La diligence partira à l'aube

In the 1960s, producer A.C. Lyles made a long string of low-budget westerns featuring stars well past their peak. Because these folks and the supporting actors were so old, the films were sometimes a bit silly and I've heard a couple folks (including me) referring to them as 'Geezer westerns'. Compared to many of his film, "Stage to Thunder Rock" isn't all that old--as the leading man (Barry Sullivan) is only 52--making him practically a teenager in A.C. Lyles' world! As for the rest of the cast, several Lyles veterans appear in this one including Lon Chaney Junior (who is in just about every Lyles film from the 60s), John Agar, Robert Strauss, Allan Jones, Scott Brady, Marilyn Maxwell and Keenan Wynn--all folks were had seen better days in their careers. The average age of these folks...probably about 55 or more! Despite the budget and advanced ages, however, most of these Lyles films are better than you'd expect. Would "Stage to Thunder Rock" also manage to be a decent film?

Sullivan plays an aging (what else?) sheriff whose final job involves bringing two robbers to justice. The catch--their father raised Sullivan (which is funny considering that Keenan Wynn played the father and he was about Sullivan's age). Along the way, he meets up with two different groups of folks who want to take his prisoner and collect the reward--maybe even if it involves killing the sheriff. For the most part, this is a very slow and meandering plot--one that seldom is involving or very interesting. The best of the characters is probably the one played by Chaney--the rest seem a bit more like caricatures than real people (such as Maxwell who plays the clichéd prostitute who wants to reform). All in all, not a terrible movie but certainly among Lyles' least successful westerns.

By the way, Mr. and Mrs. Swope's daughter, Sandy, was played by Morgan Brittany--and it's interesting to see this very pretty lady when she was just a kid.

Just don't make 'em any more. Will be appreciated more as time passes, these low budget classics will be really loved a hundred years from now. Well written and acted, authentic 'Western' feel and dealing with timeless issues.

Stage to Thunder Rock is directed by William F. Claxton and written by Charles Wallace. It stars Barry Sullivan, Marilyn Maxwell, Scott Brady, Lon Chaney Jr., Anne Seymour, John Agar, Wanda Hendrix, Ralph Taeger and Keenan Wynn. Music is by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by W. Wallace Kelley.

Pretty friendless in the Western loving pantheon of 1960s offerings, Stage to Thunder Rock does have strong character dynamics on its side. Forget any hope of scintillating action or even of a good use of the Technicolor/Techniscope tools afforded the piece, and instead prepare for a character based tale about a number of disparate characters holed up at a Stageline Station. Here is the crux of the matter, there's money at the root of all evil here, and although it is hardly something new in Westerns, this assortment of characters makes for a very interesting group dynamic.

The old sheriff forced to deal with something from his past that gnaws away at him, the young daughter who just wants to escape the humdrum of her life, the hired bounty hunter who needs money for his blind daughter. The weary Station owners beset by years of mismanagement soon to lose their business, the elder daughter with a past that's being used against her, and the outlaw in cuffs desperate to get away from his captor. In the middle of them all is fifty thousand dollars and the prospect of reward money for the outlaw and the man who is riding in to save him. All parties have reasons to err on the side of bad, who will turn? Who will survive the night? It's these questions that keeps the picture watchable.

The tech credits aren't up to much and without doubt this isn't a must see for Western purists, but it has human value enough to warrant it as being a decent time waster. 6/10

I saw this film quite a few years back on one of the cable movie channels, and thought of it because I saw another film recently that also starred Barry Sullivan, The Gangster. In this film, Sullivan was trying to get some reward money for a prisoner.

I looked the film up at a film reference website, and saw that this type of film was a dime-a-dozen when it came out in 1964...I guess that's why I can't remember much else about it...

The last gasp of the theatrically released B western was in the Sixties and the last theaters showing double bills probably had some feature like Stage To Thunder Rock on the bottom of the bill. A.C. Lyles made many of these films, some of the best of them. This isn't one of them though.

Sheriff Barry Sullivan has the task to bring in some outlaws, the catch is that the outlaw father Keenan Wynn took Sullivan in as a lad and raised him as a foster son. At the beginning though Sullivan shoots one son and apprehends the other Ralph Taeger. You know Wynn will be gunning for Sullivan and trying to free his boy.

At the same time bounty hunter Scott Brady needing money for his blind daughter Suzanne Cupito leaves her with her mother Wanda Hendrix and at the behest of city fathers Allan Jones and Robert Strauss goes after a bounty on Taeger and Wynn. And if Sullivan gets in the way too bad because they're not crazy about him either.

And still a third family mother Anne Seymour, father Lon Chaney, Jr., and daughters Marilyn Maxwell and Laurel Goodwin who run the station on the Thunder Rock line are having to pull up stakes, they owe some back taxes. Maxwell's home for a visit, but she's led a sordid life. Goodwin wants to lead any kind of life away from her parents. Chaney is henpecked and Seymour just wants the money to save the home.

A whole lot of these folks meet up at the stageline station and a lot gets thrashed out. Sad to say you do lose quite a bit of interest in how this all turns out. And in fact the climax showdown between Sullivan and Wynn is poorly, almost routinely staged.

And needless to say this whole cast as seen better days.