Dinastia do Terror

Dawn at Socorro is directed by George Sherman and written by George Zuckerman. It stars Rory Calhoun, Piper Laurie, David Brian, Kathleen Hughes, Alex Nicol and Edgar Buchanan. Music is by Joseph Gershenson and cinematography by Carl Guthrie.

One Night In Socorro.

A cracker-jack Western this. Plot essentially has Calhoun as Brett Wade, a tough gunfighter who is suffering badly from ill health. Taking advice from his doctor he decides to retire to healthier pastures, but his past and new enemies refuse to let him go. OK! So it's very much a composite of a number of famous Westerns, but to dismiss this as a cheap knock off would be foolish. The script is very literate and the screenplay never gets tired or preposterous. From an action stand point it scores favourably, right from the opening in Lordsburgh where we get a stockyard shoot-out, pic is never dull.

I wont arrest you for being naked.

There's good black humour in here as well, and some outstanding scenes such as Brett playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata at his own funeral (you will understand when you see it) and a poker game where the stake is the fetching Piper Laurie! There's a constant running feud between Wade and Jimmy Rapp (Nicol), a well written part of the film as it brings in codes and ethics that play opposite another character.

The tech credits are bang on the money. Location photography out of Apple Valley and Victorville is gorgeous, as is Guthrie's colour lensing for the interiors. Props and set design is hugely appealing, including a super locomotive for the train enthusiasts to gorge on. While the front line cast members (Lee Van Cleef & Skip Homeier have small roles) turn in very good work, with Calhoun once again showing his qualities in the genre.

My past - every dark miserable day of it!

But it's with the characterisations where the film strikes the finest. Laurie's Rannah Hayes has been cast out the family home for apparently being a hussy, she's constantly carrying that baggage with her. She finds a soul mate in Wade, a man dragged down by his life, and the weight of such could be his downfall - and he knows it. Buchanan is wonderfully ebullient as the lawman trying to get Wade out of town ASAP, Nicol is hopped up on booze and a thirst for vengeance, whilst David Brian is entrepreneur Dick Braden, a devious man with no code or honour.

Highly recommended to Western fans. 8/10

For this viewer at any rate the prerequisite for sitting through any film starring Rory Calhoun is to ascertain who else is in the cast! Here we have the excellent David Brian and Alex Nicol and the always good value Edgar Buchanan.

That being said, the character of tubercular gambler Brett Wade which is plainly inspired by Doc Holliday, gives Mr. Calhoun a rare role of substance and he certainly rises to the occasion.

Not for the first or indeed the last time it is the remarkable Piper Laurie who leaves the deepest impression. She is surely one of the greatest actresses never to win an Oscar and it is inconceivable, even by Hollywood standards, that after her stunning performance in 'The Hustler' she was obliged to wait fifteen years for her next film role. She and Mr. Calhoun work surprisingly well together here and were to team up once again in the lightweight 'Aint Misbehavin' the following year.

Solid direction here by George Sherman and the shoot outs, one of which is more than a passing nod to that at the OK corrall, are well staged. To say that Mr. Sherman is an old hand at this sort of thing would be an understatement as he made his first Western in 1937 and his last in 1971.

Not bad little movie, shows up on TCM every so often. And darned if Rory Calhoun doesn't look exactly like GEORGE CLOONEY at times, or is it vice versa? Anyway, interesting turn on the gunfighter trying to go straight story with an appealing Piper Laurie and mean gambling hall owner David Brian. They play cards and throw dice for the girl, with fortunes going back and forth. Edgar Buchanan plays a nervous sheriff and not the usual dimwit he's known for and Alex Nicol chews the furniture as the edgy slinger waiting to gun down Calhoun. But then comes the typical Hollywood ending where none of the characters show even a lick of common sense. Sorry to see that ending, this isn't a half bad film until the last five minutes, and then it's Universal Studios back lot fireworks. Too bad.

Despite the director's odd decision to over-use close-ups (maybe he anticipated a quick sale to TV), Dawn at Socorro turns out to be one of the more interesting westerns of 1954. In the U.K., the movie was even released as an "A" feature. Perhaps Universal's exchanges in other countries thought that the cast offered no box office lure. While it's true that Kathleen Hughes is confined to a disappointingly small role, the equally lovely Mara Corday is given a decent innings for once; the Alex Nichol character is intriguingly conceived and played; and I loved David Brian's lecherous saloon proprietor, even if he does rather let hate go to his head. Lee Van Cleef is also on hand, plus Skip Homeier, James Millican and Edgar Buchanan. Perhaps even more importantly, the movie offers scads of action with splendid stuntwork. And it's not only expansively produced in attractive color with arresting real locations backgrounds, but it features dialogue that is much blunter than we expect from the censor-ridden mid-1950s. So, despite the Kathleen Hughes disappointment, Dawn at Socorro is most definitely a film to add to the must-see list!

Rory Calhoun is a world weary and consumptive gunfighter who just would like to hang up his six shooter, but a whole passel of enemies he's made over the years just won't let him quit. A little bit of Gunfight at the OK Corral and The Gunfighter tossed together.

After a shootout in one town he arrives by stage to Socorro where Sheriff Edgar Buchanan wants to get him out of town before any more blood is spilled on his turf. But Calhoun lingers and lingers, impressed by the beauty of Piper Laurie who he's ridden to town with on the stage.

It's a good B western, directed by a veteran of that genre, George Sherman. Sherman keeps the action going at a good clip and the cast knows their way around a western set.

Dawn at Socorro was probably a B feature that didn't bore too many people who went to see the A picture from Universal it was playing with.