Branded

Coming late to the Buck Jones Columbia westerns, I'm surprised to find how the best of them - and this is the best I've seen - have all the qualities you'd expect to find in low budget cowboy actioners and often don't get.

The plot is straight forward but the film is full of welcome surprises. There's a recognizable Buck Jones moment when our hero is reduced to becoming a stage bandit, pulling on his kerchief mask and muttering "Well, there's got to be a first time for everything!" Buck and the side kick actually do ranch work. The shot of the rail they are putting in place, falling down, is still in the finished film, presumably because they couldn't afford a re-take. Though there's no music, the cowboys sing unaccompanied and there's a striking sequence of the riders escaping jail and galloping along the sky line with dark storm clouds gathering.

Film making is more than adequate to the task. This is a model of it's kind.