Border Shootout

Glenn Ford gave a great performance in his last Western and made this a great film to view. Glenn naturally was getting older and played the role of a Sheriff who was investigating a series of cattle being stolen which involved the Army Calvary and the Mexican people were being blamed for this stealing. Kirby Frye, (Cody Glenn) got himself involved with this cattle stealing which occurred on his property and Kirby brought into town two Mexican men he was able to catch in the act. The local town folks decided to make Kirby a Deputy Sheriff, in order to create better law and order for their town. However, this local town decides to form a city council that will take the law into their own hands. I was surprised to see some very sexy love making scenes by Edith Hanassin, (Charlene Tilton) who was married to an older man who loved her very much, but her needs was for a young man. This is not the greatest Western, but it certainly was very different and funny at times.

Popular fiction writer Elmore Leonard has hammered out a number of rather simplistic Western novels, of which one, "Law at Randado", is utilized as basis for this heavy handed adaptation, with the original apparently being tailor-made for a feature film since it is principally propelled by action and dialogue in lieu of any alternate emphasis upon psychologic insight, of which there is none. However, director Chris McIntyre's screenplay is constructed with a surfeit of plot threads, and this failing, in combination with some unfortunate casting choices, and a plot line full of flaws in logic and continuity, lowers the work to the point of its being a confused and unintended pastiche of the Western cinema genre, certainly a boon for stuntmen but a seemingly endless bore for a sentient viewer. Leonard's tale focuses upon the activities of protagonist Kirby Frye, played here by seventh billed Cody Glenn, including his efforts to perform his duties as deputy sheriff for an imaginary southwestern U.S. border town, a post he has assumed only with reluctance, but McIntyre's undistinguished additions to the story are merely weakened by his own erratic direction, while choppy post-production editing accentuates the dreary affair's lack of cohesion, apt to leave a viewer asea when trying to locate a rationale behind most sequences. Cinematographer Dennis Dalzell's inventive efforts with his camera, essentially the only tolerable aspect of the film, make appropriate use of the Western flavoured settings, shot in Arizona and Burbank, California, but in general this work is but a pale shadow of Leonard's piece that is itself but a heavily denatured example of the Western school of fiction. The film becomes increasingly more slapdash as it moves along, with a strong quality of the ridiculous marking a great deal of the often risible dialogue, a favourite line being read by Charlene Tilton, performing as a married doxy who spends most of her screen time struggling with an off the shoulder blouse, never seeming able to adjust it either off or on enough to her satisfaction. In a climactic scene, wherein her character entreats for exoneration by her cuckolded husband, she describes him thus to others present: "Haig might not have had two nickels to rub together when he met me, but he spent those two nickels on me.", thereby matching the film's extensive array of visual non-sequiters. Among the players propelled in and out of the narrative is Glenn Ford, in his middle seventies and top billed for obvious marketing purposes, but in reality filling a supporting role as sheriff of Randado, plainly too old and stiff-jointed for the part, while being awkwardly edited out and replaced by a stuntman during an action scene wherein the sheriff quells four tough rivals.

Young rancher Kirby Frye (Cody Glenn) is appointed deputy in a small town tyrannized by ruthless Phil Sundeen, the son of one of the founders of the town.

First of all, this script is terrible. The dialogue is ridiculous, and how many times can you have characters say "chili pickers" and "loco" before it sounds silly? Not many, I can assure you. The acting did little to elevate the writing, so it comes across just as cheesy (or worse) than intended.

But also, the DVD I watched this on (a two-pack with "Ruthless Four") is as bad as a VHS transfer, probably worse. It looks like a public domain film. Would a new transfer help the film? Probably not, but for fans of Glenn Ford or Michael Horse, it might be nice to be able to actually see them.

County Sheriff Glenn Ford can't cover the entire area of his county, so he's got to have deputies in all the towns. When one doesn't prove up to the job, the leading citizens of the town urge Ford to appoint young rancher Cody Glenn who caught a couple of rustlers who had been plaguing the area for months. Ford give him the appointment, but the town doesn't back up the new deputy.

This is all at the urging of Jeff Kaake, son of Gale Wingfield who's the local Ben Cartwright in the area. He wants and gets a lynching of the Mexicans who did the rustling with no trial. That makes Glenn's duty quite clear, to go against the townspeople who so recently made him deputy and gave him their confidence.

Naturally of course Kaake has a hidden agenda, but for that you have to see Border Shootout. He's also having an affair with Charlene Tilton, a woman who was brokered in marriage to one of the town council, but just like her most famous role of Lucy Ewing, the young lady has needs. That part of the plot would not have gotten Border Shootout made as a feature film western back in the day.

The script also brings together all the dramatis personae together for a final shootout in a Mexican border town. One of the roles, Russell Todd, as a gunfighter hired by Kaake is really poorly defined in the story.

Glenn Ford who made some of the best westerns ever like 3:10 to Yuma, Jubal, and The Sheepman makes his farewell western in Border Shootout. I wish he could have gotten something better.

The film was nicely photographed in Arizona, I just wish the story matched the scenery.

If you are watching "Border Shootout" in order to see Glenn Ford, you might be disappointed. Yes, he's in the film...but only on occasion and he really is way too old (at 74) to be punching people as often as he does in this film! You also will likely be disappointed if you want a good western. While it's very watchable, it just goes on too long (the ending seems to take half the film) and seems cheap.

The film is about a border town in the old west where a jerk-face named Sundeen and his 'committee' take over the town in order to bring law and order. In reality, Sundeen is just another evil boss trying to run everything...and he does some cattle rustling on the side. Few are willing to stand up to him except for a not particularly interesting new deputy and by the end, enough folks have gotten sick of Sundeen he might just have overplayed his hand.

Overall, a pretty dull film due to its pacing, uninteresting leads and, oddly, the overuse of the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"...in the saloon of all places.