Un día de furia

A masterpiece of B western, I mean a western without the Duke, Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper. Audie Murphy could have had Dale Robertson's role, easily, as a kind of NO NAME ON THE BULLET, a more than ambivalent character, bringing a brilliant chemistry between Mahoney and him. And in this scheme, I am surprised that Robertson doesn't wear dark, black clothes. This kind of topic is not totally new, though; I have no other titles in mind right now, except THE LAST CHALLENGE (starring Glenn Ford) concerning the resemblance with this one, but there are many other examples of westerns, and not only, ambiguous friendship between the good guy and the "bad" one. Of couse Robertson is excellent here. Town people hypocrisy is also shown very well, but, again, it is not new in westerns. People accept you in the first place, like you, admire you, then they suddenly change their mind for anything.... Yes, a very worth seeing western.

My problem with "A Day of Fury" was that as a child I watched Dale Robertson in "Wells Fargo" and I can't recall many films in which he hasn't played a honest hero. So I didn't find him convincing as the bad guy, especially with his expressionless acting, and was waiting for him to redeem himself. Randolph Scott (occasionally) and Glenn Ford were better at playing against type.

Talking of which, John Dehner (so often the villain or rascal) did this very successfully as the Parson.

I never did grasp what was Jagade's motivation for his behaviour, and perhaps the motives of Miss Timmons (the school-teacher) could have been made a little clearer.

It seems like a nice town: quiet and civilized. They're run the bar girls out of town and the miners go some place else for their drinking. Everything is shut on Sunday. Marshall Jock Mahoney keeps things quiet. Then gunfighter Dale Robertson rides into town and opens it up with a series of double eagles and some rowdy boys. He wants two things: Mara Corday, and revenge on Mahoney for taking her from him.

There were several movies in the 1950s about how the thin veneer of civilization was ready to crack and reveal the savagery underneath, and this looks like an attempt to apply it to the western, where there was always the possibility that a saloon entertainer would have a dress so low cut you could see the top of her bosom, or a crowd would break a prisoner out of jail and hang him. Robertson and Mahoney seem awfully calm and controlled, while everyone else seems mildly hysterical While there's some hinting at unpleasant things the respectable people in town might have done, none of it is explicit, except for preacher John Dehner losing his temper. It's very watchable all the way through, but the suspense goes on a trifle too long.

I really like these Universal-International colour westerns made in the 1950s. This one was very probably the movie that got Dale Robertson the starring role in "Tales Of Wells Fargo" on TV (which I loved when it first appeared).

The chief extra reason why I like this movie though is the other main star was Jock Mahoney, in his usual understated style. He, of course, had previously starred in that superbly action-packed series "The Range Rider" and later "Yancy Derringer".

Despite the wooden acting of its stars, this film's intriguing themes and well-written dialog elevate it to something out of the ordinary. "A Day of Fury" is about the end of the Old West, embodied by the gunfighter, and its replacement by "decent folk" and their values. However, one gunfighter returns to town and exposes the hypocrisy and small-mindedness that lies beneath the veneer of civilization. This film is a must-see for those who love Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter" as it seems to have inspired that film to a large degree. (One character remarks that if Jagade is allowed to stay, "He'll turn this town into hell.") Despite the emotionless acting of its leads and the irritating, strangely pronounced name of the main character, I enjoyed this film a great deal for its cynical view of the human character and its exposure of human weakness and fear.