Die Revolverhand

If it wasn't for the stiffness of lead Tony Young this film would rate really high in Hollywood B western history. As it is He Rides Tall gives us a memorable performance by Dan Duryea, a real masterpiece of swaggering villainy reminiscent of his Waco Johnny Dean from Winchester 73.

He Rides Tall combines elements of High Noon and The Man From Laramie in its plot. Marshal Tony Young encounters Dan Duryea a guy he put away several years earlier out from prison and now foreman of R.G. Armstrong's spread. He and Armstrong's punk son are bringing the cattle to market in town, but the son played by Carl Reindel starts trouble and Young is forced to kill him.

That's when Duryea makes his move with Armstrong's young and scheming wife Jo Morrow. He also captures Young and leaves him with a crippled gun hand, the better to have him fall victim to any gunslinger who wants to try him, he thinks.

I can't say more because what happens afterward is really too good to spoil. You will absolutely love the desserts Jo Morrow gets.

The other female part in He Rides Tall is Madelyn Rhue playing the Kitty Russell type saloon owner and fiancé of Marshal Young. He's supposed to be getting married to her, but all this business postpones the wedding. Unlike Grace Kelly in High Noon, Rhue has no Quaker scruples about violence when she aids her man in getting rid of one of Duryea's henchmen.

There's also an unusual part for Joel Fluellen as a doctor. Not too many black actors back then were cast as professional men. He's R.G. Armstrong's physician and he has an important function in this film.

I'm agreeing with the comment made by one viewer in that this could have been a film meant for Audie Murphy. Too bad he didn't do it.

A rancher is pressured by his cheating wife and a gang leader, into trying to cripple a marshal's gun hand, after that marshal killed his murderous son in self defense.

He Rides Tall is a cut above many of the westerns released at time with some strong noirish drama at play. It has some good characterisation, quite compelling ones. Sure it's low-budget, and looks like a TV show, but it's well handled by Springsteen and Dan Duryea steals the scene as the villain and he's quite callous in his treatment of a cheating wife by passing her to the Indians. There's a well-staged shootout in a darkened room.

It's a decent western that keeps one watching, however a better lead actor would have made this western better. Tony Young is ok, but overall he lacks personality and looks like he's reading from a cue card. Shame Audie Murphy didn't star in this one. He probably would have if he hadn't made westerns for other studios during this time. In the opinion of producer Gordon Kay he felt if Murphy had stuck with Universal only he would have made westerns with them till '69. But Audie needed money to feed his gambling habit so he made westerns with Columbia/20th century Fox studios.

Embarrassingly bad western. With its cheesy titles, generic booming theme music, cheap production values and childish dialogue, it seemed liked a poor made-for-TV movie. It also hurt that the two main "stars," good guy Tony Young and bad guy Dan Duryea, were ridiculous extreme opposites -- Young was wooden and expressionless, and Duryea was his usual comic over-the-top scenery-eater. And then much of the action was implausible.

One scene in the movie deserves comment -- I had never seen anything like it in a western (or anywhere for that matter). The Jo Morrow character is a sexy young blonde married to an old widower for his money. (She throws herself at Young the moment she sees him, but I digress.) She is a main character, and is in love with Duryea, and the two of them run off with the widower's money and cattle herd (and some wranglers). A not-too-large group of Indians approach them and demand that they be given the woman, Morrow. The bad guys do NOT attempt to fight the Indians, and after a lame protest, they actually hand Morrow over to the Indians. She protests to no avail, the Indian carries her off on his horse, she fights him as best she can, and then the Indian drops her on the ground and kills and scalps her! (I had thought that the Indian had a sexual interest in Morrow. Not sure, but it seems most likely that he wanted her for her blonde scalp!) We never see any Indians again in the movie. So one off-beat scene in a silly routine western!

When I saw the movie "He Rides Tall" on Encore Westerns, I immediately noted that his voice struck a chord in my memory. I am pretty good at recognizing voices of movie actors and people that I have met or listened to for many years. I still recognize the voice of Gabriel Heatter. When I found out Tony was in the Air Force, I felt that I had met him. Even his face became familiar. I just can't remember where I saw him, because I had been to so many places between 1951 and 1965. I served at Patrick AFB; K-14 Korea; Orlando AFB; Washington DC (twice); Hickam AFB, Hawaii; and Edwards AFB, CA. I have also lived in a lot of different places. I hope if someone sees this, they could give me some information on where we might have met.

I guess this is not the most awful movie I have seen but very far from the best. There were parts I did enjoy and some where I was sitting do they really mean that?

The protagonist was borderline suicidal or just plain stupid. In the start of the movie the marshal/protagonist throws someone out from the saloon for wearing a gun in the saloon. The guy goes for his gun and the marshal have to shoot it away from him. Then he lets him go without throwing him a night in jail. Simply to good to survive.

Dan Duryea played well but even here there were some points where it got too far. Actually the Doctor was the only one of the major characters that made sense and he played well too.

So would I recommend this movie? Not really as the few action scenes were not really interesting and the story very thin. But if it on a channel near you and nothing better to do then it will not hurt you to watch it. But you can find many better westerns out there.