The Storm Rider

With some bows to Shane this independent B western released by 20th Century Fox has a nice staying power to it. It's what they called an adult western with some very adult themes, not for the Saturday matinée kid of the previous decade.

The Storm Rider casts Scott Brady as a Shane like lone hand gunfighter who comes to town and joins the small ranchers fighting against the cattle association. Giving him a more personal interest is Mala Powers who used to lead the ranchers until he was killed. She even sells him a spread for one dollar to give him a rooting interest.

The cattle association doesn't take this lying down and they send a punk gunfighter played by George Keymas. Brady is all that stands between the ranchers and the association, but he has a nasty past secret that could blow up in his face if revealed to the rest.

The Storm Rider is a good western, but the small screen was getting overpopulated with them and they were for free. These type films would become scarcer and scarcer as the years went on. Brady himself took to the small screen in a few years with Shotgun Slade.

Still western fans will enjoy.

Great acting, drama, love, Scott Brady doing another western very well. William Fawcett plays excellent role. He is the classic character actor of westerns. Well done love story buried in plot. This movie was made in the late 50's, which was the golden time for westerns. Storm Rider is one of the best. There are a few interesting camera boo-boos. In the beginning, Brady walks his horse into a livery stable and has to walk past a buggy to do so. Enter the Sheriff to warn him to leave town and the buggy has disappeared. You kind of feel sorry for Brady's character, Bart Jones as he is unable to settle down to ranch life among friends and a love interest. Don't pass up the chance to catch this movie.

One excellent lead role for Scott Brady who, for once, doesn't play the local villain. Why not Leo Gordon in such a role? This is a pretty good little western, made by a B director Edward Bernds, whose western was not his speciality, unlike Lesley Selander or Ray Nazarro for instance. The topic is not that unusual, on the contrary, but good to watch because of the quality of acting. I definitely prefer SHANE, in the same scheme, and watching this movie in pan and scan instead of the genuine letterbox 2.35 doesn't help much to appreciate the feature. I think that's one of the best role of Lawrence Tierney's brother who, in a major production, would have played the hired killer, not the "good" stranger.

Edward Bernds THE STORM RIDER is a pleasant, unpretentious little western that revolves around the tried and true formula of the conflict between free-range ranchers and those who posted barbed wire. There's a surprising amount of action, romance, tragedy, heroism and even a little philosophy bandied about in this compact story which benefits from good actors, a literate script and a certain atmosphere of foreboding claustrophobia. The interesting story is well presented and composer Les Baxter creates a striking score of orchestral variations on the old English ballad "Greensleeves" which is uniquely different from most of the other Western scores of the '50s, with its heavy overtones of loneliness and an elegiac bittersweet quality.

This is a quiet but effective little western.

Just watching this now, for the first time, on late-night cable.

What a surprise! It starts off like any old B-western you've seen, but then it surprises you at every turn.

What makes it special is that almost none of the characters are clichés. You keep expecting them to be, but then they turn out to be complex and multi-dimensional. -And not just one character, but virtually all the main ones. There are VERY few westerns with this much depth.

Negatives:

The lead actor does a fine job, but he lacks the charisma of a true leading man. Had John Wayne played this part, "Storm Rider" might be known as one of the great westerns of all time.

Sadly, the cinematography is pretty dark & dismal. -And the screenplay isn't all that exciting, except for the interesting plot turns. Still, I consider this a "must see" if you like westerns.