Devil's Canyon

As I have already said many times before, director Alfred Werker provided several good westerns by the end of his career, rather grade B westerns, the same kind of material that Universal made in the fifties, starring Audie Murphy fo instance. Here, Stephen McNally is the villain and nearly steals the show, compared to a bland Dale Robertson,, who was made for TV westerns shows, instead of this kind of westerns. That's my own opinion. But this is a good solid little yarn, don't misunderstand me, it is worth the view but not as unpredictable as a Budd Boetticcher's western written by Burt Kennedy and with Randolph Scott as the lead.

DALE ROBERTSON is a marshal unjustly prisoned in an Arizona jailhouse who hinders and then helps a prison break plan concocted by VIRGINIA MAYO. This has the look of a low-budget movie that was put together hastily with a second-rate script and designed as a programmer to fill out a double bill.

VIRGINIA MAYO looks absolutely beautiful but her hairdress and costuming is strictly from the 1950s--and so is her overall demeanor as a tough gal who thinks she's in love with the brutish STEPHEN McNALLY.

Among the supporting cast, Whit Bissell, Arthur Hunnicutt, Robert Keith, Earl Holliman and Irving Bacon have all seen better days.

It affords only minimal entertainment with a standard prison break climax not too convincingly staged. Of the actors, only the handsome and stalwart DALE ROBERTSON looks as though he believes in his role, bringing strength and sincerity to his role as the marshal.

You can afford to miss this one.

This routine oater sees eye-catching Virginia Mayo aiding a gang of outlaws in a small desert town by helping to arrange a massive jailbreak. It's a strictly by-the-numbers affair, featuring characters segregated into either the good or bad, and a particular cheapness to the sets. RKO Pictures were well known for churning out low budget programmer after low budget programmer and DEVIL'S CANYON is a good example of their 'shoot fast for a quick buck' mentality.

The movie features a number of notable character actors from the era, including Whit Bissell, Morris Ankrum and Irving Bacon, but only Dale Robertson, as the upstanding hero, is given much of a character, while Mayo seems to be relegated to the role of clothes horse for much of the running time.

Things do pick up with a couple of decent shoot-outs and an elaborate, large-scale climax which doesn't disappointment, but by the looks of it the gimmicky 3D fails to make much, if any, of an impact other than in the opening titles.

Devil's Canyon, a RKO picture, starts out like a normal western, the first ten minutes features an exciting gunfight between Dale Robertson and two outlaws gunning for him, but switches to a prison - it's essentially prison break yarn that happens to be a western.

The story- Following a shoot out in which he kills two men, former US marshal Billy Reynolds is sent to the notorious Arizona territorial prison. There he finds himself face to face with an old enemy who is determined to revenge himself on the lawman who sent him to jail.

It's a tautly-drawn story with just enough unpredictability to create suspense. Visually, Virginia Mayo is the only bright spot; a significant contrast to everything else, which is a drab grey. The stone walls are grey, the prison uniforms are grey, the quarry where the prisoners break stone is grey. Visually it's quite oppressive.

The cast is excellent, especially Stephen McNally, who towers over everyone with his intensity as the unhinged Gorman, Dale Robertson is his usual reliable self, and Virginia Mayo as Abby doesn't just add a speck of glamour, but is quite good as a character conflicted between Dale and Stephen McNally. (Also, it might seem odd to find a woman placed in a man's prison, however, in 1899, a woman stage robber known as Pearl hart was imprisoned at Yuma).

It's a decent film, and though I am not usually keen on prison dramas, there's enough things happening here to catch your attention. The finale features an exciting sequence with a Gatling gun and dynamite. I found it really entertaining- it's another of those regular westerns that were shown on BBC2 at 6.pm after school in 80's.

An interesting and moving Western with a suspenseful premise , un ex-lawman is imprisoned at a jail surrounded and harassed by enemies thirsty for vengeance. Containing emotion, thrills , shootouts, fights and intrigue. In 1897 Arizona, an ex-marshal called Billy Reynolds (Dale Robertson) is sent to the territorial prison where many of his enemies, among wardens and inmates alike, are eager for a chance at payback and merciless revenge. Serving time in an Arizona prison, he's especially beset by a jailed killer seeking vengeance for his own incarceration. Complicating matters further is the incarceration of Gorman's girlfriend Abby (Virginia Mayo) who helps Gorman (Stephen McNally) plan a break-out while at the same time is unsuccessful hiding her feelings for Reynolds. Very savage thrill...every scorching scene...real as flesh! In 3-D, 500 desperate men caged-up with one woman!

A prison western with thriller, suspense, noisy action, violence and spectacular final scenes. This grim Western has a pretty extraordinary main and support cast, but no more remarkable that the plot and script, both of which are hard to swallow, especially when captured bandit queen Virginia Mayo is assigned to an all-male prison. However, the actual depiction of life in jail seems depressingly accurate, apart from Virginia Mayo's presence. Starring Dale Robertson gives a passable acting as ex-marshal Reynolds, sent to state prison for killing two men in self defense, and he learns that killer Jessie Gorman, brother of the two men Billy shot, is in the same prison and vows vendetta. Along with three main protagonists: the beauty Virginia Mayo, the tough Dale Robertson and baddie Stephen McNally, in Devil's Canyon stands out a magnificent support cast with plenty of familiar faces, most of them from Western genre, such as: Arthur Hunnicutt, Robert Keith, Jay C. Flippen, George J. Lewis, Whit Bissell, Morris Ankrum, James Bell, Earl Holliman, Irving Bacon, among others.

Cameraman Nicholas Musuraka's sombre lighting keeps Technicolor under control, though a better remastering being really necessary. Nicholas Musuraka is considered to be one of the best cameramen of the Film Noir genre. Well photographed by Musuraka (Cat People , I Walked with a Zombie) who along with John Seitz and John Alton are deemed to be the best photographers of the fabulous Noir Movies shot in the Forties and Fifties. The motion picture was uneven and professionally directed by Alfred L. Welker. This film was made from his last years, in fact Alfred L. Welker was working from the 30 in the business . He realized a catalogue of routine assignments broken by highlights including : ¨The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes¨ 1935 and ¨He walked by night¨ 1949 the prototype serial-killer film noir , and a string of Western oaters . Alfred Werker directed all kinds of genres : Drama , Film Noir , Adventures , sagebrush Westerns , such as : The Last Posse , Devil's canyon , Repeat Performance , Pirates of Monterrey , Whispering Ghosts , The Mad Martindales , Moon Over Her Shoulder , My Pal Wolf , Rebel in city , At Gunpoint , The Young Don't Cry , Canyon Crossroads and Sealed Cargo . His best film was ¨He walked by night¨ (1948), although this noir thriller is credited to Alfred Werker , a lot of it was shot, uncredited, by Anthony Mann, who had already made some top-notch thrillers in low budget. Rating: 5.5/10 . A good western but not too much . Worthwhile seeing .