Rimfire

Ignored even when it was released this B western is akin to Audie Murphy's "No Name on the Bullet" as it is a different kind of western, actually a suspense/mystery in a western setting, not a horse opera at all. The cast is an ensemble of reliable character actors doing what they do.

This one is probably lost for ever, but it is an example of what can be accomplished on a starvation budget when a little creativity is applied.

IT'S THE WRITING, STUPID!

If I was writing the script of Rimfire I might have taken this story in an entirely different direction. I think the film had a lot of potential. When first looking at it I was thinking it might be a harbinger of what Clint Eastwood did in High Plains Drifter. If you remember Clint is an other world figure who exacts a terrible vengeance on everyone in his film.

Here Reed Hadley is a luckless gambler the Abilene Kid who gets himself nicely framed for a gold robbery and murder after first being falsely accused of card cheating. After that a whole lot of people start dying and their left with playing cards near the body. The spade suit is used and it goes right into the picture cards.

James Millican who is normally a good character actor is the lead here along with Hadley and he never believed Hadley was guilty. He's an army captain on detached duty for the Secret Service and sheriff Victor Killian makes him a deputy.

The ending is rather strange and disjointed as well. I will say a good red herring is given as the leader of the gang, but the final showdown left a lot to be desired.

Rimfire is interesting and certainly has its supporters, but I think it fails in the execution.

This is a good little western from Lippert studios, and I don't understand the low rating by IMDb reviewers. The film is a mystery story and is well-written, taut and compact, and in only 64 minutes. The cast, led by James Millican, does a uniformly good job, and there is nary a bad acting performance in sight from the supporting cast. One is taken aback by seeing suave, urbane Reed Hadley out in the scrubbrush, but it turns out he's the suave, urbane gambler in the story.

Now, we're not talking MGM or Paramount here and so you have to consider economics, but production values are better than expected and there is a good deal of action during this just-over-an-hour affair. Overlook a couple of plot holes and a time-killing romance and you have an entertaining movie which has been unfairly neglected over the years. This was included in a DVD with "Little Big Horn", which is a better picture, but nevertheless, "Rimfire" is still a cut above.

After a rattlesnake bites his horse, a cowboy named "Tom Harvey" (James Millican) has to walk alone along a dusty trail in a remote part of New Mexico, where he sees a stagecoach being held up by bandits. Skilled with a gun, he surprises the outlaws and, with some help from a stagecoach passenger called "The Abilene Kid" (Reed Hadley), manages to chase them away. Grateful for his help, the stagecoach driver offers him a ride to the nearest town. Once there, he is offered a job as a deputy sheriff, which he performs exceptionally well. Sadly, a short while later, his colleague, the Abilene Kid, is falsely accused of cheating at cards and is tried and sentenced to death. But things don't end there as, not long after he's hanged, a series of murders occur, and the townspeople start to believe that the ghost of the gambler, seeking revenge for his death, is behind them--with Tom Harvey becoming one of his main targets. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will simply say that this was an odd, grade-B Western that managed to hold my attention, mainly due to the mystery surrounding the murders. On a more critical note, although the acting was mostly solid, I didn't particularly like Fuzzy Knight's comedic performance as "Porky Hodges." He just wasn't that funny. However, this film was made during a different era, and comedy of this type was quite typical at the time. So, I guess it's to be expected. Be that as it may, although it's not a great Western, I suppose this film was decent enough to pass the time, and I have rated it accordingly.

The Abiline Kid is set up and convicted by a Kangaroo court for using marked cards. Executed by hanging, he seemingly returns as a ghost to terrorize and wreak vengeance on the guilty town that murdered him.

Rimfire is loaded with great character actors, including James Millican, Reed Hadley, Jason Robards Sr., and Fuzzy Knight, alongside two previous Universal monsters, The Werewolf Of London's Henry Hull and Glen Strange, the last of the classic Frankenstein monsters!

Although it's running time could (and should) have been stretched a little for greater suspense, this is still an entertaining, if compact, western whodunit with lots of great scenes.

It can also be viewed as sort of a forerunner (along with Django Il Bastardo) to Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter. In fact, the three would make a great triple feature.