The Bounty Hunter

Randolph Scott is in my Hall of Fame. He made one solid western after another. "The Bounty Hunter" is another good one. The first half of the movie is fine but the second half is great stuff. The last half hour is very exciting. "The Bounty Hunter" is a good looking movie with a nice supporting cast. This movie is another enjoyable entry is the solid resume of Randolph Scott. Honorable mention: Ernest Borgnine. (By the way, I can't believe this movie had an Intermission. It's only 89 minutes long.)

The Pinkerton detective agency, unable to track down three violent train robbers after a year, turns to bounty hunter Randolph Scott. He's given very few clues to go on and has no idea what the men look like. Still, he manages to track them to a small town called Twin Forks. But the people there aren't particularly friendly towards strangers who show up asking questions.

The last of six westerns director André de Toth made with Randolph Scott. This was filmed in 3D but only released in standard format. This explains why there are some 'in your face' shots where you have someone sticking something at the camera. Scott does fine in a by-the-numbers role for him and his stuntman works overtime in some decent action scenes. Despite the formula plot, the movie does a nice job of keeping the identity of the train robbers a secret. One is especially surprising. Nice supporting cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Marie Windsor, Dolores Dorn, and Dub Taylor. It's a pretty good western. Nothing extraordinary but above average for the period.

Above Average Randolph Scott Western Directed by the Sometimes Interesting Andre de Toth. This One has a High Entertainment Value because it is More Violent at Times and has a Mystery Element that Keeps Things Going.

There is a Fight Scene where Scott Burns the Butt of a Bad Guy on a Stove and a Head Shot Squib that was Very Rare in 1954. The Characters are a bit more than One Dimensional in this Movie that was Shot in 3-D but Released Flat.

There is a Surprise Ending and Enough Gun-Play and Fisticuffs to Satisfy Western Fans and Scott's Cynical Bounty Hunter is Off Beat for a Fifties Protagonist. Marie Windsor's Wide Eyed Bar Girl and Ernest Borgnine are Highlighted Supporters. For a Weakness there is the Obligatory Marriage for that Fifties Family Wrap-Up Smarminess.

Note...Not in the same league as the Anthony Mann/Budd Boetticher 1950's Westerns but a bit Better than Most of its Ilk.

The film starts with a foreword: Forward During the early days when civilization was pushing its frontiers farther and farther West, there roamed a special breed of men...neither outlaws nor officers of the law, yet more feared than either. For reward money...they tracked down criminals, wanted Dead or Alive, and made themselves both judge and executioner in some lonely court of no appeal. They were called "Bounty Hunters". Once finished opening credits begins the noisy action : A bounty hunter called Jim Kipp (Randolph Scott) is sub-hired by Pinkerton, to track down three wanted killers that assaulted a train and to retrieve the robbed loot . The only clue he received is that one escaped bandit was shot in the leg. He tracks them to Twin Forks but has no clues to their identity. There he seeks out the local Dr. R.L. Spencer (Antrin) to ask for if he recalls attending a man with an injured leg long time ago . The doctor supposedly does not remind but his daughter Julie (Dolores Dorn) confirms this suspicion. There are several suspicious people , Sheriff Brand (Howard Petrie) , the Saloon girl (Mary Windsor) , the doctor Spencer , the manager hotel Bill (Ernest Borgnine) , Jud (Paul Picerni) , the post office manager (Dub Taylor) , Vance Edwards (MacDuff ) .... Who are the robbers ? Meanwhile , he attempts to stifle conflicts, but he encounter problems instead. When the law put up the money "The Bounty Hunter" put on his guns! The highter the reward the hotter the gun he uses to collect it ¡¡She gave "The Bounty Hunter" a different kind of reward.

