Cole il fuorilegge

This movie's totally awesome with excellence all around. There's no way this should be 6 out of ten. Watch it and see. Love it!

History is played with fast and loose in this tepid tale of Cole Younger (I always thought he was one of the Younger Brothers that rode with Frank and Jesse James, but not so here). Frank Lovejoy, a great dramatic actor was terribly mis-cast as the title character. Lovejoy made his mark in Hollywood as a "hard-boiled type" either a reporter, GI or cop. One can tell easily that he is NOT at home on horseback. Merlin and Best give all in supporting roles and the lovely Ms. Dalton is, as always, easy on the eyes. But this one is easily passed by.

Frank Lovejoy plays the title role of Cole Younger in this western from Allied Artists and proves that even outlaws have a code when it comes to paying a debt.

When both James Best and Jan Merlin are running from the carpetbagger Texas State Police they come across Lovejoy. Best stops Merlin from turning in Lovejoy for the reward. After that Best and Lovejoy start riding the trail together.

In the end Lovejoy finally repays the debt.

Jan Merlin stands out in the supporting cast. In his younger days when he wasn't starring on TV in the Rough Riders he played various punk roles. He's a real low life here.

The Texas State Police have come down in history as one corrupt group. I've no doubt they were. But in Reconstruction Texas the main objection to them was that they included black people in their ranks.

Still this western is a good if not wholly accurate.

Two young men, fleeing from carpetbagger justice in the 1870s, come upon a scary, bitter Frank Lovejoy. Is this guy really COLE YOUNGER, GUNFIGHTER, or just some other guy framed up on phony charges who has a skin of iron, and a heart of cornmush?

By the time 1958 rolled around, the B-Western had shuffled off to television, and had been replaced by the serious "adult western". This shuffling allowed serious actors approaching a career hiatus -- like Frank Lovejoy -- a chance to work for studios like Monogram (er, "Allied Artists") and retain some shred of reputation. This is good -- because Lovejoy, not a Western actor by any stretch, gives a good performance of the character called "Cole Younger" here. Younger, alas, is pretty much an old softie as portrayed here, and consistently puts his neck on the line for the young hero, in ways that are implausible for any historically accurate outlaw. But Lovejoy (who has a great voice for urban and gangster parts) brings some bite to the role, and at least projects a sense that this guy might have held up a stage or two, because mean people drove him to it.

The rest of the film is standard fare -- reminiscent of an episode of the "adult" TV westerns of the day (Not as good as Gunsmoke...more like Bonanza or the Big Valley). If you like westerns, you won't waste your life by watching this.

A western, in glorious color. When hooligans terrorize a town in the old west, caswell (james best, coltrane on dukes of hazzard) is blamed for a murder. Can an outlaw's word save him at a trial? Frank lovejoy is cole younger. And there really was a cole younger, born in 1844, which would have made him about twenty in the civil war. Later, when the war ended, he and his brothers actually did commit various crimes as bandits, as described in wikipedia dot org. It's pretty good! Your basic western, but i think i paid a little more attention just because it was based on a real guy. Filmed at stunt man ray corrigan's old ranch, which was later owned by Bob hope. And is now a beautiful county park. Story based on desperados, by clifton adams, who died young himself at 51. Directed by robert springsteen. Lovejoy died young at age 50. Ainslie pryor died even younger at 37. More recently, there's also "cole younger and the black train" made in 2012.