La nuit sauvage

Devil's Canyon is directed by Alfred Werker and collectively written by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, Harry Essex, Bennett R. Cohen and Norton S. Parker. It stars Dale Robertson, Stephen McNally, Virginia Mayo, Robert Keith, Arthur Hunnicutt, Jay C. Flippen, Whit Bissell and Earl Holliman. Music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca.

Arizona 1897 and former marshal Billy Reynolds (Robertson) is forced to kill in self defence two brothers of outlaw Jesse Gorman (McNally), the man Billy had previously sent to prison. With new people enforcing new laws in town, Billy doesn't get a fair trial and is sentenced to ten years at the tough Arizona Territorial Prison; home of one Jesse Gorman! When lady outlaw Abby Dixon (Mayo), sweetheart of Gorman, is also sent to the prison, it stirs the already potent hornets nest still further…

Originally a 3D production out of RKO, boasting Natural Vision 3 - Dimension no less, Devil's Canyon can now only be viewed in Technicolor flat mode. Upon examination it's hard to believe that even in 3D this tardy Western had anything going for it, unless Mayo's pointy breasts were the selling point, or Robertson's Teddy Boy haircut? (Yes, they must have had Teddy Boy's in Arizona circa 1897!).

There's a bunch of reliable Western actors in it, director Werker was always competent and ace cinematographer Musuraca was also on board, yet the promising story is bogged down by a good hour of, well, nothingness, as the screenplay has a bunch of sweaty guys talking about stuff that doesn't advance the plot with any real distinction.

Mayo looks gorgeous, but her character is victim of a preposterous set-up and in spite of the trailer (and some misguided reviews) promising a prison of 500 desperate men in a tizzy over one woman, this really isn't the case at all. It should also be pointed out that Devil's Canyon is where the prison is, it's the unofficial name of the prison, it is not a metaphor for Mayo's private parts, as some have bizarrely suggested is the case!

On the plus side the picture begins and ends with some decent action, with the Gatling Gun coming into play at the finale, which just about lifts the film out of its stupor. Yet even here it's all very predictable and hard to feel lenient about since the previous hour has been so pointless. The prison is suitably dank and moody, Musuraca doing his best to put a bleak sense of film noir foreboding on proceedings, while costuming for the boys is of a high standard.

Utterly frustrating all told, a waste of idea and personnel, while the print shown on TV these days is scratchy and often washed out in colour. 5/10

An interesting and moving Western with a suspenseful premise , un ex-lawman is imprisoned at a jail surrounded and harassed by enemies thirsty for vengeance. Containing emotion, thrills , shootouts, fights and intrigue. In 1897 Arizona, an ex-marshal called Billy Reynolds (Dale Robertson) is sent to the territorial prison where many of his enemies, among wardens and inmates alike, are eager for a chance at payback and merciless revenge. Serving time in an Arizona prison, he's especially beset by a jailed killer seeking vengeance for his own incarceration. Complicating matters further is the incarceration of Gorman's girlfriend Abby (Virginia Mayo) who helps Gorman (Stephen McNally) plan a break-out while at the same time is unsuccessful hiding her feelings for Reynolds. Very savage thrill...every scorching scene...real as flesh! In 3-D, 500 desperate men caged-up with one woman!

A prison western with thriller, suspense, noisy action, violence and spectacular final scenes. This grim Western has a pretty extraordinary main and support cast, but no more remarkable that the plot and script, both of which are hard to swallow, especially when captured bandit queen Virginia Mayo is assigned to an all-male prison. However, the actual depiction of life in jail seems depressingly accurate, apart from Virginia Mayo's presence. Starring Dale Robertson gives a passable acting as ex-marshal Reynolds, sent to state prison for killing two men in self defense, and he learns that killer Jessie Gorman, brother of the two men Billy shot, is in the same prison and vows vendetta. Along with three main protagonists: the beauty Virginia Mayo, the tough Dale Robertson and baddie Stephen McNally, in Devil's Canyon stands out a magnificent support cast with plenty of familiar faces, most of them from Western genre, such as: Arthur Hunnicutt, Robert Keith, Jay C. Flippen, George J. Lewis, Whit Bissell, Morris Ankrum, James Bell, Earl Holliman, Irving Bacon, among others.

