Traição Cruel

Murf plays a man intent on revenging the murder of his kin. To give the appearance of helping him he is deputized by a renegade sheriff and sent off on a mission sure to cause his death at the hands of psychotic killer Whitey Kincaid. When things don't go as the lawman planned he and his henchmen must try other measures to get the pesky little rascal off their scent or be found out as the very ones Murf is seeking. Average western with Duryea giving quite a performance as the always jolly, backshooting scumbag Kincaid.

One on hand this is a pretty standard Audie Murphy movie and I enhoy watching him so no problems there!

On the other hand this is better than average due solely to the over the top performance of Dan Duryea who steals the show delivering some good laughs.

Good support cast and a simple plot with a short running time make this a very easy matinee watch.

Recommend for sure :)

This is a classic style western with Audie Murphy as the good guy seeking out the killers of his father and brother. Fortunately, he's got experience in the field of "troubleshooter", and can handle things better than the killers, the town's most respected men, think. They send him on suicide missions against the likes of wild cards Dan Duryea, the professor Russell Johnson, and Jack Elam, only to be stunned by Audie's survival against these odds.

In making this, you could see that all involved allowed Duryea's overwhelming persona to take control. And that was the key. A great work relies not only on the great persona, but also the others to be willing to work off of him. "Great actors are great reactors" is known well to the acting community. A pity that many of the plebes who post on IMDb will laud the wrong actor.

Anyone can play a sadist. The real actors are the ones who can react to the sadist, and let him come across with power. Anyone can shout "That ain't no country I ever heard of", but the real actor is the one who is willing to stutter "What?" over and over.

However, here, Duryea deserves his praise. He's not your cliché bad guy. He's Duryea, full of fun and laughter, and each film he manages to make the character a little different. Just saying that the others deserve respect, too, for their cooperation.

Full of thrills, the film seems to last only a few minutes. And that's the sign of a good director. You get your bang for the bullet here.

Plus the classic combo of Murphy and Duryea. The only thing more magical than that would be to add in Stewart with an accordion.

This is probably one of my top 3-4 favorite Audie Murphy movies, and I've seen about 20 of them--or about 50% of what he made. Dan Duryea as Whitey Kinkaid is a very interesting and amusing character who plays nicely off Audie's very credible performance. Russell Johnson (later the Professor on Gilligan's Island) as Jed Ringer and the lawyer and sheriff have some great lines that offset the B picture sets. All in all, this is a highly watchable movie, along with another Murphy/Duryea team-up, "Six Black Horses." Duryea and Murphy appeared together again in Jimmy Stewart's "Night Passage," but I like Ride Clear of Diablo and Horses better. Would pay $500 to have Audie's full filmography on DVD.

Director Jesse Hibbs does a sterling job with B material. He extracts one of Duryea's best performances as the backshooting killer who actually has some decency and gets to like Murphy for being so honest.

Murphy, a more limited actor than Duryea, also performs credibly throughout, and supporting actors like Paul Birch (Sheriff Kenyon) and William Pullen (Lawyer Meredith) only add to the film's overall quality, as the top heavies.

Even pretty Susan Cabot, a substandard actress at the best of times, does well.

Photography is typical B quality, and the script not bad at all, with Cabot asking Murphy if the tunnel is long enough. I can only wonder if Hitchcock saw this film and decided to use a similar, but subtler, line at the end of NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

You could do a lot worse than watch this likeable and unassuming Western.