The Raiders

Richard Conte who is not quite suited for westerns stars in this tale of old California in between the Gold Rush and its admittance as a state in the union.

When the Gold Rush of 1849 happened California grew exponentially with would be miners seeking wealth and the population overnight qualified it to be admitted to the Union. Of course there was considerable distance between that and the then states. A lot of people took advantage of that to hatch all kinds of nefarious schemes in the film and in real life.

One of those is Morris Ankrum a high toned crook with a beautiful daughter in Barbara Britton who stays blissfully unaware of dad's activities. One of them is claim jumping and one claim he jumps is that of Conte. Both Conte's wife and brother are killed and he goes on the warpath.

I have to say Ankrum dreams big. He wants an independent California country with himself as president for life. Conte throws in with people like Richard Martin and Viveca Lindfors, brother and sister who have been similarly robbed and cheated by Ankrum. They see their salvation as statehood and Conte wants some payback as well.

This was badly photographed and the version I saw was very dark like nearly every sequence took place at night. Richard Conte is way too urban to be a convincing western pioneer.

However the chance to see Richard Martin as someone other than Chito Rafferty might make this film worth a look.

A rancher (Richard Conte) who has staked a claim during the California gold rush goes after the gang of murderous claim-jumpers who have stolen his claim and murdered his wife.

Richard Conte is known to star in urban/noir films, but he lends some good acting chops in this Universal western as the rancher who wants to get even with the ones who killed his wife. Later, with the help of Viveca Lindfors, he realises that revenge is futile.

A handsome-looking western, the Raiders is fast-paced, has some intense shootouts, but it has a solid story that gets you involved, and rooting for the good guys.

Not bad western directed by Lesley Selander, the most prolific western maker in Hollywood, besides Ray Nazarro; I speak here of grade B westerns, between fifty and ninety minutes length at the most. This western is produced by Universal Studios - by the way I did not know that Lesley Selander was under contract, even for only one film, with Universal - but there is nothing really exceptional, as was SHOTGUN or ARROW I THE DUST. But seeing Richard Conte - film noir actor - in a western is so rare, so unusual, as finding Rod Cameron - western actor - in a crime film: THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE. Good time waster never boring, with convincing performances.

I hadn't seen this movie before or the actors in it but found it easy to engage with. Richard Conte plays Jan Morrell a gold prospector in California before it became a state of the union. His cabin is attacked by bandits who steal his gold and kill his wife. hey leave him for dead but he is saved and goes on the hunt for the gang.

The costumes are typical 50's with lots of colour and all beautifully clean. The girls outfits are stunning - Jan Morrell gets a choice of two new women in his life - I guess the frontier life meant that you had to move on quickly !

OK, it is a bit creaky here and there but if you want a good afternoon cowboy - give it a chance.

To fill in a wet Sunday, I watched this film for the second time. The best thing is the colour photography, but as is so often the case little effort has been made to catch the 1849 atmosphere. The men wear the usual cowboy clothes and use repeating rifles and I'm not too sure that binoculars were in common use then.

There's an unrealistic and unsatisfyingly condensed court case, and the ending didn't convince. But that's what you get with a 1950s B Western.

Richard Conte is his usual slick self, as when he's playing a gangster, WWII soldier or whatever. Of the other actors, Hugh O'Brian has the most screen presence, playing the nastiest of the bad men. Of the three young women, Conte's wife was the most impressive - pity she was murdered in an early scene.