Flucht vor dem Galgen

Badly made western featuring Calhoun as a gunfighter paid $5000 to go find an escaped murderer-- who happens to be Anne Francis. He does so, and of course, everyone is trying to stop him. Terrible performances, terrible script, lack luster direction, wall to wall music-- all in all, a really bad movie. And it's only about 72 minutes long. Made back in the days when westerns ruled on the TV screens, it was shot widescreen, with only one or two well shot scenes, the rest of the time, it looked like they did one take and moved on. Classic scenes even included four Indians who were obviously white guys in grease paint. Good for a laugh, that's about it. TCM shows this once in a while-- a real hoot.

Ellen Beldon (Anne Francis) is in a Texas jail waiting to be hung for murdering her husband. Her uncle's ranch foreman Judd Farrow (Chuck Connors) breaks her out. Her father-in-law hires gunman Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to bring her back from New Mexico when the Texas authority drags its feet. Some believe her claims of innocence.

There is no real debate that Ellen is innocent. Anne Francis plays it so hard like a damsel in distress. Everything is play by hitting the nail right on the head. There isn't any surprises to be had in this straight forward western B-movie. It would work better in a darker road trip with the two characters. This is not that.

A very short western,clocking at hardly 70 min,but a fast moving one,well acted and with a screenplay which can appeal to ladies ,which is not obvious a far as this genre is concerned ;the background may be the wild west ,but the plot is sometimes close to detective story ,a whodunit (although you would have guessed who the culprit is in the first minutes!) ' Annee Francis portrays a young widow,falsely accused of her husband 's murder and sentenced to death (rare in westerns for a girl!);as her uncle helps her to escape (with Chuck "rifleman" Connors dressed up as a priest),the ruthless in-laws......well check the title .

Rory Calhoun is efficient as the hired gun ;he also produced this entertaining movie,which seems to suffer for its small budget :the last quarter seems botched,but the rest is pretty well done.

Ellen Beldon is about to be hanged in Texas for the cold-blooded murder of her husband. Her uncle's ranch foreman, Judd Farrow, masquerading as a priest busts her out of jail and escorts Ellen to a safe hideout at her uncle's ranch in New Mexico. Her uncle has enough influence to block extradition of Ellen back to Texas.

Her father-in-law, Mace Beldon, determined to avenge the killing of his son, hires gunman Gil McCord for $5,000 to track down Ellen and bring her back to Texas. Gil hires on as a cowhand and then kidnaps Ellen and they head back to Texas. On the way Ellen explains to Gil what really happened.

You don't see many women in westerns sentenced to be hanged, which is a fresh angle in this fast-moving, well-acted western that has some fine cinematography and great locations. It's well made, suspenseful and fairly engaging. In tone and story it reminds me of the Scott-Boeticher western. Calhoun in particular is quite cold and determined to earn his dollars - well, at first. Predictably, he falls for the cute Anne Francis. Her character is quite a strong one. Maybe this film would've benefited from a longer running time so Calhoun's relationship with Francis could've been more developed and his belief in her innocence more gradual.

If you make it past the first 40 minutes you will find the remainder of the film slightly improved but only slightly.

The highlight comes in the first 10 minutes when the double speed the horse chase and it looks like they forgot to slow it back down lol.

Not much for Rory to work with here and the villains lack any real teeth.