The Restless Breed

The Restless Breed is directed by Allan Dwan and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Scott Brady, Anne Bancroft, Jay C. Flippen, Rhys Williams, Leo Gordon and Jim Davis. Music is by Edward L. Alperson Junior and cinematography by John W. Boyle.

1865 and Mitch Baker travels to Mission in Texas to find out who murdered his father who was working for the Secret Service. His father was investigating the operations of "Newton's Raiders", a gang of gun runners fronted by Ed Newton (Davis) who are supplying arms to Emperor Maximillian in Mexico. Mitch has no intention of upholding the law, he has only one thing on his mind; revenge!

"Yer a wild eyed hooligan looking for a cheap revenge, not to satisfy the ghost of your father, but your own hurt - warped - disturbed ego".

Another of Allan Dwan's vastly under valued Westerns, it's also the last of his genre offerings. Production value is not high end, the Pathe Color is poor, the sets sometimes wobble and it features one of the most frustratingly awful music compositions laid down for a 1957 Oater, but Dwan could quite often craft a silk purse out of a sow's ear. So it be the case here.

The Haunted Room.

It's a standard revenge tale at its core as angry young Mitch Baker arrives in town and promptly sets about dismantling all the scumbags who cross his path. He's quick on the draw, he bristles with machismo and he's catching the eye of the ladies. Giving this simplest of formula extra weight is a religious angle, and no it's not eye rollingly preachy. Mitch finds lodgings with Reverend Simmons (Williams great) and his adopted brood of half-breed children, the eldest of which is a sexually awakened Angelita (Bancroft).

Mitch is quickly seen as some sort of Religio Revenger, the younger members of the Simmons gathering thinking he's an Archangel. Thus Mitch, his revenge fuelled objective at the forefront of his mind, finds a number of other emotions battling to take control of his soul. The arrival of Marshal Evans (Flippen under used but a welcome and telling addition late in the play) cranks up the story considerably and Dwan builds it skillfully in readiness for the big showdown, where we are not sure exactly how it will pan out.

Along the way there's plenty of action, with Dwan not concerned with over-kill sequences, plenty of sexual tension, and there's devilish nods towards the perils of temptation. No masterpiece here, but for Western lovers this has so much to recommend. Sadly it's under seen and the only existing print available doesn't do it any favours. 7/10

In the Old west there are always the men who live breathe violence and the women who hold their breath. This is a Western with a magnificent Scott Brady and a splendidly young Anne Bancroft . This exciting picture tells the story of a respected citizen and educated advocate named Mitchell, Mitch Baker (Scott Brady) who seeks vengeance against his father's killer and no one in town is willing to help him . Mitch has sworn revenge and detain to undercover gunfighter , taking on the gang leader and his hoodlums (Leo Gordon , Scott Marlowe as watcher gunman). The leader band is smuggling weapons to Maximilian emperor against the rebel Juarez and Mitch intents to detain it . At the border little town called Mission he meets the reverend Simmons (Rhys Williams) who has adopted various Indian children and a daughter named Angelita (Anne Bancroft) . Later on , Mitch falls in love with Angelita and is appointed deputy by the marshal (Jay C . Flippen ) to bring peace . At the end the kingpin gunslinger named Newton (Jim Davis) appears and attempts to murder Mitchell with his own hands.

Compelling tale of a secret service drifter hired by government authority to protect townspeople from revenge-seeking outlaws and avoid arms contraband . This classic western is plenty of suspense as the dreaded final showdown approaches and the protagonist realizes he must stand alone against impossible odds as the sheriffs are shot , as his fellow town people for help , nobody is willing to help him ; meanwhile he attempts to clear the killing his father who was wrongfully murdered . This is a tremendously exciting story of a sheriff-for-hire who had only one more killing to go. It begins as a slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark characters and acceptable plot. This short runtime tale is almost ordinary , a pacifier comes to a town just in time to make sure its citizenry but later the events get worse . Although made in low budget by the producer Charles B Fitzsimons , who financed Batman TV series, is a quite efficient film and entertaining . The highlights are the showdown at Saloon and the climatic gun-play at the ending. Phenomenal and great role for Scott Brady as avenger angel and impulsive gunfighter, he's the whole show. Vivid and lively musical score with wonderful songs and spectacular dancing by Anne Bancroft . Atmospheric and colorful cinematography in Technicolor , though is necessary a remastering.

