Donde manda el diablo

Army sergeant John Payne is ordered to clear up the situation in Laramie single-handedly. He finds his childhood buddy Dan Duryea running a saloon and paying off everyone in sight to keep the work moving as slow as possible; the longer it takes, the more of the rail workers' pay he can pocket. Payne gets himself appointed marshal and jails all the baddies.... but their friends on the juries keep setting them free.

It's another of the 'Shaky A' westerns from Universal in this period, directed by the reliable Jesse Hibbs. Like most of the westerns from Universal in this period, it's in Technicolor, has a couple of minor stars, a few key character actors like Barton Maclane and Lee van Cleef and a spectacular finale of a fight in a train that's about to crash into a passenger train. The result is good, if standard fun.

It's produced by Ted Richmond. He began producing B movies for Columbia in 1940. When Cohn shut down his series, he switched to Universal, where he worked on all sorts of programmers. He produced 56 movies by 1957, and then slowed down. Over the next 22 years, he produced 10 movies, including PAPILLON. He died in 2013 at the age of 103.

Progress on the railroad has pretty much ground to a halt as the workers spend most of their time drinking rotgut in Dan Duryea's boozer.

The leading citizens of the town request military help and tough soldier, Payne, is appointed as a sort of temporary marshal. Trouble is, he's an old mate of Duryea so it looks as though there's going to be a conflict of interests.

This is an above average Universal western: the two main protagonists play off each other well and there is excellent support from a very large cast of familiar westerners (many uncredited). Special mentions must go to Lee Van Cleef as a menacing, trigger happy bad guy (was he ever anything else?), Mari Blanchard as a saloon girl with a heart of gold (was she ever anything else?) and James Griffith, cast against type in a humorous role, as a bumbling ineffectual lawman.

Action scenes are well staged - particularly those on the trains - the photography is first class and the Technicolor beautiful as always.

Oh, and as an added bonus for B western fans, there's a title song over the opening credits rumbled out by the ever popular Rex Allen....

A very common and rather clichéd plots for old westerns is the notion of someone trying to stop the railroad. While there really wasn't a historical basis, too many films were about a supposed overt or covert effort to stop progress. In most all of them, however, the reason why the baddies are doing this is pretty obvious...but in this one I really couldn't see why Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is doing this...and it's a major weakness of the film.

The man sent to help get the railroad built is an Army Sergeant, Jeff Harder (John Payne) and through most of the film, he makes very little progress thanks to Shanessy and a rather stupid town that tolerates Shanessy's antics. It all leads up to a murder conviction, a jail escape and train chase. None of it's bad...none of it's outstanding in any way. A standard and rather clichéd film.

By the way, late in the film a lady is shot from about 8-10 feet away with what is probably a .45 Colt cartridge. Amazingly, she survived...a miracle and a half!

I guess Audie Murphy was not available to play in this Jessie Hibbs' western ; Hibbs who was his fetish director - as Lon Chaney was with Tod Browning or Gregory Peck with Hank King - and Dan Duryea already faced Murphy in RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO the very same year. So, replacing Audie Murphy by John Payne deserves to be noticed. And I did not remember Payne playing in Universal films either. That said, this western, even without the most decorated soldier in WW2, remains solid, taut, efficient enough to grab your attention. I did not watch it since a while and I am glad to see it again. A railroad western, a genre in the genre; as you also had posse westerns, military fort westerns, town under outlaws rule westerns, cattle baron or ruthless landlords vs rustlers westerns, indian wars westerns....

A railroad sends an agent (John Payne) to Laramie to try to find out who is behind the efforts to stop the railroad from building its line into the area.

An enjoyable railroad western that is brisk and keeps your attention throughout. There's a nice buddy angle between John Payne and Dan Duryea, but when Duryea realises Payne isn't going to turn a blind eye to his crooked ways, he chooses to get rid of him the hard way. There's fistfights, attempted riots and Lee Van Cleef snarling with his trigger-happy fingers. There's also an interesting women's jury sequence. But what stands out for me is the wonderful looking trains; the finale with a shootout and a fistfight on top of the train is an exciting one. Mari Blanchard sizzles as Payne's love interest.

A satisfying railroad western that makes you feel good. Nice title song sung by Rex Allen.