Valerie

For a western, this film couldn't be more original. Well-to-do emigrants from Vienna settle in the west to make a new beginning in life. We never learn what they left in Vienna or anything about their background, but they are well off, and with their European continental education they feel obliged to have their daughter married well including a generous dowry - $15,000, which is a vast sum in the Wild West. Their great mistake is that they have no idea of what America and its western mentality is about.

Anita Ekberg is the beautiful daughter, and her parents accept her first suitor, who is Sterling Hayden, without knowing anything about him except that he has vast riches and lands. So he appears as the perfect match for their daughter.

The film opens up by Sterling Hayden making a visit and gunning down three people, one of them being his wife. Not until late in the film we learn who the other two victims are. Anita Ekberg survives, which was not according to Sterling Hayden's plan.

The case is that he was a major in the civil war and branded and damaged for life by his experiences of the inhumanities, atrocities and brutalities of a civil war. Of course, neither Anita Ekberg nor her parents have any idea of this until it becomes too late.

She has two friends, though, who gradually get initiated in the difficult situation she has found herself stranded in, one of them is Sterling Hayden's younger brother, who knows everything too well, and the other is Anthony Steel, a reverend who comes to town in time for the final act and reluctantly gets involved in a hopeless case history.

The acting is excellent throughout, Sterling Hayden's acting is among his best, you have never seen Anita Ekberg exposed and vulnerable like this, and Anthony Steel is the gentleman of the play. Peter Walker plays the brother, who has been more or less muzzled all his life, with admirable restraint, but grows the stronger character for the necessity of always having been put down.

In brief, it's one of the best psychological thrillers ever made for a western.

I had never heard of this movie before, and had not really seen any of the actors (I did recognize Gage Clarke, aka Mr. Botkin of "Gunsmoke.")

This is Alfred Hitchcock-style comes to the West. Do I believe her? Do I believe him? Who is telling the truth? Is the Reverend being honest? Is the brother? Is she a seductress? Is she a victim?

The suspense builds to an undeniable conclusion! I really enjoyed this movie and actually want to see it again!

This film is awful. Shouldn't be called a western. Ekberg and Hayden are atrocious. Dumb story line and could't wait for it to be over. Ugh.

Valerie is directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Leonard Heiderman and Emmett Murphy. It stars Sterling Hayden, Anita Ekberg and Anthony Steel. Music is by Albert Glasser and cinematography by Ernest Laszlo.

John Garth (Hayden) is arrested and put on trial for the wounding of his wife Valerie (Ekberg) and murder of her parents. The trial hinges on three testimonies, each telling in flashback what actually unfolded to lead up to the bloodshed. But who is telling the truth?

Set in the West, a murder mystery with a noirish edge, with crisp black and white photography keeping things in the ream of sombre, Valerie is a mixed bag. Yet it works as entertainment, the screenplay has some surprises in store, where it's not afraid to paint a world of wanton desires, seedy suspicions, violent mistreatment and possible war tainted masochistic tendencies. The court case at the centre of tale throws up the sometimes fragility of the law, with some biased spice and hurtful hearsay added into the mix, and it all builds nicely to a dramatically bleak finale.

Hayden delivers one for his fans, all straight backed machismo and menacing drawl, and Ekberg scores well as a scenic beauty who deftly pulls off a dual portrayal that calls for seduction or victim credibility. Steel, Ekberg's real life beau, is a bit lightweight but doesn't harm the drama, while there's not much airy landscapes to enjoy (filmed on location at Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth). Still, this is very much one for fans of the stars to seek out, whilst noir and Western fans will find pleasures too. 7/10

Like in "the iron sheriff" ,which also features Hayden as the lead,the movie begins when many important events happened .

In this whodunit disguised as western, the hero wanted to piece together the past ,meeting several suspects ,during his son' s trial .We watched the story through different eyes .

The same goes for "Valerie" which is nothing but a long flashback;whereas the scenes are told by the hero or his lawyer or by the showdown's victim,the story takes an entirely new meaning .The main inspiration is not the traditional western,but rather Japanese Kurosawa's "Rashomon"(1950) -which was remade by Martin Ritt as ""the outrage" (1964) The story sustains interest throughout ,except for the final scenes which are botched.Anita Ekberg possesses enough ambiguity to pass for an angel or a demon.Sterling Hayden is ,as usual,an imposing individual,even in the scenes of his trial when he is supposed to keep a low profile.