The Desperadoes

A good-natured, good-looking 'A' western set in 1863 with plush production values and a plot centring largely upon a brooding young Glenn Ford.

It boasts a lively barroom brawl - and later a shootout - played for laughs, a cameo from Raymond Walburn as a blowhard judge and the pleasure of savouring in Technicolor Claire Trevor as saloon-owner 'Countess', usually dressed in purple in gowns by Travilla, Evelyn Keyes in buckskin britches and the beguilingly horsey-faced Joan Woodbury as a floozy from Countess's establishment.

... 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.

Randolph Scott and Glenn Ford were once outlaw pals together, but now Scott's a sheriff and young Ford is still hiring his gun out. He gets hired to pull a bank job, but is delayed getting to town and those that hired him get someone else. That leads to all kinds of complications, a lot for a film that's not even 90 minutes long.

Randy and Glenn both got girls here. Claire Trevor plays her usual good time gal with a heart of gold. And Evelyn Keyes is the daughter of Edgar Buchanan who falls for Ford big time without realizing who he is or why he came to the town that Scott is the sheriff in.

It's B western, but unusual for the time and for Columbia Pictures it was given the full technicolor treatment. The Desperadoes marked Glenn Ford's first film in technicolor, a process reserved only for some of the more expensive films from bigger studios. Harry Cohn was certainly not one to shell out for it. And definitely not during war time.

The plot gets a bit convoluted as both Ford and Scott are put to the test of friendship versus expediency/duty. The plot also involves some high class hypocritical skunks in Randy's town who are the real outlaws as far as the film is concerned.

The four leads do a fine job and the best supporting performance is Guinn Williams as Ford's lovable explosive lunkhead of a sidekick. The climax involves a cattle stampede and a shootout in the town saloon and is one of the best ever done in a western film.

Fans of the four leads and westerns in general will enjoy this one.

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.

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.