Assassino Covarde

I'm surprised how many of the reviews here trash this movie...

Okay, first the bad stuff. Maybe there is some historical inaccuracy to the guns people were using in the movie for that era, and I'll say I agree that the 'Tom Dooley' song doesn't really fit with the plot other than the character's name and that he might be hanged. For all I know the army uniforms didn't have the right number of buttons. For a general entertainment film such as this, sometimes you have to grin and bear the small flubs to enjoy the rest of the film, and that's true here.

But now let's get to the good stuff and it's considerable. The story begins when Tom Dooley (Michael Landon) and Country Boy (Richard Rust) kill someone in the line of following their orders as soldiers. Unfortunately the war has ended but they weren't told - and nobody is going to cut them any slack. While they thought they were just doing their jobs, now they are called murderers and try desperately to get out of this mess alive.

This movie has a few things that really hooked me. First off, the main characters played by Landon and Rust were likable types you could care about what happens to. If you don't care about the characters, then what interest is the story? But here, that's no problem - you can't help wanting to see them come out okay. And they got into this mess by accident, through no fault of their own, and every other person they encounter calls them 'murderers' and says they will hang for their crime. Here, the 'bad' guys are really the good guys, and the 'good' townspeople and sheriff etc. are the bad ones. I found Rust's character of Country Boy to be better-played than Landon's Tom Dooley, but both were quite good.

Part of the story is that Landon and Rust might get away, but Landon insists on going back to get his girl so she can come with them. That complicates things tremendously and contributes to the final outcome.

This movie moves along at a good pace and stays interesting from the beginning to the end. It has engaging characters caught in a tough situation. No, you can't count on it for historical accuracy, and the occasional playing of the Tom Dooley song in the background is not the best idea, but really - it is much better of a movie than many I've seen which got good ratings. I usually prefer Westerns by far to Civil War movies, but this one I like.

A real bow-wow, as are most Civil War westerns (surprising how many have been churned out, though apparently nobody has compiled a list). Both the Confederate gang and the townspeople manage to acquire guns that weren't thought of yet. They include the Colt Peacemaker of 1873 and the Winchester Model 1892 (and maybe a 94 for good measure) plus double-action, cartridge conversions of cap and ball revolvers!

Also, you have to wonder why the producers took a popular folk song and set it in another era. The similarity with "Burning Bridges," the "Kelly's Heroes" theme by the Mike Curb Congregation, comes to mind. Absolutely no connection between score and plot.

After a lot of tv works, Ted Post directed a first western (The Peacemaker) and then this "Legend of Tom Dooley", who looks like tv movie with same kind of light, casting and settings. But the hit song "Tom Dooley" by the Kingston Trio is here to serve the story (I have heard this song since the 60's when my father brought it back from Usa). The action is non stop, every scene is important. The main attraction of this movie is Richard Rust, he's so precise and threatening in all his main scenes (his arrest, his escape,...)(remember him as gus in "Underworld Usa"). The best scene of the movie is the violent fight between Tom Dooley (played by Michael Landon who can move fast, but with no charisma) and Grayson, in a Phil Karlson style.

It's to appalled the opening song already suggest a final destiny of the main character Tom Dooley (Michael Landon), in other hand when the confederate soldiers surrender the union soldiers they must to telling them that war is over, instead the first shooting coming from the wagon by a civilian I suppose, then they aren't the guilty as such, in fact they shot back, keeping aside this early inconsistence, all upcoming events implied they as true assassins, Landon on leading role is good enough, however I rather the Country Boy (Jack Hogan) who steal the show, a persuasive Mississippi's accent, also the most relevant acting coming from him, the dreadful final expose a dysfunctional and so implausible plot, sorry for the bad screenplay!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD-R / Rating: 6.25

An early big screen effort for Landon(along with the unforgettable "I was a Teenage Werewolf") this is a pedestrian effort at best. Obviously put out to capitalize on the popularity of the Kingston Trio hit, in this incarnation, Dooley, who is being un-justly pursued by the law, accidentally kills his true love. In short-good song-bad movie!