Albuquerque

Former Texas Ranger Randolph Scott travels to Albuquerque to work for his uncle's transport service, only to find the old man a swindler and a murderer. Before long, he joins forces with upstart competitor Barbara Britton, in order to show up the old man and protect her and her brother from his uncle's sabotage.

A fairly good Technicolor western, this features another sturdy performance by Scott and some nasty villainy by George Cleveland, Lon Chaney Jr., as a vicious hired hand, and Bernard J. Nedel as the crooked sheriff in Cleveland's back pocket. George "Gabby" Hayes is here too, doing what he does best, as Scott's crusty sidekick.

Some nice twists and a decent amount of action and gun-play moves things along quite nicely.

At first I thought this was going to turn into another B western since it has a cast that includes Gabby Hayes, Russell Hayden and Lon Chaney in it, but then the plot quickens and it starts to get better as time goes on.

Randolph Scott plays Cole Armin, a happy-go-lucky guy who decides to come to Albuquerque and work for his wheelchair-bound uncle, John Armin (George Cleveland) in his freight business, only to find out that his uncle has got the town under his thumb and is willing to resort to murder in order to keep it that way.

Cole decides he doesn't want any part of his uncle's business and goes to work for honest-guy Ted Wallace (Hayden) and his sister Celia (Catherine Craig) who are the only freight competition in town against his uncle. They get a contract to transport ore for the miners down from the mountains, but Cole's uncle tries to sabotage it every step of the way, including bringing in beautiful Barbara Britton to spy on them and having Lon Chaney pick fights with Cole.

But that's all for naught because Britton starts to fall in love with Hayden and she informs Cole as to what his evil uncle is up to. It all ends in a gun battle on the street and the bad guys get their just rewards, including John Armin.

I'm glad the previous poster mentioned the cheap "Cinecolor" process that Paramount originally used because I was wondering why the film had a washed-out, 'colorized' look to it. It's even more apparent on the new Universal DVD that's recently come out.

Still, it not bad. Even Gabby Hayes was bearable.

6 out of 10

Albuquerque will be somewhat of a disappointment for fans of Randolph Scott as well as aficionados of 1940's Technicolor westerns. One of the reasons for watching one of these post-World War II horse operas would be to enjoy outdoor cinematography in the gorgeous three-strip Technicolor process you expect from color movies of this era. Unfortunately Albuquerque was filmed in Cinecolor, an economical 2-strip substitute, which tends to emphasize garish red orange and murky greens while rendering other colors rather pastel. But it was tolerable here. I can remember seeing Cinecolor westerns new, or nearly so, in movie houses when I was a kid in the 1950's, and it seems that the color was considerably more unattractive compared to Technicolor than it shows on the nicely restored Universal DVD of Albuquerque.

The main problem with this picture was that the acting was lifeless and the story unexciting in spite of some pretty good action sequences. The cast was good enough, topped by Scott and gorgeous Barbara Britton with support from colorful Gabby Hayes, menacing Lon Chaney Jr. and pretty Catherine Craig, the lifelong wife of actor Robert Preston. Wholesome Ms. Craig was a good choice as Scott's love interest. Age 33 at the time, she didn't look like Randolph's daughter as some of his leading ladies of the time would! Don't blame the cast, blame Ray Enright's flabby direction and the uninspired Gene Lewis/Clarence Upson Young screenplay.

Particularly wasted in this lackluster oat-burner was the strikingly beautiful and talented Barbara Britton. I admit to having a crush on Barbara since I watched her as a kid in the light-hearted early television mystery series Mr. And Mrs. North. I still think of her one of the great unappreciated beauties and talents of the classic movie era. She promisingly starts out as a bad babe in Albuquerque, but disappointingly, she too soon turns into a good girl, weakening whatever dramatic potential her character had. She usually played classy good girls, but she displayed a sexy, naughty look at times. It would have been interesting if the boring script had let her be bad to the end.

Albuquerque had its moments, especially in the action department. The runaway ore-loaded mule wagons careening down a winding mountain road was an exciting moment. Scott's fist fight with the brutish Chaney was likewise well staged. This was one of the last times Scott was capable of doing one of these physically stressful encounters without the stunt double who didn't look like him. It must have be hard on him, as he was about 50 at the time. Though he was still claiming to have been born in 1903, which would have made him only 45. Since it was known that Scott was a World War I veteran, it went about that he was one of the youngest men to have served in the American Expeditionary force on the Western Front. He supposedly lied about his age to volunteer at 14. But when the 1900 census became available to the public in 1970, it revealed that he was actually born in 1898, meaning he was the more ordinary service age of 19. It was not the Army he lied to about his age, but everyone else!

Never mind, Scott was still up to what he needed to do in Albuquerque. Unfortunately the production was not up to his standard. Not a terrible western, but not nothing to shoot your six-gun into the air about.

While traveling from Texas to Albuquerque in a stagecoach, Cole Armin (Randolph Scott) and the other passengers are robbed by criminals on the road. There is a shootout and the horses dart with a little girl inside the stagecoach, but Cole rescues her. Cole, who comes to the town to work for his powerful uncle John Armin (George Cleveland), discovers that he is a hated man that operates the local freight company and is trying to destroy the competition of Ted Wallace (Russell Hayden) and his sister Celia (Catherine Craig) that was robbed in US$ 10,000.00 in the stagecoach. Further, Cole learns that John Armin is responsible for the heist and he forces his uncle to return the robbed amount to the Wallace siblings. Cole proposes a partnership with Ted and Celia and they form the Wallace & Armin Freighting Company. The new company gets profitable contracts with the local mines and John Armin hires the outsider Letty Tyler (Barbara Britton) to work for Ted, Celia and Cole and spy their business. Further, he uses his henchman Steve Murkill (Lon Chaney Jr.) to frame Cole and put him out of business.

"Albuquerque" is another great western from Randolph Scott that performs his usual role of a fair lonely man that helps people from a city. The story is highly entertaining with action, humor and romance very well balanced with predictable twists. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Romântico Defensor" ("Romantic Defender")

I like this one. I enjoy all the leading actors/characters Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, George 'Gabby' Hayes & Lon Chaney (among others) that made this film enjoyable to watch. I know I was enjoying it until the end because I found myself looking for more footage when it was over with - that says a lot coming from a person that does not watch a lot of Western films. Yes this one is enjoyable.

There is some side switching, gun-slinging, a few good punches, a splash of humor, great casting and a good story to follow outside of all the action. Fun, fun film overall for any fan of the Western genre. My only complaint: it wasn't long enough... I wanted more of it in the end.

8.5/10