This quickie is middling directed by Allan Dwan , a craftsman working from the silent cinema . Dwan directed over 1400 films, including one-reels, between his arrival in the industry (circa 1909) and his final film in 1961. Among them some good Western as ¨ Restless breed, The rivers edge,Cattle Queen of Montana,and Montana Belle¨ , being ¨Silver Lode¨ is his unqualified masterpiece. Watchable results for this offbeat Western.

When his father is murdered trying to stop the illegal sale of guns across the Mexican border, his son, Mitch Baker, leaves his job and sets out for revenge. He arrives in the small western town to find it lawless and rowdy.

He finds lodging with a local reverend and his adopted children and starts to fall for the eldest – the beautiful Angelita, but at the same time his desire for revenge and justice begin to eat him up inside. The reverend and Marshall Steve Evans both try and save him from himself.

From the opening cheese of the title song (which is awful!) you know that you are in b-movie land, and you'd be right to believe that for that is just what this film is. The plot is the usual revenge storyline with the usual romance thrown in to stretch it out. It is rather plodding at times and one has to wonder why it moves so very slowly and without action – usually b-movies will fall back on tough talk and tough action to cover the lacking substance. For what it is it just about manages to be passable as a film but it is not great and it is also frustrating because it has elements that could have been used to better effect.

The character of Mitch is the main element that the film could have used better. He is a haunted, lonely man who needs saving just as much as the town he has come to does. However, other than referring to this several times during the film, it doesn't actually do anything interesting with it – certainly all we see of this inner pain is that Mitch gets drunk once and staggers round town for 10 minutes like a bear with a sore head. Of course this failing and others all come down to the fact that there really isn't much of a script here and much of it is contrived to try and make it reach a respectable running time. Like I said, it still does what you expect it to (it certainly gets no worse than the title song!) but it could have been a much better movie, albeit still a b-movie.

The cast reflects the film's status. Brady is hardly a memorable leading man and he can't mange to make a complex character out of the material he is given. Instead it's like he flicks between normal mode and 'painful' mode, contributing to the feeling that the inner suffering thread is not really a thread so much as an afterthought that doesn't work. Bancroft's involvement is made more interesting by the fact that she is better known now than then.

Her character is flat though and she can do nothing with it apart from the usual love interest stuff, sadly she isn't even good enough looking to fill the traditional role of the genre. The rest of the cast are very much b-movie fare – some are OK (Flippen and Davis) but some are poor (Gordon's Cherokee in particular).

Overall this is below average for the b-movie genre. It does what you expect it to do and it isn't actually that bad but it doesn't really do anything well at all – from acting, the script, action right through to the delivery. It's just a shame that it didn't manage to do anything of note with the central character of Mitch other than hint at him having a character that is hardly touched on by the script.

I heard this might be okay but although I liked the skies and Anne Bancroft and especially the dancing but not enough good dialogue and exciting action. We saw the splendid picture of the dancer on the wall so many times, I assumed we would see much more of the dancing but just some romancing, although not really that either but she weeps. I didn't really liked Scott Brady in this but I think it was because the script so weak. Both the lovely Bancroft and even Brady would do much better, with him before in Johnny Guitar (1953) and later like Gremlins (1984) and her as, of course with The Graduate (1967) and really good in The Miracle Worker (1962).

There is an obvious absence of finance behind this film but it excels for all that. Somehow, even the obvious stage/studio setting enhances the experience of this modest effort. It is a play... and if the audience is to be drawn in... it will be through the characterization, the dialogue and the drama... not through stunning visuals and computer generated crowd scenes.

The fundamental flaw is the age of the two principals. Bancroft was 26 at the time this was filmed and Brady 33. Angelita (Bancroft) is supposed to be a "child" of about sixteen and Mitch (Brady) is playing the part of an educated young man (late teens ?) so incensed by his father's murder that he is in danger of "taking the wrong road". It's remarkable... when you contemplate that this detail of age is fundamental to the story and to the drama... that the principals carry the thing so well and that it still works.

For its time, it must have been something of a "blood fest" with people being killed from the outset. And again, they get it right. Lots of blood, guts and gore does not add significance to the fact that someone is killed or murdered.

Some nice touches of humour and some becoming self-parody by some of the actors adds to the stage play quality of the film.