La Vallée maudite

source: Gunfighters

Another good Randolph Scott western, though the plot is a little complicated, and the two sisters looked alike so it was confusing who was speaking to Scott. One of them loves Cabot who is involved in the murder of Scott's friend. Scott, who had decided to hang up his guns, is forced to do some leather slapping again. There's a good chase, an energetic fistfight and a few gunfights, but there's an emphasis on dialogue and characterisation.

This is a routine but entertaining western with nice colors.Randolph Scott portrays a gunfighter who is sick and tired of killing his fellow men (that's what a voice over tells us at the beginning of the film).So he decides he will retire in a horse town where his good old pal lives.But alas the friend has just been killed when he arrives and he is a suspect (A wealthy man who owns lots of acres in the country needs a suspect ,more like). The main originality is that ,generally ,the rich villain ranch man has two sons or more ( a good one and (a) bad one(s);see "duel in the sun" " broken lance").Here,for a change,the old rich person has two gorgeous daughters,one of whom's in love with one of his pa's henchmen whereas the second falls for...well you guess who.

Back in his early days Randolph Scott did a whole flock of westerns for his original studio, Paramount, based on Zane Grey novels. In a sense Gunfighters is a return to those roots, but not terribly successful. After he nearly kills a friend who just had to see if Scott's prowess with six shooters is for real, Scott determines to hang up the weaponry and look for an obscure place to settle down. It's all been done before, the gunfighter with his skills are needed to right some local wrongs and Gunfighters is no exception. Before he knows it Randolph Scott is involved in the local range war and has to deal with such baddies as Forrest Tucker and Bruce Cabot and a pair of sisters who've got their eyes on him in Barbara Britton and Dorothy Hart. Nothing terribly exceptional in Gunfighters, but Randolph Scott fans will like it.

I saw the movie the first time back in the late 1940's after reading the book "Twin Sombreros". When I taped it recently from the Westerns Channel, I noted that R. Scott's name was Brazos Keene in the book, but Brazos Kane in the movie. Also I still had a hard time telling the girls apart. The story drifted away a little from the book, the names were still familiar, Kiscaden, Inskip, Johnny, Beth and Jane. One of the greatest lines in Westerns was uttered by Kiscaden when he told Brazos that his badge represented the law..."if the man wearing it goes down, it just gets up and jumps on the pocket of another man, and keeps right on coming" (that's as close as I can remember the statement). You can still watch the movie, it was very interesting.

Randolph Scott again tries to hang up his guns and walk away from violence, but those pesky bad guys just leave him with no choice in this good-looking Cinecolor potboiler that anticipates 'The Gunfighter'. As usual it benefits from a literate script (by Alan LeMay), good production values and a good cast, including handsome Arizona locations and a pair of handsome female leads playing sisters, in the form of blue-eyed Barbara Britton and titian-haired Dorothy Hart (best remembered as Jane to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan five years later in 'Tarzan's Savage Fury') in stetson and jeans.

Based on Zane Gray's novel "Twin Sombreros", the plot revolves around a killing, apparently related(none too clearly) to a cattle war(rustling? land rights?), with Mr. Banner(Griff Barnett) being the local cattle baron. Old Mr. Inskip(Charlie Grapewin) is his neighbor, for whom Bob Tyrell works. When noted gunfighter Brazos Kane(Randolph Scott) shows up, looking for a job, he hears a couple of shots and sees two men on horses leave in a hurry. He finds Tyrell dead of bullet wounds. Who shot Tyrell and why? Very strangely, Brazos brings Tyrell's body to Banner's neighboring ranch, where he is greeted with suspicion, and formally charged by the deputy sheriff present with the murder, even though he's not carrying a firearm. Somehow, Brazos did find a bullet in the body, and secretly gives it to Banner's daughter, Jane, for safe keeping. Unfortunately, this bullet eventually is lost or thrown away, thus plays no role in solving the case. Banner actually has 2 marriageable daughters, who occasionally play a subsidiary role in the proceedings. Jane(Dorothy Hart)is characterized as a 'good' girl, who develops a crush on Brazos, while Bess(Barbara Britton) is characterized as a 'bad' girl, who is in love with ranch foreman Bard Mackey(Bruce Cabot), whom she knows shot Tyrell. She also flirts with Brazos. As others have commented, these girls look too much alike, leading to frequent confusion by the viewer which one is present. Even Brazos sometimes is unsure which one he is talking to. Not all sisters look much alike. Thus, the casting director should have found two actresses who were distinctive looking. Some of Banner's wranglers decide the flimsy evidence against Brazos is strong enough to justify a lynching. The Banner bunch seem overeager to close the case, thus raising the suspicion in Brazos's mind that some of them were responsible. Inskip saves Brazos from a lynching by last second trickery. Later, he again attempts to save Brazos from an ambush , but is shot dead himself. Young Johnny O'Neil jumps on Brazos's horse and gallops out of town. As hoped, Banner's bunch follow him, thinking he is Brazos. It works, but Johnny pays with his life. Brazos figures it's time to put his pistols back on. Eventually, he intimidates Deputy Yount(working for Banner)into providing some info about the murder. The sheriff later gets more info from him. The climax occurs when Brazos engages in a "High Noon" contest with Orcutt(Forrest Tucker), immediately followed by a similar contest with Bard. Guess who wins. Then, Brazos is nearly executed by Banner, standing behind him. But, a quick thinking friend shoots the gun out of Banner's hand. Seems like all of Brazos's local friends are dead. All but one. Can you guess who? Of course, Charlie Grapewin was a charismatic presence as Inskip. He played memorable characters in such films as "The Good Earth", "The Wizard of Oz", "The Grapes of Wrath" and, his opus magnum: "Tobacco Road".

