Ten Wanted Men

This is just pure mindless Western fun. It has some big stars, including the most fun Western actor of all time, Randoph Scott. You always had to like him, even when he plays a...well, a jerk, like in this film. His character is, frankly, something that rhymes with glass hole. But he manages to pull it off with the aplomb that very few could do (Cary Grant, Morgan Freeman, people like that). There are supposedly ten wanted men, but don't go looking for them. They're never explained, but the title insinuates that these are the thugs hired by bad guy Richard Boone, who plays more of a moneybags bad guy than his usual rough neck. Still, he has a lot of guts, even trying to face down the ten wanted men at one point. The action and gun play, along with some big name stars, make this an enjoyable movie. The plot is very thin and basic. So if you're looking for depth, this isn't the time to watch the movie. It's just plain old fashioned Western fun. Not Scott's best, but has quality action.

Things go wrong when John Stewart (Randolph Scott) gives refuge to Wick Campbell's girlfriend ,Maria Segura (Donna Martell) . As his ward seeks protection with rival cattleman John Stewart , then land baron Campbell (Richard Boone)turns against him . As Stewart being forced to protect his family , property and cattle . Stewart is obligated to guard his woman (Jocelyn Brando) , brother (Lester Matthews ) , nephew (Skip Homeier) and friends . Then the jealous cattle baron hires a motley group of gunslingers to help him seize power in the territory. Later on , he and his men pin Stewart and a few others down in a house apparently killing them . But Stewart has escaped and returns alone to rid the town of Campbell and his men.The life and death of a reign of terror ! Ten times bigger than ever before ¡

This stirring fare deals with the classy confrontation between a successful cattle baron and a pistol-wielding landowner determined to ruin him . Standard tale with better than average interpretation from Randolph Scott and Richard Boone . Although the incidents move slowly , at times , it contains noisy action through well-trodden pastures , and there's plenty of fire-power and go-riding . Agreeable story in which Richard Boone gives the best acting as an embittered , jealous rancher called Wick Campbell who rustles Stewart's cattle, murders his brother and brings as hired guns to ten outlaws . In the character of Corinne shows up Jocelyn Brando , Marlon Brando's sister, she makes one of her rare screen interventions . And the bad guys and good guys include a whole crop of familar faces you love to see . As good guys appearing pre-McCloud Dennis Weaver , Skip Homeier , Clem Bevans , Kathleen Crowley ,Tom Powers , Minor Watson and bad guys intervine Lee Van Cleef pre-Leone , Leo Gordon , Denver Pyle , all of them bite the dust .

Including a brilliant cinematography by Wilfrid Cline , being well filmed in brilliant Technicolor . Shot on location in Sonora desert ,Tucson Mountains ,Ironwood Forest National Monument, Arizona , Sierrita Mountains , Silver Bell Mountains, Reymert, Cochran, Arizona and Lone Pine, California . It contains an atmospheric and thrilling musical score by Paul Sawtell . The motion picture was well produced by the notorious duo : Harry Joe Brown/Randolph Scott, both of whom produced various prestigious Westerns for Bud Boetticher . The flick was decent and professionally directed by Bruce Humberstone who worked on several silent movies and he was able to make all kinds of genres without problems . He is known for making a lot of Charlie Chan /Warner Oland films as Charlie Chan at the opera , Chan at the race track, Charlie Chan in Honolulu , Charlie Chan at the Olympics . He directed Westerns as Ten wanted men, Lucky Cisco Kid ; Musical : Iceland, Hello Frisco; Comedy :Wonder man , Tall dark and handsome ; Noir film as Hot Spot and Aventure : Tarzan and Lost safari, Tarzan and the trappers, Tarzan fights for his life , King of the jungle and The Purple Masked . Rating: 6/10 . Enjoyable and acceptable Western .

Exceptionally fine cast from top to bottom, from Boone and Gordon at the top to Pyle and Louis-Jean Heydt in support, and of course in the starring role, the great Randolph Scott. Then too, the color photography is unusually pleasing and picturesque. And the fact that Harry Joe Brown produced suggests that this is a 1955 warm-up for the classic Boetticher-Ranown Western cycle that was soon to follow.

