Fort Worth

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.

Randolph Scott was such a wonderful actor that his films were always at least a notch above the rest. While this is about average for a Scott film, it's clearly head and shoulders better than a typical western. Even with the overuse of old footage from another Warner Brothers western (DODGE CITY, 1939), the film still manages to shine. Most of the old footage works just fine, though some is indeed grainier and a few times actors from the second film change hat and clothes when they switch to actors from the old film!! Pretty sloppy...but it can be overlooked.

Scott plays a tough newspaper man who moves back to his old home town of Fort Worth. The city is dying due to two men. One is an obvious bully and leader of a gang of thugs who break laws with impunity. The other, played by Film Noir favorite David Brian, is an opportunist who is buying up land right and left--at pennies on the dollar from people who are leaving the violent town in droves. While the first guy is an obvious baddie, Brian is a cypher. Scott thinks Brian is evil and a megalomaniac but again and again throughout the film Brian proves he really is interested in the town. Could Scott be wrong? And, can Scott print the truth without getting his head blown off instead?! The film does well because the plot is more original than most westerns. Also, Brian is a very good heavy--not as predictable and nasty as most. Overall, this is a must-see for Scott fans and would be enjoyable to most.

With Warner Brothers having done a western entitled Dallas a year earlier with Gary Cooper it only seemed right that it produce another western with the title of that other Texas twin city, Fort Worth. Starring in this one is Randolph Scott and directing it is Edwin L. Marin who collaborated with Scott on a few other previous films. This was Marin's last film as a director. Not a noteworthy stylist, Marin nevertheless was able to do a competent and entertaining product.

Scott's in a strange occupation for him in a western, he's a newspaper editor, a partner with Emerson Treacy with Dick Jones working for them. They're picking up stakes and going to Texas and decide to settle in the city of Fort Worth which is having problems with a lawless element led by cattle trail boss Ray Teal. An old friend of Scott's, David Brian is the big mover and shaker in Fort Worth and he'd like to see a railroad come through and a meat packing plant right in the town like Chicago. That would eliminate folks like Teal and he's not about to see that happen.

Scott has an interesting character, he's become pacifistic after war service and thinks that the power of the pen will do more than the six gun. But when law and order breaks down Randy straps on the six guns like Jimmy Stewart in Destry Rides Again to restore it as surely as Stewart did in Bottleneck.

Brian though has a strange character, even after the end of the film you don't know quite what to make of him. He says he wants law and order, but tolerates an ineffectual sheriff in Chubby Johnson and allows Teal to run roughshod. Many in the cast want to know just what is his game and in the end we never really find out. Makes for an interesting piece of cinema.

Fort Worth is an interesting western with far more plot than most of these six gun shoot 'em ups have. It is one of Randolph Scott's best westerns from the Fifties, you'll become a fan of Randolph Scott after seeing Fort Worth.

Better than average script-writing, good production values and some nice twists helps Fort Worth rise above the usual B-western effort.

The plot is somewhat reminiscent of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, though it precedes it by a decade!

Randolph Scott, having hung up his guns following the Civil War, returns to his hometown of Fort Worth to start a newspaper. His first target is a group of murderous cowboys who killed a boy in a deliberate stampede. Soon he begins to suspect he's being manipulated by his old friend, a shifty businessman who would benefit greatly from the elimination of the cowpokes.

David Brian gives a good performance as Scott's friend/nemesis and the film does a good job at keeping his character ambiguous right up till near the end.