A standard Randolph Scott Western with nothing other than the relatively early use of Technicolor to distinguish it from all the other Westerns churned out by Hollywood in the '40s and '50s. Screenwriter Alan Le May's dialogue provides an occasional spark. Adapted from a Zane Grey novel.

I thought that this movie will well done. A solid performance by Randolph Scott with help from Barbara Britton and Dorothy Hart helped this picture along. The film was attractively photographed in Cinecolor. You will have to see this film for itself. This film of an old gunslinger trying to hang up his gun belt starts when someone shouts out "Brazoz! Brazoz" before Brazoz (Randolph Scott) beats him in a gunfight at the beginning of this picture. George Waggner did a good job directing this film. As someone else has noted, Barbara Britton and Dorothy Hart looked like twins in this one. I remember more than twenty year ago, I videotaped this movie when it aired on the late show over some Portland, Oregon television station. The movie, which was shot in color, was shown in black and white. Imagine my surprise when I recently saw this movie in its original Cinecolor format. As mentioned earlier, this movie was well done, and I would consider it underrated. Thanks for reading.

G. Waggner made a good action movie, authentically exciting and zestful; Grapewin is the courageous oldster who at a certain moment cooks gingerbread, Dorothy Hart is embarrassing. The action scenes are very good: the chase, Brazos' fight with the wicked deputy, Brazos questioning the deputy, the shootouts. Scott himself has a silly expression in the few flirt scenes. Scott, Tucker, Kemper were a team that H. J. Brown used for westerns. Scott has often been upstaged by his coworkers. Grapewin and Withers are dependable; Cabot, the bard, looks unnervingly effective. Dorothy Hart is awful, worse than J. Miles. The other sister is only banal. G. Waggner was certainly craftier than G. Douglas. This regular western is better made than 'The Nevadan', with which it has some things in common: the team (Scott, Tucker who is better here than in the later movie, Kemper), the rebelling daughter, a similar plot about despotism; the rustling also defines an entire sub-genre. Tucker was better in this earlier outing, because his role is much simpler, a stock character, where the look was enough. (But the later movie has Dorothy Malone, and a quirkier role for Kemper. Yet again, while the henchmen from 'The Nevadan' have been remarked, and their roles are better written, here the foreman and the corrupt deputy give dependable performances; 'Gunfighters' is less ambitious, but better in its class.) I should mention also the risqué dialog of the odd scene when the gunfighter, wishing to take back the bullet, mistakes the mean sister for the good one, and a zany dialog begins, about gift, keeping it, etc., in fact the whole story isn't very moralistic, with the gunfighter flirting with both sisters (the evening at the old convent), being at ease with both of them; anyway, this playful scene is one of the best humorous moments of this genre, the unpretentious westerns as reshaped after the war and at the zenith of colors. The double _entendre of the talk, with the gunman asking about the hidden bullet, etc., makes a funny scene, with a piquant and entirely adult undertone and very unlike the rest of the movie; so, this one scene of adult fun, straight from the archetype (mistaken identity, licentious double _entendre). This kind of comedy, if deepened, would of allowed for a wholly different script.