The Tall T

Very good Western about a rough confrontation with strong characterization. Compelling tale of a cowboy , Randolph Scott , and his nemesis, Richard Boone, and hoodlums , Skip Homeier and Henry Silva . In the Old west there are always the men who live breathe violence and the women who hold their breath . Having lost his horse in a wager , a hard-bitten man named Brennan (Scott) takes a stagecoach driven by his friend Ed (Arthur Hunnicutt) . Ed is carrying newlyweds , Willard (John Hubbard) and Doretta (Maureen O'Sullivan). At the next station the stagecoach and its passengers are kidnapped by a trio of gunfighters ( Homeier , Silva) led by a villain named Usher (Richard Boone). When Usher aware that Doretta is the daughter of a rich copper-mine owner, he decides to obtain a ransom but the events get worse.

This is a tremendously exciting story of a drifter who helps newlyweds and falls in love with the recent wife . It begins as a sluggish , slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark , complex characters and solid plot . The simple tale is almost rudimentary though full of clichés, a good guy come to free newlyweds just in time to get the woman . Suspense and tension builds over the time in which the outlaws and the starring await a response to their demands . The action is brutishly cruel as when the nasties shoot without remission. The highlights of the film are the facing off between Scott and his enemies and the climatic showdown on the ending . Phenomenal and great role for Randolph Scott as tough guy , he's the whole show. He play perfectly as stoic, craggy, and uncompromising figure .Vivid and atmospheric musical score by Heinz Roemhelz and colorful cinematography reflecting marvelously the rocky,stony scenarios by Charles Lawton Jr . Watchable results for this offbeat Western.

The motion picture is stunningly directed by Budd Boetticher in bleak style . Boetticher formed a production company called ¨Ranown¨ along with Harry Joe Brown and Randolph Scott and as usual writer Burt Kennedy. The first Harrry Brown-Boetticher-Scott movie was 1956's " Seven men from now" , following ¨Decision at sundown(57)¨, ¨Buchanan rides alone(58)¨,¨Westbound(59)¨ ,¨Ride lonesome(59) ,in the decades since, they have produced and directed one Western ¨Comanche Station(60)¨ . Boetticher was a great expert on Western genre and also on the bullfighting world as ¨Bullfighter and the lady¨, ¨The magnificent matador¨ and ¨Arruza¨ . Rating : Above average. Well worth watching .

Boetticher and Scott spent the latter half of the 1950s making some terrific, adult, low-key Westerns, of which this stands as the best. Atmosphere, technical work and acting are all excellent, with interesting villain characterizations and a well-realized flawed hero in Scott.

Brutal and vivid, great-looking, and among Elmore Leonard's earliest writing work in the medium. Check out this classic, as well as the other films of the star and director (also the similar, excellent Gary Cooper/Anthony Mann teaming in the following year's Man of the West.)

**** I never really figured out what the Tall T exactly was. It doesn't matter. This is a great film and an outstanding western. The actors are all good, especially Randolph Scott as a western everyman (I always want to repeat the "Blazing Saddles" homage to Scott whenever I say his name)and Richard Boone as one of the most evil bad men in western film history. Skip Homeier and Henry Silva give great performances as two young guns who are teamed up with Boone. They are sexy and evil at once. The dialogue is biting, the situations are adult and dramatic, the scenery is superb, and the music complements the film's tension to a Tall T.

A former ranch ramrod (Randolph Scott) and members of a stagecoach in the Southwest (e.g. Maureen O'Sullivan) are threatened by a trio of ruthless killers (Richard Boone, Henry Silva and Skip Homeier).

"The Tall T" (1957) is a quality 50's Western with likable Randolph Scott in the heroic role. It has achieved a sort of cult status as the prime example of a classic Boetticher-Scott Western. The original story was written by Elmore Leonard, which explains the movie's similarities to the later "Hombre" (1967), not to mention Boone appears in both as the chief outlaw. There are also parallels to Scott's "Hangman's Knot" (1952), which was shot in the same area and shares some story elements.

I didn't recognize Maureen O'Sullivan of Tarzan fame, 23 years after her physical prime in "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934). While the script keeps having the male characters refer to her as a "plain" or "old maid," she's obviously fit and still alluring in the second half with her hair down. In truth, most men in the Old West would kill to gain the attentions of such a woman.

The film is taut at 1 hour, 18 minutes, and was shot at Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California.

GRADE: B+/A-

This 1957 Western follows in the tradition of "Rawhide" (1951). Once again we find a group of people that are being held by a band of thieves while waiting for their next stage to rob. This time Randolph Scott has taken over the Tyrone Power role of the hero in the earlier film. Scott must wait for the appropriate opportunity to make his stand against the evil band of killers (Richard Boone, Skip Homeier, and Henry Silva). Maureen O'Sullivan (who once portrayed Tarzan's Jane of the movies) finds herself in the unusual role of portraying a "plain jane" who has recently married a scoundrel. The newlyweds are on their way to their honeymoon when they are captured by Boone and his gang of cut throats. O'Sullivan's husband tries to use his new wife and her father's fortune as a bargaining chip to buy his way out of his predicament...but the killers wind up killing him along with the stage station's owner and his son. The hapless victims all seem to be killed off one by one and thrown into a well. Margaret O'Sullivan's only hope is for Randy to somehow save her. Scott uses the gang's individual weaknesses to get the drop on them .... and what is to come is one of the most brutal Westerns made during that period of film making. This film serves as a transitional bridge between the old Ken Maynard (man in a white hat who only drinks milk) bloodless Western and the grimy, realistic sweat stained Spaghetti Western that is destined to come. A fine cast and a disciplined script makes it everything one could hope for in a Western!!!