Passable western with good cast in in which a year after a violent train robbery a bounty hunter arrives in a litttle town to investigate the identity of three robbers , then tensions surface as just his presence in the location acts as a catalyst . As our starring trails 3 unknown murderous train robbers to a town and finds a host of suspects , resulting to be a kind of whodunit , in which we have to find out the identity of the hidden robbers . It is a medium budget movie with thrills, rapid action, shootouts, as well as fine players, nice production design and pleasing results. It is still a run-of-the-mill entry in Western genre, in which Randolph Scott delivers his ordinary interpretation . Actually shot in Red Rock Canyon State Park , Iverson Ranch , Warner Ranch, Calabasas, California and Mojave Desert, with adequate interpretations and solid sets . The picture is well starred by Randolph Scott . He was a prolific actor in Western, his career is divided in films directed by Budd Boetticher in Seven men from now, The tall T, Decision at sundown, Buchanan rides alone, Comanche station, Westbound. Henry Hathaway as : Heritage of the desert, Wild horse, Sunset Pass, Man of the Forest. Ray Enright directed him in : The spoilers, Trail street, Alburquerque, Coroner creek, Return of the bad men. Andre De Toth directed him in Men in the saddle, Carson city, The stranger wore a gun, Riding shotgun, The bounty hunter. Finally, his main testament, Ride the high country along with Joel MacCrea directed by Sam Peckinpah . Support cast is pretty good with notorious secondaries as Ernest Borgnine , Dub Taylor , Paul Picerni , Howard Petrie , and the usual Femme Fatal Marie Windsor , among others

It contains a lousy cinematography Edwin B. DuPar , being extremely necessary a perfect remastering and filmed in 3D, but released only in standard 2D version. And thrilling and moving musical score by David Buttolph . The motion picture was professionally directed by Andre De Toth . He was known for his tough, hard-edged pictures, whether westerns or urban crime dramas, and showed no compunction about depicting violence in as realistic a manner as possible, an unusual and somewhat controversial attitude for the time. Probably his best known film is House of wax (1953), a Vincent Price horror film shot in 3-D. As De Toth only had one eye, that put him in the somewhat odd position of shooting a film in a process in which he would never be able to see the result. That didn't seem to matter, though; the film was a critical and financial success, and is generally considered to be the best 3-D film ever made. Andre De Toth was a classical director , Western usual (Indian fighter, Man in the saddle , Ramrod , Last of Comanches , The stranger wore a gun), but also made Peplum (Gold for the Caesar) and adventure (The Mongols , Morgan the pirate , Tanganyika) .The picture obtained limited success , but it results to be enough agreeable. Rating : 6/10 . It's relentless routine , but also a good stuff for young people and Western lovers who enjoy enormously with the extraordinary adventures starred by Randolph Scott .

The Pinkertons send bounty hunter Randolph Scott after three train robbers whom no one can identify. He soon comes to a small town. When word of who he is gets around, a lot of people get nervous. That's part of his plan, because he doesn't know whom he's looking for.

Before he made the seven Ranown westerns with Budd Boetticher, Randolph Scot made six in a row with Andre De Toth. These emphasized the moral ambiguity of the West, where no one cared who or what you had been as long as no one came looking for you. This movie has Scott as the man who comes looking, and he stirs up a lot of people with a lot of dirty pasts, in whom he has not the slightest interest, including a couple who pull guns on him. Scott is, of course, the thorough professional, single-minded on the job at hand.

DP Edwin DuPar, out of the studios, is more interested in shooting people than scenery, and does so in Eastmancolor which seems to have faded to brown. The script is good, although not as spare of the ones that Burt Kennedy would write for the Ranowns; the humorous bits here seem forced. I do admire how the standard Shaky-A tropes are just implied in favor of actual stuff happening. That keeps this to a spare 79 minutes, and I didn't miss a thing.

By this time, having Randolph Scott meant you didn't need to spend on other actors, so easily recognized performers are Marie Windsor and Ernest Borgnine -- with plenty of "I know that guy" performers. There are also plenty of the bit players who seemed to show up in every western, like Chet Brandenberg (445 screen appearances) and William H. O'Brien (648 times before the motion picture and television cameras). O'Brien entered the movies in 1918, and appeared in everything from Von Stroheim extravaganzas to Stan Laurel shorts. He retired from the screen in 1971, and died ten years later at the age of 89.