Cameraman Nicholas Musuraka's sombre lighting keeps Technicolor under control, though a better remastering being really necessary. Nicholas Musuraka is considered to be one of the best cameramen of the Film Noir genre. Well photographed by Musuraka (Cat People , I Walked with a Zombie) who along with John Seitz and John Alton are deemed to be the best photographers of the fabulous Noir Movies shot in the Forties and Fifties. The motion picture was uneven and professionally directed by Alfred L. Welker. This film was made from his last years, in fact Alfred L. Welker was working from the 30 in the business . He realized a catalogue of routine assignments broken by highlights including : ¨The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes¨ 1935 and ¨He walked by night¨ 1949 the prototype serial-killer film noir , and a string of Western oaters . Alfred Werker directed all kinds of genres : Drama , Film Noir , Adventures , sagebrush Westerns , such as : The Last Posse , Devil's canyon , Repeat Performance , Pirates of Monterrey , Whispering Ghosts , The Mad Martindales , Moon Over Her Shoulder , My Pal Wolf , Rebel in city , At Gunpoint , The Young Don't Cry , Canyon Crossroads and Sealed Cargo . His best film was ¨He walked by night¨ (1948), although this noir thriller is credited to Alfred Werker , a lot of it was shot, uncredited, by Anthony Mann, who had already made some top-notch thrillers in low budget. Rating: 5.5/10 . A good western but not too much . Worthwhile seeing .

I taped Devil's Canyon when TCM screened it in November 2009 b/c another western with a historical theme (Great Day in the Morning)was next and I had plenty of tape (I'm still an analogue guy). Reasons for giving it a chance included Dale Robertson in his prime, Steve McInally who was a dependable western heavy, plus Virginia Mayo's OK, but esp. b/c RKO in its decline often made uniquely flawed but curious products.

What's strange about Devil's Canyon (besides the absence of a canyon) is the prison set, which appears only partially, but the walls appear to be enormous hewn stones that cast off strange pastel glows that change with the time of day. As a complement to these eerie atmospherics, the script and scenario range from casually crude to bluntly stupid. As a friend once said of a similar film, "It's just like a porn flick except everybody keeps their clothes on."

The film's best passage--the attempted prison break--takes advantage of the set. The escapees anticipate which doors the guards will open and ambush their entrances, eventually controlling the entire prison, which sets up Robertson's gatling gun throwdown.

Overall, the direction and editing of Devil's Canyon overall are unredeemable, but if you're not asking for much in those regards, the film's visuals have the quality of a meaningless dream.

Devil's Canyon, a RKO picture, starts out like a normal western, the first ten minutes features an exciting gunfight between Dale Robertson and two outlaws gunning for him, but switches to a prison - it's essentially prison break yarn that happens to be a western.

The story- Following a shoot out in which he kills two men, former US marshal Billy Reynolds is sent to the notorious Arizona territorial prison. There he finds himself face to face with an old enemy who is determined to revenge himself on the lawman who sent him to jail.

It's a tautly-drawn story with just enough unpredictability to create suspense. Visually, Virginia Mayo is the only bright spot; a significant contrast to everything else, which is a drab grey. The stone walls are grey, the prison uniforms are grey, the quarry where the prisoners break stone is grey. Visually it's quite oppressive.

The cast is excellent, especially Stephen McNally, who towers over everyone with his intensity as the unhinged Gorman, Dale Robertson is his usual reliable self, and Virginia Mayo as Abby doesn't just add a speck of glamour, but is quite good as a character conflicted between Dale and Stephen McNally. (Also, it might seem odd to find a woman placed in a man's prison, however, in 1899, a woman stage robber known as Pearl hart was imprisoned at Yuma).

It's a decent film, and though I am not usually keen on prison dramas, there's enough things happening here to catch your attention. The finale features an exciting sequence with a Gatling gun and dynamite. I found it really entertaining- it's another of those regular westerns that were shown on BBC2 at 6.pm after school in 80's.

As I have already said many times before, director Alfred Werker provided several good westerns by the end of his career, rather grade B westerns, the same kind of material that Universal made in the fifties, starring Audie Murphy fo instance. Here, Stephen McNally is the villain and nearly steals the show, compared to a bland Dale Robertson,, who was made for TV westerns shows, instead of this kind of westerns. That's my own opinion. But this is a good solid little yarn, don't misunderstand me, it is worth the view but not as unpredictable as a Budd Boetticcher's western written by Burt Kennedy and with Randolph Scott as the lead.