Return to Warbow

I saw this on the Western Channel this Sunday morning. Never heard of this one before so I thought I'd watch it for awhile. As it turns out, I watched the whole thing before I finished my pot of coffee! Quick, sturdy little western.

I was surprised to see it was filmed in color and was amazed at how sharp the color was 48 years later.

The length of the movie was just right, about an hour and ten minutes. A little longer and the padding would have shown. The action scenes and script were somewhat clichéd ("It's just a flesh wound"--where have I heard that one before?), but I enjoyed it as the pace was crisp.

Philip Carey has had a long career on the "One Life to Live" soap opera, Andrew Duggan had a steady stream of guest starring roles on TV along with the lead on "Lancer", and, of course, Jay Silverheels was Tonto, so the cast wasn't completely obscure. The boy who played David, Christopher Olsen, is the brother of Susan Olsen (Cindy on the "Brady Bunch").

Not a bad way to pass the time on a Sunday morning. Now it is time to rake the leaves.

Jailbreak leads to excitement as criminals fight their way out of the chain gang to recover lost loot. Good acting with plot twists and changing alliances. If you like westerns, especially ones smarter than the typical dime novel type here you go. If you like Tonto well he is the only actor you will recognize in this book turned movie.

Standard quickie put out by Columbia, filmed on the usual locations at Columbia ranch and in the southern California foothills.

This involves 3 convicts who escape from Yuma prison led by Philip Carey, who go back to the town of Warbow to search for loot hidden by Carey's brother 11 years before. Carey takes his ex-girlfriends family hostage so her husband can go into town and retrieve his brother. That way, Carey doesn't have to face the sheriff who already has warning he's escaped.

Pretty boring stuff with the usual clichés, this is nothing more than one of those many B westerns, disguised as an A western that Columbia put out in the 50s.

The only reason I watched it is because Brian Garfield in his book "Western Films" didn't think it was so bad. I did.

3 out of 10 for being standard

I appreciated this western because of Phil Carey in an outlaw character, not a good one for once. It is short, quick, without any useless scenes. Of course Ray Nazzaro never provides masterpieces...In this movie you also have the always good Robert Wilke as one of Phil Carey's pals, also an escaped convict. The characters scheme is not totally new, however. The son link brings some spice to the story, I admit. And this western was not produced by Sam Katzman, the sinister producer of Columbia Picture, so greedy about films financial matters that he gave us so awful results; not always though, but most of the time. Here, Wallace Mac Donald was in charge. You can see it by yourself.

No frills, fast paced B-western that starts with a chain gang break out and doesn't let up right through the typical showdown-in-the-hills finale. It plays like a very good episode of Gunsmoke or other TV western -- there isn't a larger than life actor here like Jimmy Stewart or John Wayne to focus on, nor does director Ray Nazarro, veteran director of dozens of B-westerns, have much time or inclination (or budget) for scenery or mood or inventive camera angles. It's all about plot, and it's a pretty good one, acted capably by everyone especially Phil Carey as the lead baddie, and is over in a pacey 67 minutes. You could do way worse when dipping into the obscure westerns bin.