The Desperadoes

Blimey, this movie is nearly 60 years old. As it's filmed in "glorious technicolour" it gives it a much more modern feel. The story is of some 'insider trading' at the local bank and the need to bring those responsible to justice.

There are some fine performances throughout and the mix of drama and comedy (featuring great stuff from 'Nitro' and the bartender) is spot on. The story is a good one and it is entertaining from start to finish. Definitely a superior Western.

"The Desperadoes" although released in 1943, was Columbia's first color feature. Director Charles Vidor gives us some dazzling outdoor scenes and plenty of action to boot.

"Respectable" citizens Banker Clanton (Porter Hall) and Postmaster "Uncle Willie" (Edgar Buchanan) stage a phony bank robbery and plan a second robbery when a herd of horses is sold to the army. Gunman, Cheyenne Rogers (a very young Glenn Ford) was hired to carry out the first robbery but is delayed and Jack Lester (Bernard Nedell) and his gang substitute. After "borrowing" Sheriff Steve Upton's (Randolph Scott) horse, he rides into town and meets Uncle Willie's daughter Allison (Evelyn Keyes) with whom he falls in love.

In town, saloon madame, "The Countess" (Claire Trevor) turns out to also be in love with Cheyenne. There Cheyenne hooks up with partner "Nitro" (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams). Lester exposes Cheyenne as an outlaw to the town and a slam-bang saloon brawl ensues. Following the fight, Steve orders Cheyenne and Nitro out of town. Unbeknownst to Cheyenne, Nitro robs the bank on the way out of town. After being cornered, the boys surrender and are sentenced to be hanged by Judge Raymond Walburn.

Steve helps the boys to escape but is himself imprisoned as an accomplice. Naturally, Cheyenne and Nitro return to help their friend and the final showdown ensues.

Although Scott and Trevor are top-billed, this is really Ford's movie. He and Williams form the usual western type hero and sidekick and Keyes is the real heroine. Scott and Trevor are really in supporting roles although Trevor does have a couple of good scenes. Irving Bacon provides some comic relief as the nervous saloon keeper. Also, watch for western veterans Francis Ford and Bud Osborne as townsmen and Glenn Strange as one of Nedell's henchmen.

A fast-paced and entertaining western.

... and that's a rarity during this particular year, but perhaps more likely in a western such as this.

Although Randolph Scott and Claire Trevor get top billing, they are actually second leads. Top leads go to the second-billed couple, a young and startlingly luxuriously-pated Glenn Ford along with Evelyne Keyes in leather pants. Ford is not quite as noxious as he would later become on-screen; he makes an effective "good bad man", as Keyes refers to him.

Randolph Scott basically grins his way through the story of a sheriff, Ford, and Keyes busting the corrupt banker who has arranged for his own bank to be robbed. Trevor doesn't get much to do as the local madam. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams provides good comic relief as Ford's loyal sidekick, and Edgar Buchanan is wonderful as the morally wavering "town uncle" whose own corruption is incomplete because of his paternal worrying over daughter Keyes.

The story may be rote, but the script is excellent, the direction is efficient, and there are some scenery shots that are actually "new", such as from-above shots of a very narrow path cut through a rocky hill. This is a good film, not just a good Western.

Highly enjoyable Western with better than average character twists. Columbia was never a big-budget studio like MGM or TCF. But they did like Westerns. So it's not surprising Columbia got into Technicolor with this scenic, well-produced horse opera. Looks like they were angling for the broadest possible audience with not one leading lady, but two (Keyes & Trevor). Ditto with the leading men (Scott & Ford). Add the great Edgar Buchanan in the kind of slippery role he did so well, plus the hulking Big Boy Williams and blowhard Raymond Walburn, and you've got an excellent supporting cast.

It's a really entertaining mix of action, shifting loyalties, humor, plus a dash of romance. The plot's a little shopworn—two old friends find themselves on opposite sides of the law, but the rivalry is well done. Several scenes are standouts—the wild horse stampede nicely framed against the dramatic Utah background, the judge's comical idea of frontier justice, and the tongue-in- cheek barroom brawl. All in all, director Vidor blends the many different elements into a pretty smooth package.

I may be wrong, but I don't think many A-budget Westerns were produced during WWII. Action films were generally war films promoting the Allies cause. This movie, I think, is one of the few elaborate oaters of the period. And a good one it still is.

For an enjoyable western starring the young Glenn Ford, Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor and Evelyn Keyes, you can't go wrong with THE DESPERADOES. Filmed in gorgeous technicolor, there's a Zane Grey feeling about the storyline--a man (Ford) hoping to redeem his crooked past joins forces with a lawman (Scott) and helps him capture the thieves behind a bank robbery. Sure, it's all been done before but the pace is quick, the dialogue brisk and the action is sometimes quite spectacular.

Particularly exciting and novel is the use of a stampede started by a blast of nitro, all designed as a distraction while Ford rushes to the aid of a wrongly imprisoned sheriff (Scott). Guinn "Big Boy" Williams plays his 'Nitro' character with his usual blustery charm.

Nice performances from a cast including Edgar Buchanan, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Raymond Walburn and Irving Bacon as a bartender whose saloon keeps getting blasted and destroyed by gunfire battles.

Entertaining all the way through.