Following the end of the Civil War, "Rusty" Reynolds and his pal, Clem Barrett, are on their way to the California gold-fields when they come upon the massacre of a wagon train by Jack Carson and his gang of renegades. When the Sheriif arrives, they are mistaken as being part of the gang, arrested, tried and convicted, and sentenced to hang by Judge Coleman. On the night before the hanging, they are released from jail (in a staged jail-break) and the sheriff directs them to go to a cabin and meet a man. The man is the Judge who sentenced them to hang, but knows that Reynolds isn't the gang-leader Carson, for Carson is the judge's son. The judge asks "Rusty" and Clem to follow the gang, and bring his son back for trial. Just after Carson's gang murder members of a wagon train, Rusty and Clem come along and are arrested. Knowing they are innocent Judge Coleman breaks them out and sends them after Carson. They join Carson's gang to learn of their next raid but the Marshal arrests them for the wagon train murders. Even this early in his career, Joe Lewis is trying to inject quality touches into his work on this formula singing cowboy western. Shots are continually foregrounded by tethered horses, prison bars, a spit roasted carcass or the wagon wheel, which keeps on appearing in the director's westerns.<br/><br/>With his lip rouge and spotless white hat, hero Baker is a restraint on any ambition but the rest of the film is pushed towards realistic handling. There's some well staged action, which may be second hand, and Willy Fung's stereotypical Chinese cook gets to be integrated into the plot surprisingly prominently. There's even a hint of the murderous family relations we'll see in the fifties westerns.<br/><br/>Enthusiasts will find this one better than most.
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295 weeks ago