Fort Worth

Fort Worth is fast-moving, well cast, well acted, and well executed all the way around. Scott actually has two different mentors, one Phyllis Thaxter's late father and the other a high-minded newspaperman who is knifed by a thug. He uses both of them to build and transition his character in a more layered performance than typical of the normally stoic Scott. Thaxter is terrific in every scene she's in, but better still is Brian as the magnate who persuades former boyhood friend Scott to stay in Fort Worth. He is part-villain and part-hero and extremely interesting and credible throughout. The plot is atypically complex with many threads all woven together well and wrapped up in a satisfying manner. Dick Moore (former child actor Dickie) is terrific as Scott's newspaperman who helps Scott keep alive the spirit of Ben, their mentor publisher. The thugs are all convincingly ruthless and interesting, including Ray Teal as the leader, supported by Bob Steele, Paul Picerni, and Michael TOlan among others. The color cinematography and production values are also first-rate and the pacing is perfect.

If you enjoy Randolph Scott westerns, don't miss this superior entry.

Fort Worth is a well turned out Technicolor Western that packs a full load of action, colorful dialog, robust character studies, and engaging plot twists into 80 minutes of running time. The formidable entertainment value of this unpretentious B-plus oater gets a considerable boost from the charismatic screen presence of second lead David Brian. Tall, brawny, and blond, the steely-eyed, gravel-voiced Brian dominated virtually every picture he was in, and this one is no exception. Michael Curtiz once said that Randolph Scott was the only gentleman he had ever known in the movie business. It is to be hoped that top-billed Scott was a good sport during the filming of Ft. Worth, because Brian almost completely stole the spotlight as the swaggering empire builder who is the old friend, sometimes adversary, sometimes ally of crusading newspaperman Scott. The screen seems to simply come alive every time Brian steps in front of the camera. The dynamic Brian was the perfect foil for the mild-mannered Scott, and their alternately tense, cordial interaction is the great asset of this picture.

But not the only one. A fine supporting cast is led by Ray Teal, as a smirking villain, and Phillis Thaxter, the wholesome love interest over whose affections Scott and Brian inevitably clash. Cinematography in gorgeous three-strip Technicolor by Sid Hickox, sets, and costumes all have a first rate look. John Twist's original screenplay is complex and intelligent. His colorful dialog is disarmingly amusing as his characters spout such rustic metaphors as, "You've knocked a hole in my fence all right, but you may tear your britches if you jump through it too quick!" and "Don't swing on the gate too long, or you may get a belly full of horns!" Edwin L. Marin's direction is tight and on target with nary a camera shot wasted. Marin made a career of turning out medium budget pictures, equally at home with Philo Vance mystery thrillers or Ann Sothern's light comedies. He turned to Westerns, for which he seemed to have a special touch, late in his career, beginning with John Wyane favorite Tall In The Saddle (1944). Two years later he directed Randolph Scott for the first time in the tough, "noirish" Western Abilene Town (1946), followed by a half-dozen more collaborations in the late 'forties and early fifties. Scott seemed at his best under Marin's guidance. Unfortnately Marin died suddenly in May 1951 after Fort Worth had been filmed but before its release.

For my money Fort Worth, along with Abilene Town, is one of Scott's best Westerns, fast-paced, action-packed, dramatically engaging, beautifully filmed, entertaining from beginning to end. Not a classic, but a good one from the waning days of Old Hollywood's Golden Era.

Warner Brothers had a thing for "city westerns" ever since the success of DODGE CITY in 1939. In its wake followed VIRGINIA CITY, SAN ANTONIO, CHEYENNE, DALLAS, CARSON CITY and this 1951 tale, the last film of director Edwin L. Marin. Marin and star Randolph Scott had previously worked on many films together, including some oaters for RKO as well as Christmas EVE, Scott's last non-western. Here they were doing a follow-up to their successful COLT 45 for Warners in 1950.

In this one, Scott stars as a reformed gunman, now "shooting" lead type from a printing press rather than bullets from a six shooter. Not intending to set up shop in his old home town, when he comes across a nearly vanquished Ft. Worth, and spurred by the death of a child which was the result of a cattle stampede caused by the errant shot of of member of the Clevenger Gang, Scott opts to use the power of the press to bring settlers back to the city and achieve justice for the slain boy. The death of a child is a plot turn that goes back to the first in the series, DODGE CITY. In that film the child was played by Dickie Jones, here, twelve years later, Jones plays Scott's reporter Luther Wick, soon he'd be on his way into the hearts of millions of kids in the series THE RANGE RIDER, followed by BUFFALO BILL, JR.

