Young Fury

I believe this was William Bendex's (TV's "The Life of Riley") last film role. He had lost weight as he was dying of cancer. Virginia Mayo and Rory Calhoun were the parents of a son (Preston Pierce in his first film role) who is estranged from his dad, and the leader of a teenage bunch of want-a-be "Manificent Seven" characters.

Like the Manificent Seven, each has a skill. Knife thrower, etc. Ryan O'Neill's younger brother is one of the gang members. By today's standards, these kids really aren't all that wild. The script might be more to blame than the cast. (All those guest stars that pop up are a distraction.)

I've taped parts of "Young Fury" off of broadcast TV, but haven't been able to find a decent copy by searching the internet. The movie poster is available in different sizes, and a friend was able to buy a 35mm version of the "Young Fury" trailer. This is almost as exciting as the movie, except the sound was poor.

I'd be interested in buying a DVD, just for "Young Fury's" diverse cast.

A.C. Lyles took bits from High Noon, The Gunfighter, and The Wild Ones and mixed them together real well to come up with one of his better B westerns that employed some of Hollywood's beyond their prime players. Rory Calhoun and Virginia Mayo star as a gunfighter and his wife in Young Fury.

But the title comes from the group of young punks who come into Calhoun's town and take it over just like Marlon Brando and his gang did a century later. And they're led by Preston Pierce who is his Calhoun's son.

Rory left them when Pierce was just a toddler and Mayo gave him up to be raised by her brother who died and the kid was left to fend for himself. He doesn't know Mayo who runs the saloon is his mother and she prefer he not find out.

These punks are the least of Rory's worries. He's got the surviving members of his old gang led by John Agar out to get him for turning them in. And a town that rolled over for Pierce's hellion ain't likely to provide much in the way of assistance.

The usual complement of aged players populate this A.C. Lyles western that we normally expect. This was the farewell performance of William Bendix and Young Fury was released posthumously in his case. You can see he was in great distress due to his illness. I also think that some scenes were rewritten to cover Bendix up, personally I think Richard Arlen was given some of his lines.

Young Fury climaxes with a nice gun battle that was right out of High Noon. Exciting enough to please any western fan.

This film focus on the life of young Tige McCoy, his mother Sara and father Clint McCoy. Clint left Sara when Tige was a very young boy. Sara was the "town flirt" and sent her son to live with her brother, he died and Tige found himself in a gang of young gun-slinging hoodlums that tries to take over the town. Clint comes back to town with the Dawson gang after him - two day ride away. This gives Clint time to talk to Sara and his son Tige before the Dawson gang arrives. What Tige doesn't know is that Sara is his mother - he thinks his father simply abandoned them and she passed away. In the climatic end, there is one heck of a shoot out but will the young gang help Clint? There is a great cameo by Lon Chaney who plays the bartender, Ace.

Really a good film - I found the story quite interesting and heartwarming. Really a good cast.

8/10

This western belongs to the AC Lyles Productions, specialized in former western stars recycling; not big big stars, only former lead actors of grabe B pictures or supporting characters of big productions, male or female. For instance Rory Calhoun, Lon Chaney, who were used several times by Lyles. Not all of them were garbage, some were OK, as this one, a good time waster, using young delinquency fashion in a western, but in that topic, this is rather bland.

1964's "Young Fury" served as the third of 13 A.C. Lyles B-Westerns from Paramount in the mid 60s, unusual in that the focus is not on the veteran stars, who still receive top billing, but on a variety of newcomers, none of whom went on to any prominence (Kevin O'Neal, younger brother of Ryan, later appeared in Bert I. Gordon's "Village of the Giants"). The top slots go to Rory Calhoun and Virginia Mayo, as Clint and Sara McCoy, the long split parents of young Tige (Preston Pierce), who grew up to become the leader of a gang of toughs who enjoy boozing and running roughshod over every town they invade. Papa Clint knows all too well the folly of what his son has become, as he too ran around with the Dawson gang when he was younger, serving time in prison after turning state's evidence, which has the vengeful Dawson (John Agar) hot on Clint's trail no matter where he goes. In a town already cowed by the 'Hellion Gang,' who aren't so adept at gunplay as they like to boast, Clint bides his time waiting for the inevitable showdown with Dawson, while Sara keeps a watchful eye on her hotheaded boy at the local saloon, ignorant of her true identity (he believes his father put her in her grave). John Agar, 3 for 3 thus far for A.C. Lyles, wears a sneer and a scar on his face, but is still too likable on screen to convincingly portray evil, while Richard Arlen's Sheriff Jenkins fails to survive the proceedings. Joe the Blacksmith is played by a very frail William Bendix, who only lived long enough to do two scenes prior to his death at age 58, while Ace the Bartender provides Lon Chaney with a decent enough cameo role, curiously one of the few townspeople the Hellions don't mess with (he successfully demands payment for a bottle of whiskey!). Like Agar, Chaney too was present in both previous Westerns, "Law of the Lawless" and "Stage to Thunder Rock," and did the next four as well: "Black Spurs," "Town Tamer," "Apache Uprising," and "Johnny Reno."