La ville de la vengeance

I heard this might be okay but although I liked the skies and Anne Bancroft and especially the dancing but not enough good dialogue and exciting action. We saw the splendid picture of the dancer on the wall so many times, I assumed we would see much more of the dancing but just some romancing, although not really that either but she weeps. I didn't really liked Scott Brady in this but I think it was because the script so weak. Both the lovely Bancroft and even Brady would do much better, with him before in Johnny Guitar (1953) and later like Gremlins (1984) and her as, of course with The Graduate (1967) and really good in The Miracle Worker (1962).

Edward L. Alperson turns his clumsy hand to westerns in this very ordinary film.

An attorney and a marshal are baffled as to how a marshal was killed in a border town densely populated by bandits. The attorney whose father it was vows revenge.

He repays the kindness of a missionary by sexually assaulting his adopted daughter.

What looks like Epstein from "Welcome Back Kotter" is the town sneak who peeps through windows but is too cowardly to shoot, but this potentially interesting subplot is not really developed.

The attorney wins through a clumsy and obvious subterfuge.

Young Scott Marlowe was already hanging out with hoods well before 'A Cold Wind in August' when he here played one of Jim Davis's gang. Unfortunately for Anne Bancroft Mrs Robinson was still ten years away in the future, and she decided she'd had it with Hollywood and abandoned the screen for the stage after playing yet another dusky maiden in this good-looking western potboiler into which veteran director Dwan managed to insert the occasional visual flourish in his final western.

The biggest surprise is Myron Healey playing a good guy for a change as the honest sheriff squaring up against Davis' mean-looking sidekick Leo Gordon.

The Restless Breed is directed by Allan Dwan and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Scott Brady, Anne Bancroft, Jay C. Flippen, Rhys Williams, Leo Gordon and Jim Davis. Music is by Edward L. Alperson Junior and cinematography by John W. Boyle.

1865 and Mitch Baker travels to Mission in Texas to find out who murdered his father who was working for the Secret Service. His father was investigating the operations of "Newton's Raiders", a gang of gun runners fronted by Ed Newton (Davis) who are supplying arms to Emperor Maximillian in Mexico. Mitch has no intention of upholding the law, he has only one thing on his mind; revenge!

"Yer a wild eyed hooligan looking for a cheap revenge, not to satisfy the ghost of your father, but your own hurt - warped - disturbed ego".

Another of Allan Dwan's vastly under valued Westerns, it's also the last of his genre offerings. Production value is not high end, the Pathe Color is poor, the sets sometimes wobble and it features one of the most frustratingly awful music compositions laid down for a 1957 Oater, but Dwan could quite often craft a silk purse out of a sow's ear. So it be the case here.

The Haunted Room.

It's a standard revenge tale at its core as angry young Mitch Baker arrives in town and promptly sets about dismantling all the scumbags who cross his path. He's quick on the draw, he bristles with machismo and he's catching the eye of the ladies. Giving this simplest of formula extra weight is a religious angle, and no it's not eye rollingly preachy. Mitch finds lodgings with Reverend Simmons (Williams great) and his adopted brood of half-breed children, the eldest of which is a sexually awakened Angelita (Bancroft).

Mitch is quickly seen as some sort of Religio Revenger, the younger members of the Simmons gathering thinking he's an Archangel. Thus Mitch, his revenge fuelled objective at the forefront of his mind, finds a number of other emotions battling to take control of his soul. The arrival of Marshal Evans (Flippen under used but a welcome and telling addition late in the play) cranks up the story considerably and Dwan builds it skillfully in readiness for the big showdown, where we are not sure exactly how it will pan out.

Along the way there's plenty of action, with Dwan not concerned with over-kill sequences, plenty of sexual tension, and there's devilish nods towards the perils of temptation. No masterpiece here, but for Western lovers this has so much to recommend. Sadly it's under seen and the only existing print available doesn't do it any favours. 7/10

At least from his last part of a sooo long career. Alan Dwann began during the silent era, don't forget this, is one of the most prolific director in Hollywood studios history. His last films were, for most of them, produced by Benedict Bogeaus, but this one, no. Edward Alperson did and the result is a true beautiful, atmospheric western, despite a overused scheme. But Scott Brady, Leo Gordon Rhys Williams and above all a surprising Anne Bancroft, make us forget this surpriseless story. Terrific music score that you hear all long this story. I don't get boed every time I watch it, precisely because of the exceptional atmosphere, that not so many film can provide.