam...

War didn't just destroy his arm.

The few critical appraisals and reviews that exist for The Plunderers are keen to associate the picture with other notable pictures released previously, which in this instance is something of a curse when they happen to be well revered classics. Yet this is no knock off, it has its own identity. The four young delinquents here are not dashing dandy types, the makers make every effort to put their failings as human beings up at the front of the portrayals. These are young men, out of their depth, even spineless, but of course the town doesn't know this as they are too busy cowering in the shadows.

The messages are obvious in the play, but Pevney doesn't use his sledgehammer to enforce those parts of the narrative. It's perhaps no surprise how things pan out with Chandler's embittered war veteran, as he wrestles with both his conscience and his disability, but Pevney has a good knack for slow burning the atmosphere to bring rewards for film's finale. Chandler, in his last Western, is suitably broody, Hunt and Hart are beauties to behold, while of the bad boys it's Saxon as a diabolical Mexican - with scary eyebrows - and the only one who is old enough to shave, who strikes the highest villain chords.

Elsewhere there's a great musical score provided by double Academy Award Winner Rosenman, very much akin to something that the moody Twilight Zone episodes would use. It also at times has the feel of the score Alan Silvestri would rustle up for Predator some 27 years later. Polito's photography is crisp, where in conjunction with Pevney's camera angles and lighting techniques keeps the claustrophobia factor high in this one location setting.

Crackerjack! A dandy of a black and white Oater waiting to be discovered by more Western fans. It's a keeper for sure. 8/10

The Plunderers are four youngsters who come to a peaceful little western town without any money. Actually they're no gunfighters at all but enjoy staying there getting all for free and watching how they can get the people more and more frightened. Onearmed Jeff Chandler wants to stay out of trouble but is increasingly convinced that something must be done to help the citizens against the troublemakers. Lovely Dolores Hart is the daughter of the local store owner and the Mexican youngster Rondo, played by John Saxon, pays a lot of attention to her. She tries to avoid him but with no success. The dramatic final scenes include an unusual fight with knives. This is a classic black-and-white western from 1960 highly recommended. You can easily find resemblances to Brando's 1954 motorcycle movie "The Wild One".

As a player Jeff Chandler had several westerns to his credit most notably Broken Arrow where he got an Academy Award nomination. His last film in the western genre is The Plunderers where he's cast as a crippled Civil War veteran who is forced to lead his town of Trail's End in taking a stand against four juvenile toughs.

Some people are born leaders and like it or not in tough situations the job falls to them. John Saxon, Dee Pollock, Ray Stricklyn and Roger Torrey all come to town and start essentially pushing people around. They beat up bartender James Westerfield and later shoot down sheriff Jay C. Flippen who is a tired old man who should have retired from that job long ago. Flippen is symbolic himself of this post Civil War Texas town.

Chandler is a former cavalry leader in the Civil War and he's like Lucas McCain in The Rifleman, the one in the town the people look up to in a moment of crisis. He's as tired as any of the rest of them and just wishes they would ride away, but when that doesn't happen despite his physical limitations Chandler steps to the plate.

There is a lot of criticism of The Plunderers with some saying this is just a modern juvenile delinquent story set in the west. That maybe so, but what was Billy the Kid for instance if not a most murderous juvenile delinquent. This film is a harbinger of the Young Guns films or the Lee Marvin classic, The Spikes Gang. The only difference is that the punks aren't glamorized here. I swear all that was needed was for Sal Mineo to be cast as one of the punks.

The Plunderers was done for Allied Artists which we know was formerly Mongram Pictures. Back in their day they did their share of B westerns and the sets were used most notably for The Cisco Kid movies. The Plunderers is a great deal above the quality of those horse operas and it's one of Jeff Chandler's better latter day films.

This topic has been made at least one billion times in Hollywood history, western or crime genre. One man against several evil ones, so nothing new here. But the directing, castig, acting, every second of this pure awesome movie contributes to keep you glued, stuck to this story, a masterpiece of psychological character study, as NO NAME ON THE BULLET is for instance; though the story was not exactly the same. Jeff Chandler was purely outstanding and makes his death a couple of years later even more painful to accept, to digest. I will never get tired of this movie. Never.

Four young armed cowboys ride into town. Jeb, Rondo (John Saxon), Mule and Davy have been driven out of Dodge City. They don't pay for Whiskey and ask for the Sheriff. Sheriff McCauley decides not to wear his guns and all they want are warm beds in jail for the night. Once released, they start taking stuff and refusing to leave. Ellie Walters (Dolores Hart) is the beautiful store owner's daughter. One armed war veteran Sam Christy (Jeff Chandler) seem to avoid trouble.

This is obviously calling out the youth of its day. These four could be rock-n-rollers or greasers or bikers or general delinquents during its time. The town is full of old folks and helpless youngsters. Westerns are the films of older folks and younger kids. This is black-and-white moral delineation.