La rançon de la peur

I am surprised this isn't a better known western. It's a moody and sparse western that follows 4 young men who turn up in a little town and take it over.

It's an interesting story as I imagine that there were quite a few towns with aging populations that were vulnerable to being taken over by gangs looking for an easy life.

The acting is generally good although I was particularly taken with the lead actor Jeff Chandler who seemed a little stiff (he sadly died a year or two after this film). The gang are pretty good portraying a quiet menace. Only one went on to have a long movie career, John Saxon as Rondo. The back up cast are all solid and the stunning Dolores Hart adds some welcome glamour.

Although this isn't an action packed film thanks to a nice script it manages to hold your attention throughout. There is a great air of tension built up as the gang terrorize the town. The ending is maybe a little predictable but still nicely done.

The Plunderers is worth catching for lovers of the western genre.

Juvenile delinquency was a very hot topic in the late fifties and early sixties. The new scourge of civilization, rock and roll, had transformed the younger generation into rebels who wanted to cast off the repressive rules by which they were expected to conduct themselves. The burgeoning post-war economy was removing the fear that had formed so much of the older generation's embracement of responsibility and the ever-quickening pace of materialistic progress was making any prospect of boredom anathema to the young.

This certainly didn't go unnoticed by the establishment who were understandably alarmed by what appeared to be a rise in youthful disrespect and hedonism and the war of the generations was taken fairly seriously for a while. Hollywood quickly realized that this was a very sexy and saleable topic for entertaining the masses and began churning out dramas of rebellious youth by the boatload. By 1960 (the year this film was released) these rebellious youth movies were becoming pretty repetitive as far as contemporary settings went, so it was a darned good idea to take the issue and transfer it to a different time - the old west.

It worked rather well, I think. Westerns tend to be fairly simple story lines for the most part anyway, so bringing an aspect of modern juvenile delinquency into the western was novel enough to spice up both tired genres a little. I watched it on the late show when I was on a baby-sitting gig and it made my night. Held my interest all the way and I enjoyed repeated viewings of it over the next couple of years.

It's well acted by all. John Saxon has a great time playing the quietest but most dangerous gang member and Jeff Chandler gets to be a bad-tempered hero. As a small and relatively simple movie with a social message geared to the time of its release it's not really an 8 now, but I think it deserves a little better rating than it has here so I've given an extra point or two to help raise the average and I don't think that's the wrong thing to do at all. It's a decent piece of entertainment.

The Plunderers are four youngsters who come to a peaceful little western town without any money. Actually they're no gunfighters at all but enjoy staying there getting all for free and watching how they can get the people more and more frightened. Onearmed Jeff Chandler wants to stay out of trouble but is increasingly convinced that something must be done to help the citizens against the troublemakers. Lovely Dolores Hart is the daughter of the local store owner and the Mexican youngster Rondo, played by John Saxon, pays a lot of attention to her. She tries to avoid him but with no success. The dramatic final scenes include an unusual fight with knives. This is a classic black-and-white western from 1960 highly recommended. You can easily find resemblances to Brando's 1954 motorcycle movie "The Wild One".

Better-than-usual western has interesting premise: Four young cowboy-hoodlums take over a sleepy town population 50. The whole thing looks and feels like a Twilight Zone episode (black and white) without the fantasy. Two gorgeous women, Delores Hart and Marsha Hunt; a fair performance from Jeff Chandler; and vivid portrayals by the relatively unknown youngsters including a promising one by John Saxon. Sleazy early 60's B-Movie fun of the Juvenile Delinquent genre.

The Plunderers is directed by Joseph Pevney and written by Bob Barbash. It stars Jeff Chandler, John Saxon, Dolores Hart, Marsha Hunt and Jay C. Flippen. Music is by Leonard Rosenman and cinematography by Eugene Polito.

Trail City, and 4 delinquent cowboys ride into town with attitude and carefree abandon. The Trail City residents - spineless, all except one man. One man who considers himself only half a man on account of his disability. That man is Civil War veteran Captain Sam...

War didn't just destroy his arm.

The few critical appraisals and reviews that exist for The Plunderers are keen to associate the picture with other notable pictures released previously, which in this instance is something of a curse when they happen to be well revered classics. Yet this is no knock off, it has its own identity. The four young delinquents here are not dashing dandy types, the makers make every effort to put their failings as human beings up at the front of the portrayals. These are young men, out of their depth, even spineless, but of course the town doesn't know this as they are too busy cowering in the shadows.

The messages are obvious in the play, but Pevney doesn't use his sledgehammer to enforce those parts of the narrative. It's perhaps no surprise how things pan out with Chandler's embittered war veteran, as he wrestles with both his conscience and his disability, but Pevney has a good knack for slow burning the atmosphere to bring rewards for film's finale. Chandler, in his last Western, is suitably broody, Hunt and Hart are beauties to behold, while of the bad boys it's Saxon as a diabolical Mexican - with scary eyebrows - and the only one who is old enough to shave, who strikes the highest villain chords.

Elsewhere there's a great musical score provided by double Academy Award Winner Rosenman, very much akin to something that the moody Twilight Zone episodes would use. It also at times has the feel of the score Alan Silvestri would rustle up for Predator some 27 years later. Polito's photography is crisp, where in conjunction with Pevney's camera angles and lighting techniques keeps the claustrophobia factor high in this one location setting.

Crackerjack! A dandy of a black and white Oater waiting to be discovered by more Western fans. It's a keeper for sure. 8/10