Overland Pacific

A B-movie western that delivers the goods when it comes to action. Jock Mahoney plays a guy investigating a spate of Indian attacks on a pioneering railroad and soon undercovers a minor conspiracy taking place. What occurs plotwise is unremarkable, but this is a film better than average thanks to the execution, which favours momentum and action over tired dialogue and romance scenes. There's a feisty heroine, treachery, a square-jawed hero and a whole host of vivid battle sequences that are staged well on a low budget. It's one of those entirely forgettable films that nonetheless entertains while it's on.

I caught this rare item from a 16mm print, not very good, but I don't care. It is a good time waster without any surprises, with Jock Mahoney in a predictable role. A western as you have seen a thousand times before, with plenty of action, a bit romance and that's all. It was not produced by Columbia Pictures and their infamous Sam Katzman, Columbia where Sears made most of his career. He was not a bad director, but the producers whith whom he had to deal over the years prevented him to show better skills. He made many westerns and thrillers but only EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS - a science fiction film - brought him fame.

This is an all right Western from 1954. The acting wasn't bad. I don't mind B & W films, so no problem there. One scene sticks with me. Jock Mahoney is in a gun battle with a rifleman a ways off. We see Mahoney take a bullet in the chest--right in his heart. There's not much blood on his shirt, but he deals with the injury by taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and sticking it under his shirt over the wound. The gunman approaches, and Mahoney gets into a fight with the guy and beats him using one hand after taking a bullet in the heart! Realistically, he'd have been dead after the shot. I didn't laugh, but I did find this to be the most memorable scene in the film.

People are shooting at each other almost nonstop (but usually miss) throughout this tough little western about building a railroad in the face of opposition from local Apaches directed with his usual terse efficiency by Fred Sears and full of cynical one-liners like "The sheriff caught me in the middle of a fascinating autopsy" and "You're sick, and the only cure for that is hanging".

Jock Mahoney was then billed as 'Jack', while perennial 'B' picture bad girl Peggie Castle is cast against type as feisty good girl in blouse and tight trousers described by saloon gal Adele Jergens as "the little princess".

For some reason I hadn't ticked this one against my reference bible (Phil Hardy's "Western Movies"); it was on UK TV's marvellous Talking Pictures free channel.

What a nasty story full of murders, treacherous former friend, saloon gal with heart of gold (murdered), cowardly sheriff (murdered), feisty heroine (Peggy Castle) sporting tight slacks (father is murdered); hero is supposedly a telegrapher but really a "railroad agent", former mate is chief crook conniving with the usual sinister townies to supply repeating rifles to the Comanches to cause mayhem so railroad is diverted to town so land values can increase (familiar?); Hardy mentions the awful colour (Color Corp. Of America) which is a bleached horror; (the cowardly, crooked sheriff is Chubby Johnson-playing against his usual comedy type-warmly remembered as the riverboat captain in "Bend of the River"); ticked it off as am an obsessive Western watcher-but will never see it again!