Ride Clear of Diablo

This is a classic style western with Audie Murphy as the good guy seeking out the killers of his father and brother. Fortunately, he's got experience in the field of "troubleshooter", and can handle things better than the killers, the town's most respected men, think. They send him on suicide missions against the likes of wild cards Dan Duryea, the professor Russell Johnson, and Jack Elam, only to be stunned by Audie's survival against these odds.

In making this, you could see that all involved allowed Duryea's overwhelming persona to take control. And that was the key. A great work relies not only on the great persona, but also the others to be willing to work off of him. "Great actors are great reactors" is known well to the acting community. A pity that many of the plebes who post on IMDb will laud the wrong actor.

Anyone can play a sadist. The real actors are the ones who can react to the sadist, and let him come across with power. Anyone can shout "That ain't no country I ever heard of", but the real actor is the one who is willing to stutter "What?" over and over.

However, here, Duryea deserves his praise. He's not your cliché bad guy. He's Duryea, full of fun and laughter, and each film he manages to make the character a little different. Just saying that the others deserve respect, too, for their cooperation.

Full of thrills, the film seems to last only a few minutes. And that's the sign of a good director. You get your bang for the bullet here.

Plus the classic combo of Murphy and Duryea. The only thing more magical than that would be to add in Stewart with an accordion.

Someone guns down Audie Murphy's father and brother and steals their cattle, so Audie pins on a badge and goes hunting Dan Duryea. After he brings in his man, giggling madman Duryea is cleared in court by corrupt lawmen Paul Birch and Russell Johnson. Duryea takes a shine to Murphy's naive honesty.

It's a well written western, and if Duryea dominates the movie, it's all offered pretty much in the wheelhouse of the leads. It's another of Universal's "shaky A" westerns, focusing more on character and story than the declining B westerns of the era. Jesse Hibbs, in his second time wielding the megaphone, does a good job, and seems to have established enough of a rapport with Murphy to direct half a dozen of his movies over the next four years. He was born in 1906. By the time he was 30, he was an assistant director, and was that on more than fifty films. With the decline of lesser productions, he shifted to directing TV westerns and episodes of THE FBI. He died in 1985.

One on hand this is a pretty standard Audie Murphy movie and I enhoy watching him so no problems there!

On the other hand this is better than average due solely to the over the top performance of Dan Duryea who steals the show delivering some good laughs.

Good support cast and a simple plot with a short running time make this a very easy matinee watch.

Recommend for sure :)

Ride clear of Diablo is my favourite Audie Murphy western.Its exciting,suspenseful and the rapport between audie and Dan Duryea is great.This film is highly enjoyable with humour and a good twist in the end.This is a feel good western.

Ride Clear of Diablo is directed by Jesse Hibbs and adapted to screenplay by George Zuckerman from a story by Ellis Marcus. It stars Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Susan Cabot, Abbe Lane and Russell Johnson. Irving Glassberg is the cinematographer with location filming in Technicolor at Lone Pine and Victorville in California. Plot sees Murphy as Clay O'Mara, a railroad surveyor forced to return to his home town after rustlers kill his father and brother. Getting the sheriff to make him a tin star wearing deputy, Murphy sets about finding out who was responsible for the murders. His first port of call is a meeting with notorious gunslinger Whitey Kincaid (Duryea)...

Lively and utterly enjoyable "B" Western in the cannon of Audie Murphy. Standard revenge formula of plotting is elevated to better heights by the central relationship between Murphy's honest do gooder and Duryea's rough and tumble bad dude. Director Hibbs smoothly directs and the story has one or two surprises to off set the expected lack of credibility in the story. Glassberg's photography is beautiful and there's good support to the leads from Jack Elam and Denver Pyle. The girls look sexy and are costumed in style, while the action sequences, notably a horse pursuit featuring a gorgeous white stallion, are good value for money. Everything, though, is in Duryea's shadow, stealing the movie, Duryea is having a great time as the cackling villain forming an uneasy friendship with Murphy. It's this coupling, and the turn of events in the finale, that most will fondly remember the film for.

Real solid stuff. 7/10