Duelo en el Mississippi

Well, I have had to go back on my word one more time with respect to non-Horror films by the director incorporated both as part of my centenary tribute to him and my Epic Easter marathon; given its riverboat/gambling/Old South backdrop, I had mentally classified this as more of a Western but, looking at stills from it and checking out its plot line, the sight of swordfights and the mention of piracy sure changed my mind! Anyway, the addition of the film to my schedule had its downside as well, as the gorgeous-looking (albeit TV-sourced) print I watched proved problematic – with the image getting scrambled every once in a while!

The film, then, was a mere 68 minutes in length: indeed, I must say that, had Castle not subsequently embarked upon his Horror career, his reputation would probably never have been made – despite his prolific pre-1958 output; that is not to say that it is bad, but it certainly had routine, journeyman, even cheap (produced by Sam Katzman: enough said!) written all over it – with this in mind, this early phase of his work has not been pursued by avid fans of his Horror efforts nearly enough.

This, again, co-stars Patricia Medina who unsurprisingly begins as an antagonist to hero Lex Barker, only to eventually reform (she is the spirited daughter of the leader of a gang of raiders stealing the sugar from various plantations, one of which is owned by Barker's father John Dehner) and fall for him; interestingly, when the old man is threatened with bankruptcy and a spell in debtors' prison, Barker offers his services as a personal slave to Medina…but also contrives to challenge her hot-headed foreman Warren Stevens (who prides himself on his lethal abilities with a rapier) to a duel which, if killed in, would effectively discharge Dehner from all obligations to Medina! Obviously, he survives (even wounding Stevens himself) – but the two men ultimately settle their score via another face-off, albeit fought by way of a machete!

The film is colourful and enjoyable, but also ordinary and forgettable; the cast helps, with Ian Keith (as Medina's brandy-loving father) relishing his roguish part, as opposed to the humourless villains he was often relegated to playing, a role here filled – quite ably, I might add – by Stevens. As for leading man Barker (who numbered actresses Lana Turner and Arlene Dahl among his five spouses!), he had a pretty continental and varied filmography – which saw him going from Hollywood Tarzan to German Winnetou (aka Old Shatterhand) and various other adventures and thrillers along the way, before prematurely expiring from a heart attack in 1973. Incidentally, thanks to this viewing, I have just added a quintet of the star's vehicles (3 of them Italian costumers!) to my collection...

It's Louisiana at the start of the 19th century and sugar is becoming an hugely valuable commodity. The traditional (largely French) plantation owners are trying to capitalise on this crop but so are the inventive pirates who wait til it's all harvested and bagged up, then they pinch it! The leader of these ruthless thieves is "Lili" (Patricia Medina) who, along with her dad "Jacques" (Ian Keith) and sidekick "Hugo" (Warren Stevens) has set her sights on the "Tulane" family. She owns the debt on their land and is determined to force them into ruin. Luckily, that family has an hunky son in "André" (Lex Barker) to whom she takes a shine. She agrees to swap the debt for his indentured servitude and so our adventure of crosses and double crosses begins in earnest. OK, so Barker is easy on the eye but not much of an actor and Medina spends much of the time here wishing she was Maureen O'Hara, but it's got a solid story of greed and revenge before the fairly obvious denouement delivers predictably. It's fairly swiftly paced, there's plenty of action - how often do you see a duel with machetes - and I actually quite enjoyed the hamminess of it all.

I've never been a great fan of Lex Barker Westerns, but DOTM pleasantly surprised me, though I overlook the curiosity of Patricia Medina leading a gang of robbers and the unlikelihood of her relationship with Barker; and there were no surprises about the ending.

But the cinematography was excellent and colourful, and there were a couple of good duels. Barker performed better than in those of his other Westerns that I've seen. It was good to see the dependable John Dehner, aged 40 at the time of the film's release, playing a much older patriarch.

This old movie is so stereotyped predictable, and one scene in this movie is so inevitable to be seen:

She slapped his face angrily>then turned around>then the man she slapped suddenly grabbed her shoulder and turned her around>then forcefully kissed her>then she immediately gave in and kissed him back wholeheartedly.

>At the same time, the romantic music played on to synchronize the scene.

This format had been and has been used thousand times in almost every movies churned out from the Hollywood studios. And this film is no exception.

The other format used thousand times but not related to this particular movie is the scene when a man or a woman picked up the opposite gender and invited her or him to either one's home/apartment/room. They could hardly wait to close the door, and fiercely embraced each other, kissed, groped, or either the man or the woman wildly push the other one to the wall, did the same crazily wild hugging and kissing, the woman might jump onto the man, crossed her legs on the man's waist and kissed him blindly. The next format scene was they either took off their clothes or took off the other one's clothes, and meantime, still kissed non-stop. Then the man will hold the woman in his arms and awkwardly went toward the bedroom, or just pushed the woman onto the floor and started making love to her, while the agitated score played on.....

So what else is new?

In bustling era of 19th-century Louisiana, sugar is as valuable as gold, and pirates like Lili Scarlet (Patricia Medina) will do anything to get it. After robbing Jules Tulane's (John Dehner) estate of his crop, Scarlet takes over Tulane's land debt and forces him to pay or go to prison. In exchange for postponing his debt, Scarlet allows Tulane's son, André (Lex Barker), to work as her servant. When André and Scarlet fall in love, it leads to jealous rage from Scarlet's former paramour, expert swordsman Hugo (Warren Stevens) - and when Hugo looks to raid the Tulane estate again, it is up to André and Scarlet to take him down and save the estate.

River pirates, planters, saloon brawl featuring ladies fighting, gamblers and a sword duel - you get all this in this entertaining little film that is set in an era not normally covered. Lex Barker plays the stalwart hero who becomes Patricia Medina's slave - what a tough proposition- in exchange for suspension of his father's debt and Patricia Medina plays Lili Scarlet, and she's the best thing here- she totally leads in her role. It's a pleasing film with an interesting subject and a strong flavour. There's a vigorous machete fight at the finale.