Le vengeur agit au crépuscule

Lesser-known Randolph Scott Westerns occasionally find their way on to British TV, and this was one I hadn't seen before. It was generally good, but the opening sequences were curious. Bart Allison (Scott) is a passenger on a stagecoach and wants to get off in the middle of nowhere to meet up with his sidekick, Sam. Instead of asking the driver nicely, he threatens him with a gun; Britain's buses may not make unscheduled stops, but I'm sure there would have been no problem in the West! At least we get treated to some good facial expressions by Bart and the stagecoach crew after the former has fired his pistol to alert Sam; there's quite a timelag before he appears, during which Bart looks slightly apprehensive and the crew quizzical.

But then - talk about stacking the deck against himself! In town Bart confronts Tate Kimbrough surrounded by his heavies and has to flee from them and seek refuge in a building, which is then surrounded by the bad guys. How he finally extricates himself from the situation is reasonably plausible.

And thank goodness for a decent sidekick - no annoying grizzled old coot or comic Mexican here; Noah Beery does very well in the role.

This particular Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott collaboration finds Scott as the meanest he ever was on the screen. At least since Coroner Creek where he played a similarly driven man on a vengeance quest against a man who killed his bride to be.

It's worse in Decision at Sundown. A few years earlier when Scott was away at war John Carroll took up with Scott's late wife. Now Randy with sidekick Noah Beery, Jr. has come into the town of Sundown looking to kill Carroll who has moved there and essentially taken over with his bought and paid for sheriff Andrew Duggan. Carroll by no coincidence I'm sure is getting married to Karen Steele that day, the daughter of a local rancher John Litel much to the dismay of Carroll's long time mistress Valerie French.

Scott interrupts the wedding and then he and Beery are trapped in a barn. While all this is going on a lot of the townsfolk who have let Carroll and his bully boys run roughshod over them start reexamining what's happened to their town.

Decision at Sundown shows Randolph Scott as the ugliest he ever was on the screen. He's a pretty mean hero in Coroner Creek as Chris Danning. But his character of Bart Allison in this film makes Danning look like a Boy Scout.

I can't say any more, you'll just have to see the rather unusual ending in this film and how it works out for Scott and the rest of the town of Sundown.

Let's just say he changed everyone's life, but his own.

Bart Allison and Sam, his trusty companion, ride into Sundown looking for a guy named Tate Kimbrough. It appears that Kimbrough had a dalliance with Allison's wife some years earlier, an affair that led to the suicide of the erstwhile Mrs. Allison. With revenge and hatred eating away at him, Allison will not rest until he gets his man, but his very being here in Sundown will be the catalyst for not only himself, but also every other resident of this dusky town.

Randolph Scott (Bart Allison) and director Budd Boetticher made seven very interesting and intelligent Westerns together, each man seemingly using each one as a muse of sorts. This particular entry on their wonderful resumes is a fine testament to their winning formula, for Decision At Sundown offers up something different outside of your standard Western fare. The plot structure is for sure very basic, the man out for revenge, and the town in the grip of less than honourable men, but here our main protagonist really isn't thinking with his head. He is driven by rage and an affair of the heart, he in fact doesn't care if he lives or dies, just as long as he gets his man! Also of interest is the effect on the town of Sundown that Allison has, it certainly lent me to think about some so called supernatural Westerns that would surface later on down the line, whilst the ending here doesn't resort to any sort of cop out formula, it's poignant and begs for a further train of thought.

Scott is first rate as Allison, grey hair personifying the wisdom that he has lost due to his blind thirst for revenge, he has a devilment glint that's evident in both of his eyes. Scott does an excellent line in rage and grief stricken acting, further cementing his reputation as a wonderful actor in the splendid Western filmic sphere. Backing Scott up is Noah Beery Jr (Sam) and John Archer as Dr. John Storrow, but of the rest of the cast I personally couldn't lend too much praise for, with the main negative of note being that the villains of the piece barely get out of grumpy only territory. John Carroll (Kimbrough) and Andrew Duggan as crooked Sheriff Swede Hansen really should have gone for a more twirling moustache type villainy than the underplayed ones that we actually get.

But underplayed villains be damned, this is still a hugely enjoyable picture, and one that definitely holds up on a repeat viewing whilst solidifying the top end genre status of Boetticher and Scott as a pairing. 7/10

While the western genre is not my favourite one of all film genres (not sure which one is my favourite due to trying to appreciate them all the same), there is a lot of appreciation for it by me. There are a lot of very good to great films, with the best work of John Ford being notable examples.

In the late 50s, starting in 1956 with 'Seven Men from Now' and right up to 1960 with 'Comanche Station', lead actor Randolph Scott collaborated with director Budd Boetticher in seven films. For me, 1957's 'Decision at Sundown' is one of their weakest, even a strong contender for their weakest. By all means it is a long way from terrible, it has a lot of great elements and is actually pretty decent. It just isn't in the same league as the wonderful 'Seven Men from Now' and 'The Tall T' and doesn't have enough of what made those two so good.

Starting with the strengths, while not the best-looking of their outings, being smaller in scale and slightly too compact in its setting, 'Decision at Sundown' still looks pleasing. It is very nicely filmed, with some nice colour and atmosphere, and handsomely designed, it just lacks the visual grandeur of their best collaborations. The music has presence and fits nicely, while not being intrusive.

Boetticher directs efficiently and mostly the film goes at a pace that isn't pedestrian. Numerous parts are suspenseful and fun, with some well choreographed action and some moral complexity. The ending is unusual and unexpected, and very effective. Scott brings likeability, charisma and intensity to his role and he is well supported by Karen Steele (oozing glamour and charm), Noah Beery Jr (enjoying himself immensely and having the best of the fun moments), John Archer (nice authority) and Andrew Duggan (suitably snake-like).

However, Valerie French is rather bland and colourless in an underwritten role and lacking the charm and sometimes touching chemistry of Steele. John Carroll underplays his fairly one-dimensional villain, he's no Lee Marvin, Richard Boone or Claude Akins.

The script is too wordy, lacking the meat and tautness of the scripts of the best Scott/Boetticher films, and can preach and be too basic to make the most of its complex themes. There is not enough depth to the characters, with only Scott's hero being developed enough and even then his motivation should have been explored more and more gripping. The story has a lot of great moments, but there is also some credibility straining, overload of simplicity and lack of tautness.

In conclusion, decent but had the potential to be much better. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Randolph Scott, (Bart Allison) heads off for a town along with his sidekick, Noah Berry Jr.,(Sam) for a town where he knew he could find Tate Kimbrough,(John Carroll). Bart Allison was seeking revenge for what Tate Kimbrough did to his wife; this Tate fellow was in charge of the town and the people were really not too happy with his leadership. It just so happens that Tate is going to married a local gal in town named Lucy Summerton, (Karen Steele) and while the ceremony is about to begin and the preacher says, "Is there anyone here who objects to this Wedding" and of course Bart Allison says, "I DO" and this is when the entire town is turned upside down. This Western is like a sermon through out the entire picture and all kinds of moral issues are involved even though the preacher likes to hit the bottle. If you look real close you will see a very old time veteran actor playing a bad dude, Bob Steele. You really will not believe how this picture ENDS.