La hyène du Missouri

(1951) The Bushwhackers WESTERN

Co-written and directed by Rod Amateau starting the movie with the end of the civil war, and former confederate soldier, Jefferson Waring (John Ireland) vowed never to lift another gun ever again, only then as soon as he resides to a different town, he comes across a land baron, Artemus Taylor (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his hired gunmen/ outlaws of Sam Tobin (Lawrence Tierney) and Cree (Jack Elam) terrorizing against farm owners to build a railway across.

The film feels very rushed making it very forgettable and such little action despite some of the drama moments being well done.

A pacifist-minded ex-Confederate gets caught up in a land war as he seeks a new life in post- Civil War Missouri.

Considering the bizarre cast, I guess I was hoping for too much. After all, the compelling Tierney, Elam, Chaney Jr. and Dell are all established movie toughies. Then there's the unpredictable Ireland and Morris, performers comfortable playing with a wobbly moral compass. And finally there's the luscious Malone playing the good citizen, though she could also wobble when necessary, e.g. Written On The Wind (1955). Trouble is Tierney's entirely wasted, disappearing early on. No scary stare or frozen face here. As a result, there's no logical showdown between him and Ireland, as dramatically promising as that would be. Also, Chaney only gets a few minutes of loopy screen time, while Morris seems unsure of what he's supposed to do as the Marshal. And the latter's really too bad since the Marshal's uncertainty could be the story's most interesting character.

The narrative itself is fairly familiar—greedy plotters trying to drive settlers off their land so they can cash in on the railway coming through. Not exactly a ground-breaking premise. On the other hand, shifting alliances among the town folk add character interest, while a restrained Ireland carries the film even though in a clichéd role. Still, I like the fact that the settlers organize themselves without waiting for the hero to save the day. That's a good non- clichéd touch.

All in all, I'm wondering how a budget indie like this was able to assemble such an exotic cast, and whether they had to haul legendary juicers like Tierney and Chaney out of the nearest Hollywood bar. Too bad the screenplay didn't make better use of these colorful characters. That would have made something truly memorable. Instead, we get an unexceptional if occasionally interesting western.

Ex-Confederate John Ireland flees reconstruction and it's test of his vow of non-violence. Heading west, he winds up in a town under the thumb of powerful land baron Lon Chaney and his sadistic enforcer Lawrence Tierney, who are killing stealing land in anticipation of the railroad. Trying to leave, Ireland is only pulled in deeper.

Another hard-boiled, low-budget 1950's western noir, The Bushwhackers is vivid and fairly violent entertainment that's definitely worth checking out. Like nearly all good westerns, it does a great job of manipulating the viewer, building up to the moment when all bets are off and the hero straps on his six-gun to take care of business.

Here, Ireland and Tierney are fantastic. It's too bad that these two great actors were pretty much relegated to minor films (Tierney especially) due their alleged drunken exploits.

The rest of the cast, Wayne Morris, Dorothy Malone (who's beautiful), and Jack Elam, are all great too.

"The Bushwhackers" is one of the rare movies in which John Ireland had the male lead. Ireland was just an okay actor who did well in many of the supporting and smaller roles he got in films. But, he wasn't a top-drawer actor, and without the more handsome looks he was relegated to being a supporting actor and frequent cast member.

Ireland does well in this film. It's a different type of Western. The film opens with some gritty scenes of the Civil War and the war's end. Ireland's Jefferson Waring has had his fill of killing and guns, and he heads for the West to start life anew - without any firearms. When he reaches Independence, Missouri, he finds himself embroiled in a feud in which a land baron is trying to run off settlers. That was a worn-out plot of many Westerns in the 1950s.

The story has some nice twists, with Waring getting the short end of a couple of encounters and winding up in the hoosegow. And, naturally, there's a girl who eventually helps Waring change his mind about moving on.

Other characters include Marshal John Harding, played by Wayne Morris, and Cathy Sharpe, played by Dorothy Malone. A standard bad guy in Westerns is Jack Elam, here playing Cree. The big extra in this film, and reason to see it, is Lon Chaney Jr. He plays Artemus Taylor. I don't think Chaney was ever in another Western.

By the time Lawrence Tierney appeared in the b-western THE BUSHWHACKERS, his leading man career was finished.. but he's used importantly here, at least in the rudimentary stages: a hired thug appearing before crippled land baron Lon Chaney Jr and the lethal daughter who hired him to kill off random settlers...

Ironically, Chaney and daughter are correct about the squatters being more interested in big money than settling down... while Tierney continues bullying more underdogs, including passive leading man John Ireland, a Civil War veteran who, during a historic prelude, promised to never use a gun again...

The familiar plot-line seems somewhat original, mainly because the venomous Dell's Noreh Taylor, actually held back by her commanding/demanding father... she would have fared much better as the sole heavy, perhaps with hired-gun Lawrence Tierney being smitten with his blonde boss or... some kind of side-plot that would keep him around longer...

Unfortunately, the third-billed DILLINGER icon is anticlimactically killed halfway through, cutting the overall threat in half, leaving sparse closure between Ireland and the only person worthy of a vengeful showdown (left with henchman's henchman Jack Elam)... but at least he has honest newspaperman's idealist daughter Dorothy Malone (who handles a gun well herself) to retire with: He just needed to work a lot harder to rest with those laurels.