Três Horas para Matar

A taut little Columbia western produced by Jimmy Cagney's brother William reminiscent of 'Fury', 'High Noon' and Dana Andrews' own 'Ox-Bow Incident'. A strong female contingent includes a brunette Donna Reed, a red-haired Diane Foster and a blonde Carolyn Jones; while two of the dramatic highlights feature Whit Bissell at his most cowardly, first in his barber shop, and later when Andrews sneaks up on him and his co.conspirators (observed only by the audience) while discussing him in the local saloon.

Dour little Western (just count the smiles) that still manages a few surprises. So, who killed Carter. Not Jim Guthrie (Andrews), even though an over-eager lynch mob thinks so, leaving him with a permanent neck burn and a smoldering desire for revenge. It looks like a lot of folks hated Carter, so now, three years later, Guthrie's sleuthing work is cut out for him. A grudgingly sympathetic sheriff gives the innocent man three hours to nail the real culprit. So, it's a suspenseful countdown to sundown. Can he do it.

Can't help noticing this tale of a driven man's revenge was produced by Harry Joe Brown who later produced the thematically similar Randolph Scott cycle of Westerns (The Tall T {1957}; Comanche Station {1960} et al.). There's a strong similarity in the character and temperament of the leads, which suggests producer Brown had both a definite point of view and at least some influence on the screenplays.

Director Werker gets a lot out of LA area locations and a mixed cast of veterans like Andrews and newcomers like Foster. The unstable relationship between Andrews and Reed is more interesting and complex than in most Westerns. But I did have some difficulty keeping track of the four prominent ladies, a more crowded field than in most oaters. Anyway, the movie is a neat combination of whodunit and sagebrush that'll keep you guessing, without the usual clichés.

Three Hours to Kill is directed by Alfred Werker and written by Richard Alan Simmons, Roy Huggins and Maxwell Shane. It stars Dana Andrews, Donna Reed, Stephen Elliott, Richard Coogan and Dianne Foster. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr.

As solid as a boulder in Death Valley, Three Hours to Kill is a most satisfying Oater for genre fans not expecting boundary pushing. Plot has Andrews as Jim Guthrie, who is wrongly accused by the town folk of murder and promptly condemned to death by lynch mob. Escaping the rope by the skin of his neck, Guthrie bides his time for three years before heading back to the town to clear his name and nail the real murderer. His friend, the Sheriff, gives him three hours to complete his task before the law intervenes.

What unfolds is a whodunit led by Andrews as he interrogates and puts the squeeze on a number of the town's denizens. There's a deliberately downbeat tone that serves the story well, with lost loves, unfulfilled lives and haunted memories of past doings permeating the narrative. The psychological undertones and risque aspects of the story are tantalisingly -frustratingly so - left to just simmer, but mood befits question marks in the plotting to keep one engaged.

Action scenes are in the main no more than competently handled, but a couple are quite striking to raise the pulses. When the pic moves out of the confines of the town, the locales (Lake Sherwood, Sherwood Forest, Hidden Valley in Calif) are most striking and leave you hankering for a more airy picture as a whole. Cast are fine, Andrews toughs up for good perf, but as lovely as Reed and Foster are (in fact Foster is socko gorgeous), they are undone by standard writing and Reed comes off as looking bored.

The ending carries a nice surprise, two fold in fact, to close the deal on what is an above average Oater to be enjoyed as easy sampling by genre fans. 6.5/10

Durable leading man Dana Andrews stars in this B-side western about a fight between Andrews and Richard Webb that ends in Webb being murdered - but despite appearing to be caught red-handed, is Andrews actually the culprit? After a near-summary execution by some over-zealous locals, Andrews narrowly escapes returning several years later to clear his name.

Familiar plot has surprising depth in the female casting for a film of this ilk, alongside Donna Reed as Andrews' former beau is Dianne Foster as the versatile and open-minded admirer Chris, while Carolyn Jones and Charlotte Fletcher play a pair of damsels who've both fallen for card shark Laurence Hugo, one of many on Andrews' hit list.

Good also to see Stephen Elliott who later garnered fame in films like "Arthur" and "Beverly Hills Cop", in his film debut in the key supporting role of Ben, the town's new sheriff who's friendship with Andrews affords him three hours grace to catch the killer or be tried for murder (hence the title).

There's a simmering tension that prevails the full eighty-odd minutes, with a particularly taut scene in which veteran Whit Bissell (playing the town's ubiquitous barber) takes a razor to Andrews' throat, as he nervously fends off accusations that he is the real killer. Pretty decent whodunit western that no doubt some armchair sleuths will solve before the climax, nevertheless, it's a bittersweet ending that rejects the typical clichés making this overall, a better-than-average yarn.

Westerns are always my favorite movies... Westerns, are something I go to see, and, if my memory serves me correctly, there are many I have watched in the theaters, with my father, when I was a little boy...

'Three Hours to Kill' is a decent little Western, though certainly not among the best... For a little-known film from Alfred L. Welker (that I saw lately on the Western Channel) I was surprised by the quality of the video transfer... What struck me most were the colors; they were accurate, well defined, and rich...

Welker's work on the film is satisfactory, although not impressive... The movie relies totally on Dana Andrews, the very definition of character and honesty, and on his determination to catch the real killer... At one point, he allows himself to be severely hurt by a rope tied around his neck, to give the scene a realistic look...

This is going to happen quickly, so don't blink because 'Three Hours to Kill' is a movie that can be quickly and easily summarized, when an innocent man escapes a lynching, he breaks all the rules to clear his name, disbelieving that no one of his hypocritical friends, will stand by him... Everybody want him to leave town... His enemies simply want him dead...

The supporting cast do well—particularly Donna Reed with her sensitive portrayal of a woman in love, shocked to see her brother getting shot in the back by her lover...

Welker makes great use of the limited locations and uses a wide variety of interesting angles and cuts to add some tension and excitement to the film...