Ride Clear of Diablo

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.

Director Jesse Hibbs does a sterling job with B material. He extracts one of Duryea's best performances as the backshooting killer who actually has some decency and gets to like Murphy for being so honest.

Murphy, a more limited actor than Duryea, also performs credibly throughout, and supporting actors like Paul Birch (Sheriff Kenyon) and William Pullen (Lawyer Meredith) only add to the film's overall quality, as the top heavies.

Even pretty Susan Cabot, a substandard actress at the best of times, does well.

Photography is typical B quality, and the script not bad at all, with Cabot asking Murphy if the tunnel is long enough. I can only wonder if Hitchcock saw this film and decided to use a similar, but subtler, line at the end of NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

You could do a lot worse than watch this likeable and unassuming 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

A pretty routine Audie Murphy vehicle made infinitely watchable by Dan Duryea's colorful and totally against type performance as the notorious black clad outlaw Whitey Kincaid. A gem for Duryea fans.

A strong supporting cast and good writing make this one of Audie's better efforts from this period before westerns devolved into parodies of themselves.

Dan Duryea and Russell Johnson (the professor from Gilligan) have surprisingly interesting roles. Duryea plays the bad guy with the good heart. Johnson plays an apparent weak drunkard who surprises.

Audie plays it straight as a naive young man, Clay Omara, seeking justice for the slayers of his brother and father but every once in a while shows he's tougher and smarter than the average bad guy.

Abbe Lane and Susan Cabot add a dash of spice. Lane is the saloon girl with the heart of gold. Cabot is the sheriff's niece engaged to the town lawyers who it is immediately apparent will fall for Clay.