Le Traquenard des Sans-Loi

Like I have with most of the Western movies I've seen, I watched the preview for this film on the Westerns Channel and decided that since it was on next and I had nothing else to do, I watched it. Rory Calhoun leads the screen and he did a fine job as Mike 'Utah' Blaine. This movie has the same kind of plot you'd expect from the old 50s B-grade Westerns, however, I say that this one is better than some of the others. The actors are a little bit better than some I've seen in other movies like this. And also, this movie has some pretty decent gunfights for its age. I found this movie to be a pretty enjoyable black-and-white Western.

I did not expect a so good script from a western produced by the greedy, stingy Sam Katzman, who offered us far far worst in the past, and even since this Fred S Sears' stuff. Good script, maybe xanks to western novelist Louis L'Amour which it is inspired from. Not a really new topic, but fairly well done, with a good characters symphony. Rory Calhoun excellent but maybe a most known villain would have been welcome, such as Leo Gordon, Robert Wilke or Neville Brand. So, try to watch this movie, it is a good time waster for western buffs, fast paced, with no length and not particularely diminished by the Sam Katzman's trademark, that I usually recognize at first sight. Here, Sam Katzman's name is only shown on the opening credits.

I love Rory Calhoun. Especially the guns he wears in this movie. I love Westerns. Especially when it comes to the Christian values that are long gone in this country today. Two of my favorites were The Rifleman and Bonanza where you would hear frequent and "liberal" (pun intended) mentions of "God", "prayer" and "the Bible".

And when it comes to the background music in Utah Blaine, isn't that the same as what was in a Glenn Ford movie? I can't remember the name.

This film begins with a cowboy by the name of "Joe Neal" (Ken Christy) being taken to an isolated part of the country and lynched by a group of men led by a man named "Russ Nevers" (Ray Teal). As it so happens, Joe owns a large portion of land which he has yet to file a legal claim for and the other men all want a piece of it. That being said, because they leave him to die a slow death by hanging, what they don't see is a nearby cowboy named "Utah Blaine" (Rory Calhoun) witnessing the whole thing nearby and rescuing Joe in the nick of time. Grateful for his efforts, Joe promises Utah Blaine a large number of cattle and offers to make him his ranch foreman. Having been a gunslinger all of his life, Utah gladly accepts Joe's generous offer. However, he is even more pleased when he is told that a man he's been tracking for a long time named "Rink Witter" (George Keymas) also participated in this illegal hanging-and he fully expects their paths to cross again once and for all. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a good, old-fashioned Western which had a couple of unexpected turns along the way that made it somewhat more compelling than many grade-B movies of this sort. Admittedly, I would have preferred a slightly lengthier run time but all things considered I enjoyed this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The drab black & white photography looks more redolent of a couple of TV episodes pasted together than a cinema film in this harsh, strangely underpopulated Louis L'Amour adaptation starring Rory Calhoun with a robust female presence in the form of Susan Cummings and Angela Stevens (the former mainly a TV actress but with one striking big screen credit a couple of years later in the form of Sam Fuller's 'Verboten!').