A Time for Dying

A Time For Dying marksa farewell for both producer Audie Murphy and director Budd Boettticher. Both of them did some really good westerns and sad they went out on this badly acted and disjointed tale.

The two leads Richard Lapp and Anne Randall give some truly insipid peformances and villain Bob Random overacts out of proportion to his role. Not that he's the only one overacting. Victor Jory playing Judge Roy Bean and he really goes to town in a part that calls for it. In a turkey you gobble vigorously and Jory is the best in the film.

Audie Murphy plays Jesse Jamesrepeating a role he did in Kansas Raiders years earlier. He's an older and wiser Jesse now and offers some sage advice to a[[ who is too dumb to take it.

A sad mediocre film way beneath the talents of drector and prodcuer.

What a strange little picture. Audie Murphy, like Randolph Scott, has a place in second tier western heroes that is unassailable. By second tier, that's not to denigrate either actor, just that they never attained the heights of movie stardom like James Stewart, John Wayne or later Clint Eastwood did in westerns. Sadly, this marked the final screen appearance of Audie Murphy, and only five minutes of the picture. The leading actor is Richard Lapp. Who? You might wonder why Audie Murphy decided as a producer to invest in this nobody. It's a mystery to everyone who's seen it. He came and went unnoticed. There's one really great performance in the movie with Victor Jory as Judge Roy Bean though, so all is not lost. Not as subtle and menacing as Walter Brennan's portrayal in an earlier film but over the top sort of great, announcing hangings with great glee and his dentures falling out. The director, Budd Boetticher, who made seven fine, even great minor westerns starring Randolph Scott, must have been drunk when he made this. There's no real explanation as to how this film went so badly wrong but I've given it 3 stars, one each for the beautifully clear cinematography, Audie Murphy as Jesse James (all too briefly) and best of all, Victor Jory.

Due to financial constraints this movie was shorter than planned. Thank goodness. A sad finale for both producer and director.

Budd Boetticher directed many high quality westerns, but this effort as replacement director was not one of them. Firstly Lapp and Randall were relatively inexperienced and, while they have their moments they seldom inspired.

Producer Audie Murphy ran out of money and the film was severely cut. A rushed ending is noticeable.

This was Murphy's last acting role and he died before the film was released. His cameo as Jesse James is amusing. His two sons Terry and Skip are among the uncredited actors but neither have scenes with their father.

Lovers of the bizarre may check out Victor Jory's extraordinary turn as western legend Judge Roy Bean.

This is quite an odd Western, this one - like many made in the late 1960s, it is anticipating the arrival of the railroad and, ultimately, it's own demise... This one is only really notable as the last appearance for Audie Murphy - and appearance is the word - probably no more than 3 minutes of screen time as the legendary Jesse James. The rest of the film really belongs to Victor Jury as the curmudgeonly - and quite ruthless - "Judge Roy Bean" who rules his town with a rod of iron, tempered only by his ability to drink copiously and his fascination with Lily Langtree. Richard Lapp is our rather naive, unassuming hero who has some skill with a gun that he is, thus far, reluctant to use until he is finally provoked... It actually looks quite good, but the story is all rather weak, I found - Lapp and his co-star Anne Randall ("Nellie Winters") are just too nice, their love story too frat-like and many of the action scenes looked more like rodeo staging than anything more authentic.