Rough Night in Jericho

Martin and Peppard are not my idea of great actors, nor Englishwoman Jean Simmons of the Western female (true, she played opposite Greg Peck in BIG COUNTRY, but in that film she was a sophisticated outsider) but it is an interesting cast all the same, plus Slim Pickens in fine form. The plot has holes, direction, too, and yet something keeps you interested in watching this movie. Martin plays the villain, against type; he commands a troop of convincing heavies; Peppard comes into town, the silent fellow who ends up restoring order. ROUGH NIGHT is pleasant enough, with some quirky touches, like Martin telling Peppard to bury one of his henchmen, the poker game between the two, and a whipping of Peppard that brings to mind Marlon Brando's in ONE-EYED JACKS.

Normally I love westerns, and I am willing to accept some flaws in them, but I found this particular western a chore to sit through. The lead performances, for one thing, hurt the movie. Now, I am not saying that Peppard and Martin were miscast, but they were not directed well here. Peppard seems out of place, while Martin does not come across as ruthless enough to be believable as a villain.

But what really hurts the movie is the script. The mix between comic sequences and brutal action do not fit together very well. Also, the first half of the movie is almost all talk talk talk, and not very interesting talk. And Peppard's character doesn't do anything in that first half to try and change the desperate situation. Things do pick up somewhat in the last part of the second half, but it's too little too late.

By the way, Leonard Maltin's video guide branded this movie as "gory", but by today's standards it's not very bloody.

Compelling tale of an ex-deputy and his nemesis who is hired by a widow to protect her from revenge-seeking outlaws . In the Old west there are always the men who live breathe violence and the women who hold their breath . A ¨town tamer¨ , ex-sheriff and now professional gambler named Dolan (George Peppard) along with his old pal (John McIntire) come hired by Molly Lang (Jean Simmons) who owns the stagecoach line to rid the baron land named Alex Flood (Dean Martin)and his hoodlums (Slim Pickens , Steve Sandor) . Dolan as ex-lawman brings peace for the townspeople , meanwhile Alex takes the justice on his own hands , hanging enemies and appointing marshals and orders warnings , as wearing of guns or other weapons in town is banned . Flood is a whole villain determined to kill Dolan , he owns the Palace Casino, Saloon , General Store and lands . But the town council afraid the raw methods carried out by Flood and reunite , when Alex aware he orders to burn the place . At the end the kingpin landowner appears and attempts to murder Dolan with his own means .

This is a tremendously exciting story of an ex-deputy-for-hire who had only one more killing to go. It begins as a sluggish , slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark , rudimentary characters and solid plot . The tale is almost grim though full of clichés, a pacifier and his old partner come to a town just in time to make sure its citizenry but later the events get worse . The action is brutishly cruel as when Dean Martin slaps and hits Jean Simmons. The highlights of the film are the facing off between Peppard and Slim Pickens and the climatic showdown on the ending at the saloon and the town. Phenomenal and great role for Dean Martin as bad guy , he's the whole show. Vivid and lively musical score by Don Costa and atmospheric cinematography by Russell Metty. Watchable results for this offbeat Western.

The motion picture is professionally directed by Arnold Laven . Laven formed a production company along with Jules Levy and Arthur Gardner. The first Levy-Gardner-Laven movie was 1952's "Without Warning"'; in the decades since, they have produced and directed dozens of additional features . He's an expert on Western genre as cinema as television as he produced and directed several TV series including "The Rifleman," "Law of the Plainsman," , "The Big Valley" . And directed acceptable Western films as ¨The glory guys¨, ¨Geronimo¨and ¨Sam Whiskey¨.

Dean Martin owns 51% of everything in town, except former lover Jean Simmons' stage line. When he and his hired guns start squeezing her, she writes former marshal John McIntire. He shows up, but remains abed while George Peppard scouts out the situation.

This metaphorical western about the corruption of society by business interests makes use of symbolic values of B westerns, and balances the traditional B Western values of action with some decent speeches, with Dean Martin playing the darker edge of his screen persona in the midst of his Matt Helm era. Miss Simmons also gives a fine performance that reinvigorated her career. She and Peppard have a great drinking scene. Yet there are issues with this movie that are disturbing, both in the way that the film makers seem to have forgotten how to make a western -- the score by Don Costa is overly dramatic in a TV-Western manner that makes it seem that the events are less important than they should be within the movie, and cinematographer Russell Metty shoots the action sequences with a zoomed-in telephoto lens that makes those passages weightless.

The net impact is that the film makers feel the movie is simultaneously more important and less important than it is. Perhaps the only way to get this film made was to populate it with major talent in front of the camera. Certainly the actors take the subtext seriously. It's too bad the people behind the camera overburdened a good story with unnecessary technique, making this an interesting and watchable western, but little more.

Off beat casting of Dean Martin as the town tyrant who, among other things wants the stagecoach line that his former lover, Jean Simmons, currently owns. In steps George Peppard, playing a former deputy, who comes to town and eventually gets caught up in things when his better sense tells him that he shouldn't stay. Simmons plays a hand in this. Slim Pickens, who usually played good guys, played one of Matin's henchmen. The film gets rather violent--especially the fight scene between Peppard and Pickens-which begins with Pickens using a whip. Acting was quite good. I liked Don Galloway and John McIntyre in supporting roles. It was a bit of a stretch to believe Martin as a total villain--but he pulled it off quite well