Stage to Thunder Rock

"Stage to Thunder Rock" was the second A.C. Lyles B-Western, shot in the fall of 1963 back to back with the first, "Law of the Lawless," with a three month gap between the two releases. Only four cast members returned (Lon Chaney, John Agar, Laurel Goodwin, Roy Jenson), with Barry Sullivan heading this one as Sheriff Horne, who must bring in the outlaw Sawyer brothers who robbed the local bank of $50,000, without reckoning that the untrusting townsmen would hire to do the same a professional bounty hunter (Scott Brady), due to the lawman's close relationship to the Sawyers. Horne dutifully recovers the money and kills Toby Sawyer (Wayne Peters) in a brief shootout, taking as his prisoner Reese Sawyer (Ralph Taeger), who persistently taunts his former childhood friend that his father Ross Sawyer (Keenan Wynn) will eventually catch up with them and kill the sheriff. All of the characters congregate at the way station run by Henry Parker (Lon Chaney) and wife Myra (Anne Seymour), who fear that they will soon lose the station unless they can raise enough money for back taxes. $50,000 provides a great incentive for skullduggery during the night, with Sheriff Horne refusing to allow anyone to deter him from his duty, keeping a watchful eye out until the inevitable showdown with the pursuing Ross Sawyer. It's quite a soap opera rather than horse opera, but the strong cast rises to the occasion, except for Marilyn Maxwell, improbably cast as Lon Chaney's eldest daughter, a high priced floozy whose tawdry reputation seems to be common knowledge (she looks older than her screen mother!). Laurel Goodwin (STAR TREK's "The Cage") scores as the Parkers' restless younger daughter (a good 22 years younger than Marilyn), and Ralph Taeger, star of such short-lived TV series as ACAPULCO, KLONDIKE, and HONDO, is thoroughly convincing as a cowardly villain. Keenan Wynn has very little screen time, unfortunately, and veterans John Agar, Allan Jones, Robert Strauss, Robert Lowery, Paul E. Burns, and Roy Jenson also get little chance to contribute in their brief appearances. Barry Sullivan's role is also sadly routine, leaving the always reliable Lon Chaney to walk off with the entire film, his Henry Parker shown to be a poor businessman, his wife and daughter both eager to pack up and leave, never standing up to his domineering spouse out of love for her; but when push comes to shove, he lashes out in powerful fashion, successfully keeping his family intact. It's an undeniable gem among his increasingly scarce 60s output, here reunited with Ralph Taeger, from the 1961 KLONDIKE episode "The Hostages."

Stage to Thunder Rock is directed by William F. Claxton and written by Charles Wallace. It stars Barry Sullivan, Marilyn Maxwell, Scott Brady, Lon Chaney Jr., Anne Seymour, John Agar, Wanda Hendrix, Ralph Taeger and Keenan Wynn. Music is by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by W. Wallace Kelley.

Pretty friendless in the Western loving pantheon of 1960s offerings, Stage to Thunder Rock does have strong character dynamics on its side. Forget any hope of scintillating action or even of a good use of the Technicolor/Techniscope tools afforded the piece, and instead prepare for a character based tale about a number of disparate characters holed up at a Stageline Station. Here is the crux of the matter, there's money at the root of all evil here, and although it is hardly something new in Westerns, this assortment of characters makes for a very interesting group dynamic.

The old sheriff forced to deal with something from his past that gnaws away at him, the young daughter who just wants to escape the humdrum of her life, the hired bounty hunter who needs money for his blind daughter. The weary Station owners beset by years of mismanagement soon to lose their business, the elder daughter with a past that's being used against her, and the outlaw in cuffs desperate to get away from his captor. In the middle of them all is fifty thousand dollars and the prospect of reward money for the outlaw and the man who is riding in to save him. All parties have reasons to err on the side of bad, who will turn? Who will survive the night? It's these questions that keeps the picture watchable.

The tech credits aren't up to much and without doubt this isn't a must see for Western purists, but it has human value enough to warrant it as being a decent time waster. 6/10

The last gasp of the theatrically released B western was in the Sixties and the last theaters showing double bills probably had some feature like Stage To Thunder Rock on the bottom of the bill. A.C. Lyles made many of these films, some of the best of them. This isn't one of them though.

Sheriff Barry Sullivan has the task to bring in some outlaws, the catch is that the outlaw father Keenan Wynn took Sullivan in as a lad and raised him as a foster son. At the beginning though Sullivan shoots one son and apprehends the other Ralph Taeger. You know Wynn will be gunning for Sullivan and trying to free his boy.

At the same time bounty hunter Scott Brady needing money for his blind daughter Suzanne Cupito leaves her with her mother Wanda Hendrix and at the behest of city fathers Allan Jones and Robert Strauss goes after a bounty on Taeger and Wynn. And if Sullivan gets in the way too bad because they're not crazy about him either.

And still a third family mother Anne Seymour, father Lon Chaney, Jr., and daughters Marilyn Maxwell and Laurel Goodwin who run the station on the Thunder Rock line are having to pull up stakes, they owe some back taxes. Maxwell's home for a visit, but she's led a sordid life. Goodwin wants to lead any kind of life away from her parents. Chaney is henpecked and Seymour just wants the money to save the home.

A whole lot of these folks meet up at the stageline station and a lot gets thrashed out. Sad to say you do lose quite a bit of interest in how this all turns out. And in fact the climax showdown between Sullivan and Wynn is poorly, almost routinely staged.

And needless to say this whole cast as seen better days.

The main reason I watched this obscure western just now on Netflix streaming was because since I've been reviewing movies and TV appearances of various cast members of the original "Dallas" in chronological order since mid-June when the new one on TNT premiered, I wanted to follow them to the letter so it got me now to 1964 when the second Digger Barnes-Keenan Wynn-appeared here as the father of a couple of adult sons who were involved in a robbery and had also once taken in a now-sheriff (Barry Sullivan) as a youngster who's now got one of those sons in handcuffs having killed the other one. This was quite a compelling B-oater with notable players like Lon Chaney, Jr., Marilyn Maxwell, and-since I always like to cite whenever a player from my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life, is in something else-Angentina Brunetti as the American Indian, Sarita. Oh, and I just found out another "Dallas" connection: Katherine Wentworth herself, Morgan Brittany-who, as a pre-teen here, was credited by her real name, Suzanne Cupito-played a blind girl named Sandy Swope. So on that note, I consider Stage to Thunder Rock well worth a look.

Just don't make 'em any more. Will be appreciated more as time passes, these low budget classics will be really loved a hundred years from now. Well written and acted, authentic 'Western' feel and dealing with timeless issues.