Stage to Thunder Rock

AC Lyle' productions did not provide only masterpieces, far from that. There were some better than others though, and this one belongs to the top of the basket, as we say in France. Good, sensitive character study, with Scott Brady in an interesting role, I would say ambivalent, in this role of a hired gun, a very tired gunman searching some extra dol to help his blind daughter. It is a rather good Lyles productions western, I repeat, rather downbeat but in the same time in search for some unlikely hope. Director Bill Claxton was not particularely known for his ambition, and this one may sound slightly better than usual. Good little western gem; don't get scared by this AC Lyles' stuff better than usual.

I saw this film quite a few years back on one of the cable movie channels, and thought of it because I saw another film recently that also starred Barry Sullivan, The Gangster. In this film, Sullivan was trying to get some reward money for a prisoner.

I looked the film up at a film reference website, and saw that this type of film was a dime-a-dozen when it came out in 1964...I guess that's why I can't remember much else about it...

The main reason I watched this obscure western just now on Netflix streaming was because since I've been reviewing movies and TV appearances of various cast members of the original "Dallas" in chronological order since mid-June when the new one on TNT premiered, I wanted to follow them to the letter so it got me now to 1964 when the second Digger Barnes-Keenan Wynn-appeared here as the father of a couple of adult sons who were involved in a robbery and had also once taken in a now-sheriff (Barry Sullivan) as a youngster who's now got one of those sons in handcuffs having killed the other one. This was quite a compelling B-oater with notable players like Lon Chaney, Jr., Marilyn Maxwell, and-since I always like to cite whenever a player from my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life, is in something else-Angentina Brunetti as the American Indian, Sarita. Oh, and I just found out another "Dallas" connection: Katherine Wentworth herself, Morgan Brittany-who, as a pre-teen here, was credited by her real name, Suzanne Cupito-played a blind girl named Sandy Swope. So on that note, I consider Stage to Thunder Rock well worth a look.

In the 1960s, producer A.C. Lyles made a long string of low-budget westerns featuring stars well past their peak. Because these folks and the supporting actors were so old, the films were sometimes a bit silly and I've heard a couple folks (including me) referring to them as 'Geezer westerns'. Compared to many of his film, "Stage to Thunder Rock" isn't all that old--as the leading man (Barry Sullivan) is only 52--making him practically a teenager in A.C. Lyles' world! As for the rest of the cast, several Lyles veterans appear in this one including Lon Chaney Junior (who is in just about every Lyles film from the 60s), John Agar, Robert Strauss, Allan Jones, Scott Brady, Marilyn Maxwell and Keenan Wynn--all folks were had seen better days in their careers. The average age of these folks...probably about 55 or more! Despite the budget and advanced ages, however, most of these Lyles films are better than you'd expect. Would "Stage to Thunder Rock" also manage to be a decent film?

Sullivan plays an aging (what else?) sheriff whose final job involves bringing two robbers to justice. The catch--their father raised Sullivan (which is funny considering that Keenan Wynn played the father and he was about Sullivan's age). Along the way, he meets up with two different groups of folks who want to take his prisoner and collect the reward--maybe even if it involves killing the sheriff. For the most part, this is a very slow and meandering plot--one that seldom is involving or very interesting. The best of the characters is probably the one played by Chaney--the rest seem a bit more like caricatures than real people (such as Maxwell who plays the clichéd prostitute who wants to reform). All in all, not a terrible movie but certainly among Lyles' least successful westerns.

By the way, Mr. and Mrs. Swope's daughter, Sandy, was played by Morgan Brittany--and it's interesting to see this very pretty lady when she was just a kid.

"Stage to Thunder Rock" was the second A.C. Lyles B-Western, shot in the fall of 1963 back to back with the first, "Law of the Lawless," with a three month gap between the two releases. Only four cast members returned (Lon Chaney, John Agar, Laurel Goodwin, Roy Jenson), with Barry Sullivan heading this one as Sheriff Horne, who must bring in the outlaw Sawyer brothers who robbed the local bank of $50,000, without reckoning that the untrusting townsmen would hire to do the same a professional bounty hunter (Scott Brady), due to the lawman's close relationship to the Sawyers. Horne dutifully recovers the money and kills Toby Sawyer (Wayne Peters) in a brief shootout, taking as his prisoner Reese Sawyer (Ralph Taeger), who persistently taunts his former childhood friend that his father Ross Sawyer (Keenan Wynn) will eventually catch up with them and kill the sheriff. All of the characters congregate at the way station run by Henry Parker (Lon Chaney) and wife Myra (Anne Seymour), who fear that they will soon lose the station unless they can raise enough money for back taxes. $50,000 provides a great incentive for skullduggery during the night, with Sheriff Horne refusing to allow anyone to deter him from his duty, keeping a watchful eye out until the inevitable showdown with the pursuing Ross Sawyer. It's quite a soap opera rather than horse opera, but the strong cast rises to the occasion, except for Marilyn Maxwell, improbably cast as Lon Chaney's eldest daughter, a high priced floozy whose tawdry reputation seems to be common knowledge (she looks older than her screen mother!). Laurel Goodwin (STAR TREK's "The Cage") scores as the Parkers' restless younger daughter (a good 22 years younger than Marilyn), and Ralph Taeger, star of such short-lived TV series as ACAPULCO, KLONDIKE, and HONDO, is thoroughly convincing as a cowardly villain. Keenan Wynn has very little screen time, unfortunately, and veterans John Agar, Allan Jones, Robert Strauss, Robert Lowery, Paul E. Burns, and Roy Jenson also get little chance to contribute in their brief appearances. Barry Sullivan's role is also sadly routine, leaving the always reliable Lon Chaney to walk off with the entire film, his Henry Parker shown to be a poor businessman, his wife and daughter both eager to pack up and leave, never standing up to his domineering spouse out of love for her; but when push comes to shove, he lashes out in powerful fashion, successfully keeping his family intact. It's an undeniable gem among his increasingly scarce 60s output, here reunited with Ralph Taeger, from the 1961 KLONDIKE episode "The Hostages."