So, with these kinds of ingredients, why isn't the movie better than I think it is. For one thing, the direction appears pretty slack. The scenes simply follow one another without building into the kind of intensities expected from the rivalries involved. It's like Humberstone shot each scene without considering its dramatic significance to the narrative as a whole. So, for example, when gunsel Gordon takes over the town from Boone, there's no real sense of displacement, no real dramatic impact. Similarly, the dynamite sticks that act like grenades simply appear and also produce little dramatic impact. Yet both episodes are clever plot wrinkles, and with the right development could have helped lift the movie beyond the merely routine.

Also, too many times-- especially in standing conversation-- the actors speak their lines with perfect enunciation, as if they're performing from center stage. I expect that's also Humberstone's doing, but it comes across as stagey and inappropriate for a Western. And, of course, there's poor Donna Martell who looks great but is rather painfully no actress.

Still and all, it's an interesting, if somewhat convoluted, story and a treat for the eyes. And seeing all those familiar faces from other films almost looks like a reunion of sorts. I expect some good-hearted soul in production decided on a payday for a number of veteran performers. Also, it's a good chance to catch Skip Homeier in a rare sympathetic role, and Dennis Weaver shortly before his slow-talking, slow thinking deputy on the classic series Gunsmoke. Anyway, disappointing or not, no Western starring the granite-jawed Scott can afford to be overlooked.

In contrast to his usual roles as a loner or "stranger in town", Randolph Scott plays a very successful rancher, but doesn't really fit the patriarch mould, though he does get to wear a fancy waistcoat.Like other commentators, I thought that his practical joke at the beginning was foolish, and that the way the chip on bad guy Wick Campbell's shoulder grew was a bit unbelievable. And it was way into the film that I started to wonder about the "Ten Wanted Men" of the title. When the imported bad guys massed for the final shoot-out I tried to count them, and they did seem to number ten.

I wondered if the version I saw on British TV had been subject to editing, such was the jerky plot, but the original runtime of 80 minutes was accommodated by the 85-minute viewing slot (including a couple of commercial breaks). The relationship between Maria and Howie seemed to happen instantaneously, and the "ten wanted men" turned up in town almost spontaneously.

It was good to see Skip Homeier acting against type; he's nearly always a bad guy who gets killed; here he's even slow to rise to provocation from one of Campbell's heavies. I was half-expecting him to turn out bad but...

Leo Gordon stole quite a few scenes from Richard Boone, who didn't perform that well. He had the most complex role in the film, with a chip-on-the-shoulder, somewhat pathetic infatuation with a young girl, and a really mean streak.

Lee van Cleef didn't have much to do. "High Noon" apart, his filmography up to now had been unimpressive, but his day was coming.

Quite apart from his misplaced sense of humour at the beginning, Scott took a foolish risk by walking into the bad guy's saloon by himself, and where were all his ranch-hands in the final confrontation? Without them, he had an unimpressive set of allies in the siege. Earlier he had recalled how he had won his land from the Apaches despite them burning him out four time, so perhaps he had a strong sense of indestructibility. John Wayne would have carried off the role better.

Moonraker

The rancher John Stewart (Randolph Scott) welcomes his brother and lawyer Adam (Lester Matthews) and his nephew Howie (Skip Homeier) that have just arrived in the pacific Ocatilla to implement law with a party in his ranch. Howie flirts with the Mexican Maria Segura (Donna Martell) and the greedy Wick Campbell (Richard Boone) that has raised the girl since she was orphan tries to force her to live with him; however John Stewart protects Maria and she moves to his ranch. Campbell hires ten gunmen to work for him; he first kills John's neighbor that was going to pay a debt with him to have his lands; then he rustles John's cattle with the gunmen; frames Howie in a duel in the bar and he is arrested in jail; and kills Adam Stewart in a lonely road. When Campbell believes he has destroyed John Stewart, the outlaws turn against him and loot Ocatilla. But John Stewart is alive and ready to payback.

"Ten Wanted Men" is that type of western with many clichés of the genre but also entertaining. The fifty-seven year-old Randolph Scott is still convincing in the role of an old cowboy that became a successful rancher and needs to use weapons again to protect his family, his friends and the town he helped to build. Lee Van Cleef in the beginning of his career has a minor role as an outlaw and Richard Boone and Leo Gordon perform the typical villain. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Arizona Violenta" ("Violent Arizona")