Powder River

It demonstrates that black & white was perceived as the default position for serious postwar Hollywood cinema that this character-driven western potboiler was one of the very few colour films namechecked in Robert Warshow's 'The Immediate Experience'.

As for the film itself the most memorable characters are Cameron Mitchell as a doctor succumbing to headaches and blackouts due to a brain tumour and Corinne Calvet usually with a cigar protruding from her glossy red lips and wearing bright colours as a brassy 'businesswoman' known to the rest of the cast as 'Frenchie'.

Rory Calhoun was a staple hero in all kinds of films during the 50s. His performances were always great, abetted by his handsome, rugged looks and the ease into which he fit into a number of hero roles. In this one, a kind of standard western, he plays an ex-lawman who returns to the trade when his partner is killed. During the time he cleans up the town, defeats bad guys played by veteran character actors Carl Betz and John Dehner, gets his semi-revenge, on the antihero, played by Cameron Mitchell, wows the French bombshell, Corinne Calvert and, of course, gets the girl. It's great 50s entertainment with a total lack of CGI action, extensive blood and gore and good honest villains and good guys. (*sigh) They just don't make movies like this any more. Watch for it on the late show. There's no DVD or video listed. Calhoun was always worth the price of admission.

This Western has two good things going for it; dialogue by Daniel Mainwaring who wrote fiction under the name of Geoffrey Homes. For those who recall ' Out of the Past, ' or alternatively titled ' Build My Gallows High, ' he was responsible for the novel it was based on, and the dialogue in the film. Some say it is the greatest Film Noir and they could be right. Turned screenwriter he wrote the dialogue for this film and it is first rate; complex, snappy and full of energy. Out of the actors in the film Cameron Mitchell as a tormented man, threatened by death and afraid of it gives a first rate performance. The story itself is the usual one of stolen gold, and tracking down the killer of a man who was protecting it. No spoilers but Rory Calhoun gets to be the man to do that, and his performance is as slick and over polished as ever. However much he tries to portray a ' good man ' the fake smile shows up the opposite and spoils the illusion. Corinne Calvet plays a saloon girl in love with Mitchell. And she does her best to make you believe in her. As a Western it is good, but as usual the town is too clean for the period and the clothes too clean. Personally I like this decade of Western mythology, and the colour is excellent, and a shootout on a boat adrift and heading for the river's rapids is first rate. There is even a carriage on the boat which gives the scene a surreal touch. I give it a 7 for Cameron Mitchell and the dialogue.

I'm not really a fan of Rory Calhoun, but I enjoyed his character in this picture. It tells a story with a bit more depth and a few surprises, while still providing action, romance and some terrific western scenery. While Calhoun's character, Chino Bull, is still country-suave and in control, he doesn't convey the snide quality that was an undercurrent in his later television work. The story line carries some standard western baggage, but at the same time it veers away with unexpected plot developments that were a bit more sophisticated than the type of that era, presaging the so-called "adult westerns" that became the standard in the 1950s and '60s. The female characters, unfortunately, are given the usual supportive roles. Still, it's an interesting story against some beautiful backgrounds.

I have always been surprised to see that ambitionless film director Louis King gave the best of his films by the end of his career. Not masterpieces, but greater films than the bulk of what he made in the thirties, forties: I mean grade Z westerns, or crime series - Bulldog Drummond, Charlie Chan; I though make exception with this small crime flicks for Paramount Pictures starring Lloyd Nolan, J Caroll Naish and produced in the late thirties. So this one, produced by the prestigious Twentieth Century Fox - Louis King"s also prestigious brother Henry's company - is a surprise. Louis King could have worked for Allied Artists or Republic Pictures. Excellent little western, the kind that Universal Studios could have made too. Splendid location settings. However, 20 Th Century Fox gave us similar B westerns in the fifties, several directed by Harmon Jones. And a strange and unusual showdown. Cameron Mitchell in a surprisingly good villain performance.