David Brian co-stars as a man banking his future on the future of Fort Worth by buying up options on properties abandoned by those terrorized by the Clevenger gang. But as Scott's mentor wonders, if Brian cares so much for the town, why is he letting its population dwindle from 5000 to less than 1000? Could it be to be able to secure more options, is he in cahoots with Clevenger? Plot twists cause he and Scott to take on an alliance at times, while at others, they're inches away from gunning each other down, and rivals for the hand of Phyllis Thaxter.

Clevenger is played by Ray Teal, known to most as Sheriff Coffee from BONANZA. Often villainous in these things, he outdoes himself here by occasionally being quite charming in his delivery - perhaps his glee at being given more dialog than he usually gets and more screen time also. Another fine performance is given by Emerson Treacy as Ben Garvin, Scott's partner in the Fort Worth Star and his teacher in ways of the press. Usually uncredited in scores of films, he makes the most of his screen time.

The DVD offers glorious Technicolor, the detail right down to Scott's pearl-handled pistols is a sight to behold. The film is packaged with two other Randolph Scott features, COLT 45 and TALL MAN RIDING. and at 15 bucks list price, they're one of the great bargains a Scott fan is likely to find.

Randolph Scott plays a pacifist who has given up the gun for the pen – or the printing press – and he's not entirely convincing, perhaps simply because we're so used to seeing him blazing away at the bad guys in the seemingly endless succession of Westerns he made in the 1940s and 50s. He returns to Fort Worth with his business partner to start up a local newspaper with the prime objective of ridding the dying town of slimy bad guy Clavenger (Ray Teal) who is riding roughshod over the place and driving away the peace-loving residents. Scott's character also re-unites with Blair Lunsford, one of film history's more ambiguous villains in the reassuringly swaggering form of David Brian. Lunsford is capitalising on Clavenger's terrorising of the locals by buying their property cheap when they decide to move out.

The story is fairly unusual and not without interest, but it's Brian's character who leaves the most lasting impression. Is he a bad guy, or just an ambitious man making the most of the misery of others without actually contributing to that misery? The film never really tells us, and doesn't really seem able to make up its mind. He genuinely likes Scott's ramrod-straight good guy, and only turns when he finds himself backed into a corner. Anyway, despite its rather unique storyline, the film's conclusion is fairly predictable.

"Fort Worth" is another of those fast moving 80 minute westerns that Randolph Scott turned out in the 1950s.

Scott plays Ned Britt a newspaperman who has laid down his guns in favor of the pen. With his partner Ben Garvin (Emerson Treacy) and assistant Luther Wick (Dick Jones), he is going to San Antone to open a newspaper. Along the way, an old flame, Flora Talbot (Phyllis Thaxter) joins the wagon train. We learn that she plans to marry Britt's old pal Blair Lunsford (David Brian) in the town of Fort Worth.

Gabe Clevenger (Ray Teal) and his gang of cattle thieves hear of Britt's return. One of his thugs (Zon Murray) starts a stampede when he tries to goad Britt into a fight. In the stampede, a young boy Toby Nickerson (Pat Mitchell) is killed. Stopping off in Fort Worth, Lunsford convinces Britt to start his paper in Fort Worth as the railroad is coming and the town will prosper as a result.

Britt learns that Lunsford has been acquiring land around the town dirt cheap and suspects that he is in league with Clevenger. When Garvin is murdered by Clevenger assassin Castro (Paul Picerni), he straps on the sheriff's guns and takes out the killers.

It turns out that Lunsford is not in cahoots with Clevenger but has aspirations to become governor. Britt intends to stop him. This leads to the final showdown and..........................................

As in most of Scott's westerns, his is supported by a fine cast of veteran players. In addition to those already mentioned, the cast includes, Michael (billed as "Lawrence" here) Tolan, Bob Steele and Kermit Maynard as Clevenger hench men, Chubby Johnson as the spineless sheriff, Walter Sande as his deputy, Helena Carter as Amy Brooks, Lunsford's ex flame and Bud Osborne as what else, a stagecoach driver.

A not great but nonetheless enjoyable western.