A tiro limpio

The last half or so of the film takes place in a sandstorm in a town, which makes it extra exciting. The plot is pretty riveting and kept me glued the whole time. Neville Brand and Richard Long are the standouts in the cast, not as stodgy in acting style as sometimes movies in the 50s and earlier were. Unexpectedly enjoyable shoot-em-up, well worth the watch if you're into that genre.

It is clear that Sears made sci-fi horror films and that can be seen in a gun battle amid open coffins, and the body count is high. Richard Long and Neville Brand are excellent in their roles, on opposing sides in a long drawn out fight for some ' lost ' bank money. The ringleader of the gang that want the money is played by David Brian and he too gives a good performance. A woman is a catalyst in the film, but other than that there are few female actors in the story. It is the final twenty minutes or so of the film that its originality truly shows and no spoilers as to why that is. I urge viewers to be aware of this underrated Western, and it sometimes turns up on a UK television channel. I firmly believe that it should be given an outing on DVD.

When bandits steal $35,000 from the bank and kill Charles Hanford, Richard Long's father, they claim Hanford was in on it with them. The town shuns Long. When the bandits escape and discover the money isn't were they hid it, they take the town hostage.

It's a fine B western directed by Fred F. Sear. At first it looked like a slightly souped-up V episode, but the large number of extras, effects, and tough script put an end to that impression.

Sears had begun in the theater. After the War, he started working at Columbia as an actor and dialogue director. He took up directing in 1949 and directed fifty movies. An fantastically fast worker, this is one of nine movies he directed in 1956. He is credited with five movies released in 1958, even though he had died the previous year at age 44!

I didn't plan to watch this film but found it channel surfing as it was starting. It caught my attention because as it opened you could see three people though a window of a bank talking, but couldn't hear what they were saying. This scene led into one where four outlaws were making plans to double cross their other four partners. For a 1956 black and white, low budget film, it had a lot of interesting sub-plots. I enjoyed the movie quite a lot, due I think, to the many strong character actors. Nothing great, but worth watching if you like the old shoot-them-up Western films.

Howdy: This one was good or average, I ought to say, but better than 99% of the spaghetti westerns.

A gang of outlaws are going to rob the bank at 1 p.m. which is when the wedding ought to be over and most people lulled into nothing-ville from the after wedding party. But the wedding is running late. When they do rob it, and only four of them do because they are going to betray the others before they arrive in town, they get caught. They escape, of course, and are chased by a posse that resembled more the keystone cops than a real posse. (Example: When they are chasing outlaws and they arrive at the spot where the outlaws went into the rocks, they turn around and don't even bother to check the ground for horse tracks.) The characters were unreal and unbelievable. Yes, it was a low budget black and white job so what can we expect. Or can we expect more? After all, other westerns like The Ox-Bow Incident and High Noon were also black and white and those were excellent. But they had such greats as Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda and this one only had some "almost" greats.

Anyway, I video taped it and will watch it again when it rolls around as I watch my video tapes in order. And I will enjoy it because it is a western and I am a lover of westerns--even if they are severed with spaghetti.