Du sang sur la piste

Except for two things, it's a fairly routine Scott Western, which means it's still better than most horse operas. First, I'm betting the drought resistant strain of wheat that keeps the farmers on the land is fact-based. Anyway, it's an interesting take on farming for a city boy like me, and is woven effectively into the plot. The second thing is Robert Ryan, one of my favorites. Now, I've seen him as a scary bad guy or a hard-looking good guy in a thousand movies. But I've never seen him as a nice guy until this movie. He's not only good, but nice too, and even gets the girl as a reward. It's Ryan as you've likely never seen him before (It's also early in his career, 1947).

Scott's his usual strong-jawed self, and a persuasive Bat Masterson, while the one-and-only Gabby sports a beard that looks like it's eating his face. And check out the obscure ingénue Madge Meredith's (Susan) bio in IMDb. There's a reason why she's obscure. Then too, the 300-lb. Billy House makes a slimy bad guy and a can't miss six-gun target. I guess my only reservation is with Steve Brodie as the chief baddie. He doesn't have quite the gravitas to be a chief, which is likely why most of his career was as a henchman.

Anyhow, it's a well-stocked horse opera with good action and a nicely worked-out script. For Scott fans, myself included, it's an enjoyable 90-minutes.

Liberal is a town in Kansas that is rapidly descending into lawlessness. That is until local "Billy Jones" (Gabby Hayes) gets his pal "Bat Masterson" (Randolph Scott), a federal marshal, to come and try to sort things out. With the help of "Harper" (Robert Ryan) and dancing girl "Ruby" (Anne Jeffreys) he sets his sights on "Maury" (Steve Brodie) and his manipulative henchman "Carmody" (Billy House). The only thing that distinguishes this from a whole slew of others of this type, is that Ryan manages to discover a wheat that is resistant to drought - a pretty perennial problem here - and that galvanises the farmers who are on the verge of giving up. Otherwise, it is a pretty routine adventure peppered with a few shoot-outs and a bit of romance. Scott and Ryan do their jobs OK, and the story moves along quickly enough but if you've seen one, then I'm afraid you've seen them all as far as this is concerned.

This is a modest ,unassuming traditional Western with a formulaic plot about opposition between ranchers and crop farmers around the town of Liberal ,Kansas .The story is essentially routine and features a number of the classic Western conflicts .There is the farmer versus the cattleman;there is the clash between cultivated land and "civilizing" tendencies on the one hand and the wilderness/frontier ethos on the other and what this represents ultimately is the opposition of two value systems -democratic and community values as set against rugged individualism .

Randolph Scott plays legendary lawman Bat Masterton who rides into Liberal at behest of a land agent (Robert Ryan ) to help him sort out the bad guys who are the hard drinking ,brawling cattlemen .The two men quarrel but reunite to tackle the troublesome elements in the town .

The script is clichéd but the action is propelled along with vigour by director Ray Enright and there are solid performances all round .In addition to rugged performances by the male leads there is comic relief supplied by George Gabby Hayes ,an oily villain nicely played by Steve Brodie and attractive contributions from Maggie Meredith as a prim and proper Easterner wooed by Ryan and Anne Jeffreys as a saloon singer As long as you do not place a premium on originality this is good sturdy entertainment for Western lovers

This one is a very solid Randolph Scott Western. He plays Bat Masterson and goes to Liberal, Kansas to clean up the town. He becomes good friends with Robert Ryan who played a very, straight up leading man role. It was not until after this that Robert Ryan began playing much darker roles. In fact, in 1947 Randolph Scott made one other movie which was not a western and never made anything but westerns after that until he retired in 1962. This movie has good pacing and builds up to the climax steadily. I can't say any more as it would give away the plot. Be sure to see this one. 8/10

I watched this film a few days ago and realised that the scene where Robert Ryan is given a glass of milk and the lady rancher elevates the horizontally hinged panel beside the table to reveal a field of waving wheat was an image that had stuck with me for over 55 years without me being able to remember the film's title. I saw this film in my local picture house as the featured film of a saturday matinee about 1960 -the image was indelible but the title and actors were a total blank -until a few days ago. Do cinematographers/directors realise they are creating a haunting image when they set up shots like this?The film itself is watchable but not a classic - apart from the image of the wheat