Albuquerque

"Albuquerque" is a routine Randolph Scott western set in the town of Silver City about two competing freight lines.

Cole Armin (Scott) is on a stagecoach on which oddly enough, the driver Juke (George "Gabby" Hayes) and his co-driver are not armed. As luck would have it, the coach is held up, a passenger killed and a lady passenger, Celia Wallace (Catherine Craig) is robbed of $10,000, money that was to be used by herself and her brother Ted (Russell Hayden) to get their freight line up and running. Of course Cole is immediately attracted to the comely Celia.

The purpose of Cole's trip is to go to work for his uncle John Armin (George Cleveland) and learn his freight business. Cole soon learns that his uncle is behind the robbery and forces him to give the money back (although we don't see how). He declines his uncle's job offer and joins up with Juke and the Wallaces. Evil Uncle John and his chief heavy Murkill (Lon Chaney) do all they can to foil them.

Uncle John sends for confidence woman Letty Tyler (Barbara Britton) to infiltrate the Wallace company and learn of their plans. As you might of guessed, Ted Wallace becomes enamored of Letty and she soon sees the error of her ways and double crosses Uncle John. Meanwhile, the Wallace line negotiates a contract with miners Lane Chandler and Russell Simpson to haul their silver ore down a hazardous mountain trail. Ted is injured and, you guessed it again, Cole is forced to drive one of the wagons. Well..Uncle John learns of this and in a final confrontation they........

Scott is good as always in the lead but is hampered by a predicable and somewhat weak script. Britton does her best as the good/bad girl and Craig is suitably young and innocent as Scott's love interest. In an unusual bit of casting, George Cleveland plays the chief villain, a mean spirited wheel chair bound old man. Cleveland was usually cast as crusty old towns men on the right side of the law. Chaney is wasted again as Cleveland's henchman. His fight with Scott is ludicrous since he goes through the whole thing save for the last punch, with a lighted cigarette in his mouth. Hollywood never did seem to know what to do with Chaney. When he did get a chance to act such as in "Of Mice and Men" (1939), "High Noon" (1952) or "The Defiant Ones" (1958), he exhibited real talent.

Hayes and Hayden had appeared together in the Hopalong Cassidy series between 1937-39 as Hoppy's sidekicks. Hayes after a career in "B" westerns, appeared in several Scott "A" westerns in the last years of his career, which ended in 1950.

This film gives the viewer an excellent example to see the color process "Cinecolor" a cheap technicolor clone that was being used by some studios at the time. You'll notice that the reds all seem to photograph orange (note Scott's kerchief and Chaney's long johns, for example). Not unlike Republic's "Trucolor" which seemed to have a green tinge to it.

Great to see ole Gabby in color for a change though.

According to the book The Last of the Cowboy Heroes which is about Joel McCrea, Audie Murphy, and Randolph Scott, the author says that Albuquerque was the only film he personally did not review because he claimed it was lost. Hadn't been seen in years.

Good thing for western fans somebody was doing some spring cleaning at Paramount because a print was apparently found and now it's out on the open market. Albuquerque is a pretty good western too with Scott involved in a family feud with Uncle George Cleveland.

George Cleveland sends for his nephew Randolph Scott with the intention of making him part of his freighting business, headquartered in the fast growing settlement of Albuquerque. Cleveland is more than just a business owner, he's the town boss which he runs from a wheelchair. He even has the sheriff in his pocket.

Randolph Scott is not a cowboy hero for nothing. That includes not backing relatives up when they're villains. He goes to work for a rival outfit headed by brother and sister Russell Hayden and Catherine Craig.

Cleveland is full of all kinds of tricks and he even sends for a western Mata Hari in the person of Barbara Britton to worm her way into the confidence of his rivals. Barbara's great as the homespun vixen who develops her own agenda.

Randolph Scott's original home studio was Paramount, it was where his first studio contract was with. Albuquerque marked the last film he ever did for Paramount and they gave him a good one.

Note also Lon Chaney, Jr., who is George Cleveland's chief henchman, a rather loathsome bully of a man and Gabby Hayes, who is just Gabby Hayes.

Albuquerque must have been loved by Republicans across the nation in 1948 with its chief villain as a town boss who rules from a wheelchair. A certain Democrat from a wheelchair had made hash of them for four straight presidential elections and he was gone. They had high hopes of winning the White House that year too, but things went awry and they had to settle for an ersatz boss getting his comeuppance in Albuquerque. I'm not sure why Cleveland was in a wheelchair since nothing was really made of it in the plot. My guess is he was injured and played the part that way because he had to.

Still Albuquerque must have had great appeal to the GOP market.

At first I thought this was going to turn into another B western since it has a cast that includes Gabby Hayes, Russell Hayden and Lon Chaney in it, but then the plot quickens and it starts to get better as time goes on.

Randolph Scott plays Cole Armin, a happy-go-lucky guy who decides to come to Albuquerque and work for his wheelchair-bound uncle, John Armin (George Cleveland) in his freight business, only to find out that his uncle has got the town under his thumb and is willing to resort to murder in order to keep it that way.

Cole decides he doesn't want any part of his uncle's business and goes to work for honest-guy Ted Wallace (Hayden) and his sister Celia (Catherine Craig) who are the only freight competition in town against his uncle. They get a contract to transport ore for the miners down from the mountains, but Cole's uncle tries to sabotage it every step of the way, including bringing in beautiful Barbara Britton to spy on them and having Lon Chaney pick fights with Cole.

But that's all for naught because Britton starts to fall in love with Hayden and she informs Cole as to what his evil uncle is up to. It all ends in a gun battle on the street and the bad guys get their just rewards, including John Armin.

I'm glad the previous poster mentioned the cheap "Cinecolor" process that Paramount originally used because I was wondering why the film had a washed-out, 'colorized' look to it. It's even more apparent on the new Universal DVD that's recently come out.

Still, it not bad. Even Gabby Hayes was bearable.

6 out of 10

Released in 1948, "Albuquerque" is a Western starring Randolph Scott as Cole Armin, who arrives in the New Mexican town to work for his wicked uncle's ore-hauling freight line. When he discovers overt corruption, he switches to another company with an eye on his partner's sister (Catherine Craig). Meanwhile his uncle hires a hottie spy (Barbara Britton) from out of town to destroy the competition.

Reviewer msroz said it best in describing "Albuquerque" as an "okay and likable western, neither exceptional nor routine." The story is interesting, but loses momentum here and there; aspects of the film are better than the whole. One aspect that's great is the cast: Scott's amiable as the protagonist, George Cleveland is effective as the wannabe godfather of Albuquerque, Lon Chaney is formidable as one of the main heavies and the two women are gorgeous, especially Catherine Craig. She's both stunning and winsome. Another great element is the scenic Southwest locations, shot in Sedona, Arizona, and Iverson Ranch, California.

As long as you can adapt to the old-style of fimmaking "Albuquerque is a worthwhile Western, but it's hampered by the negatives noted above.

The film runs 90 minutes.

GRADE: B-

Classic, predictable but unavoidable Randolph Scott vehicle which was hard to find for many years, I don't know why. This is a good western where Randy Scott brings no surprise at all, where the bad guys are at their place and the good one at his. So, do not expect anything unusual, no surprise, only the charm of the late forties, in color, with all the bunch of old timers, as George Gabby Hayes, Lon Chaney Jr. The lead character accused, framed for something that he did not do is so boring to me, so foreseeable, and Scott with his proud, his forever glance that we'll see in many other movies, is not that exciting for my taste. I will prefer him in the Budd Boetticher cycle, ten years later.