El Tigre

"Ride Beyond Vengeance" is more than a typical western. Although produced on a low budget by television producers Mark Goodson And Bill Toddman ("The Price is Right") and featuring several names mostly familiar to TV audiences, it has a dynamic, if pessimistic script more concerned with character development than standard action--not that the film lacks action or violence.

Cowboy Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors of "Rifleman" fame) falls in love with the beautiful Jessie (Kathryn Hays), very appealing in her first film, a wealthy girl out of his humble class. Against the wishes of her snobbish aunt (Ruth Warrick), she marries him, later faking a pregnancy to win her aunt's consent. But Jonas tires of living off of his wife's family, and eventually deserts her to become a buffalo hunter. 11 years later, with his self-made fortune, he sets out to return home, only to be set upon by three sadistic marauders, Michael Rennie, Bill Bixby and Claude Akins, who steal his money and leave him for dead. Rescued by a farmer (Paul Fix, Connors' "Rifleman" co-star) who nurses him back to health, Jonas becomes consumed by the desire for revenge. As fate would have it, all three men live close to Jonas' former home. Matters quickly get worse when Jonas reunites with his wife, only to discover that she is now engaged to Rennie.

Made on a three week schedule on an obvious sound-stage, "Ride Beyond Vengeance" succeeds in transcending it's shortcomings by the powerful acting of a first-rate cast. Connors gives his best performance, and he is well (if briefly) supported by Joan Blondell (as a gossipy townswoman), Gloria Grahame (a cheating wife having an affair with Bixby), Gary Merrill as Jonas' foster father, Frank Gorshin as an arrogant ranch hand, and Buddy Baer as a Bouncer. Buried way down the cast list is young starlet Marrisa Mathes, who is sympathetic and real as the grieving girlfriend of Bixby who reaches out to Jonas. But, next to Connors, the film belongs to Bixby, as a sadomasochistic dandy. James MaCarthur and Arthur O'Connell appear in a present day prologue to set the scene and narrate the story. The screenplay is based on Al Dewlen's novel, "The Night of the Tiger" and spends considerable time fleshing out the characters. Of course, violence rears it's ugly head here and there, but not so much as to put off the viewer. (It did, however, put off critics when it was released back in 1966) but it went on to garner a massive audience when it had its television premiere. Today, it seems better than it was initially given credit for, and remains well worth seeing. A widescreen DVD release is due out in December. It's about time!

This may well be the best role Chuck Connors ever had outside of his regular TV series work. A griping tale of a man who leaves his wife to go off and make a fortune for her only to return 10 years later. A return that is met with rejection by the woman he left behind and a brutal beating and robbing that leaves the man branded as a thief. An action that sets him down a road of vengeance against the three men who robbed him and sets the entire town on edge. With excellent performances by Bill Bixby, Michael Rennie, Kathryn Hayes and Claude Adkins as a borderline psychotic who talks to his invisible friend "Whiskey Man." This one is definitely worth catching and of late has appeared many times on the Westerns Channel where it is shown uncut and without commercial interruption which helps to add even more to the movement of the story. A film filled with many great actors who are all sadly either gone or no longer practicing their craft today. All of whom give the viewer some of their best performances ever. As for during the 60s when this was made, it would have definitely had an audience in those drive-in theaters of yesterday. An excellent one all around.

Solid western with a wonderful cast of veterans. Connors fits the stoic lead character like a glove, in certain ways it's an extension of his Rawhide character, with the rest of the performers well cast in roles that weren't any stretch for them but which they play well. Joan Blondell and particularly Gloria Grahame are woefully underused in parts that could have been played by any competent actress but they make them somewhat more memorable because of their talent. Leading lady Hayes played Kim Hughes on As the World Turns for years. The modern scenes used as a framing device at the beginning and end are superfluous and could have easily been discarded.

Ride Beyond Vengeance casts Chuck Connors as a returning buffalo hunter returning to his wife after an eleven year absence. Sounds a whole lot like the plot premise for the Iliad and Connors does go through some trials just like Ulysses did.

Eleven years earlier Connors married Kathryn Hays who faked a pregnancy to get her aunt Ruth Warrick to consent to the wedding. Hays is a few steps up the social scale from Connors. Anyway he hauls out and says he'll make a fortune and return.

But like Ulysses he stays away and on his return is set upon and actually branded with a running iron. The three who do it are a pair of bottom feeding sadists Bill Bixby and Claude Akins and also Michael Rennie who's a rich man courting Hays because he and everyone else think her husband is dead.

Connors ain't dead and when he wakes up he's going to take care of business the way Ulysses took care of all of Penelope's prospective suitors.

This no frills B western has a fine supporting cast to Connors and Hays. In very telling bits are Joan Blondell as a bordello madam and Gloria Grahame as an unfaithful wife having an affair with younger Bill Bixby. It's a flashback to the Forties and Fifties when Grahame was the big screen's number one trollop.

As for Bixby and Akins the two of them are incredible studies in villainy. Akins who in his big screen career played some of the biggest low life villains ever really hits rock bottom here. He overacts outrageously, but all to good effect.

Bixby is the first one who Connors catches up with and his devolution as a human being may contain his finest big screen performance. Later on Frank Gorshin in a small bit himself gives a description of Bixby's final moments that will unnerve you for days.

Ride Beyond Vengeance is one brutal and savage western which no way would have made it in the days of those cowboy heroes for Republic. This is one western recommended highly for adults and forbidden for little kids.

This movie is in one word, "Classic!", the characters are very memorable, and it portrays a quality and originality that you do not find in movies anymore! The author of this story, obviously knows how to write a story, that keeps the viewer mesmerized! I would recommend this movie to anyone!