Un tiempo para morir

What a strange little picture. Audie Murphy, like Randolph Scott, has a place in second tier western heroes that is unassailable. By second tier, that's not to denigrate either actor, just that they never attained the heights of movie stardom like James Stewart, John Wayne or later Clint Eastwood did in westerns. Sadly, this marked the final screen appearance of Audie Murphy, and only five minutes of the picture. The leading actor is Richard Lapp. Who? You might wonder why Audie Murphy decided as a producer to invest in this nobody. It's a mystery to everyone who's seen it. He came and went unnoticed. There's one really great performance in the movie with Victor Jory as Judge Roy Bean though, so all is not lost. Not as subtle and menacing as Walter Brennan's portrayal in an earlier film but over the top sort of great, announcing hangings with great glee and his dentures falling out. The director, Budd Boetticher, who made seven fine, even great minor westerns starring Randolph Scott, must have been drunk when he made this. There's no real explanation as to how this film went so badly wrong but I've given it 3 stars, one each for the beautifully clear cinematography, Audie Murphy as Jesse James (all too briefly) and best of all, Victor Jory.

This is quite an odd Western, this one - like many made in the late 1960s, it is anticipating the arrival of the railroad and, ultimately, it's own demise... This one is only really notable as the last appearance for Audie Murphy - and appearance is the word - probably no more than 3 minutes of screen time as the legendary Jesse James. The rest of the film really belongs to Victor Jury as the curmudgeonly - and quite ruthless - "Judge Roy Bean" who rules his town with a rod of iron, tempered only by his ability to drink copiously and his fascination with Lily Langtree. Richard Lapp is our rather naive, unassuming hero who has some skill with a gun that he is, thus far, reluctant to use until he is finally provoked... It actually looks quite good, but the story is all rather weak, I found - Lapp and his co-star Anne Randall ("Nellie Winters") are just too nice, their love story too frat-like and many of the action scenes looked more like rodeo staging than anything more authentic.

The plot for "A Time for Dying" is rather directionless. It also tosses in practically every western personality, location and cliche....as well as a super down-beat ending that will leave most viewers cold and disappointed.

The story is about a young man and young woman. Oddly, instead of the usual famous actors and actresses in the lead, these two are unknowns and. Richard Lapp, in particular, seems very much unlike leading man material. A variety of adventures occur to them...including Judge Roy Bean marrying them against heir will, a run-in with Jesse James and his band of outlaws as well as a run-in against Billy the Kid and his band of outlaws. And, it all ends very poorly.

There wasn't a lot I liked about this film. I did not like the writer tossing in all sorts of characters and places (such as Silver City) instead of focusing on story. I also didn't like the whole showdown on main street at the end. Fist, it didn't make sense. Second, such showdowns never actually occurred out west. I taught American history....and this sort of thing just didn't happen. Overall, a poor western with little to recommend it...no, nothing to recommend it.

By the way, you see a lot of saguaro cacti in the film. These are the very tall cacti...usually with branched arms. Well, such cacti only grow in mid-southern Arizona and Mexico. The film was supposedly set in West Texas and Nevada....and saguaro do NOT grow there like they do in the film.

Due to financial constraints this movie was shorter than planned. Thank goodness. A sad finale for both producer and director.

I'm an Audie Murphy and have been steadily working my way through his movies. I'd heard of this, his last film, and not favorably - low production values, bad acting, Audie looking fat and old.

Well I have to agree with the first two criticisms. I can't understand how this film has been given 7 stars, but the part about Audie is wrong, wrong, wrong. When he comes onto the scene,he simply towers over the other actors, the whole movie. He's so good, and it's a real shame that he didn't live longer.

It would have been interesting if he had taken some of the other roles he was offered, such as the villain in DIRTY HARRY. It would have been a whole new direction for him, but then contemporary movies were never his thing. His whole style may have been best suited for Westerns.