A cowboy has to get 12,000 dollars in stolen bonds from the ex-girlfriend of his partner, or the gang holding him hostage will kill him.A cowboy has to get 12,000 dollars in stolen bonds from the ex-girlfriend of his partner, or the gang holding him hostage will kill him.A cowboy has to get 12,000 dollars in stolen bonds from the ex-girlfriend of his partner, or the gang holding him hostage will kill him.
E.J. André
- Station Master
- (uncredited)
Gordon Armitage
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Eumenio Blanco
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Bill Coontz
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Enjoyed it for the most part but a few characters were aggravating (one due to the script, other due to their acting).
Drake's character...phew. That fella's the one "friend" some of us have, (or if lucky) HAD in our lives that's a guarantee trouble magnet. Of course, they somehow make sure you get involved... and always expect you to get them out of the trouble THEY always cause.
His character was such a PITA. Every opportunity he had to do the right thing, he chose poorly...until his last scene. Even then, it seemed he did it only to save the (hopeless) relationship with his girl.
Crowley's character... well it's the same one she's played in everything I've seen her in - besides one exception early in her career when she played a tomboy in a Lone Ranger episode.
PS - she's played the same character so much, she reminds me of being another actress - Patricia Barry.
Who too have played the same character in everything I've seen - except for 2 roles - a B/C level crime drama (light noir?) set around Staten Island early in her career (she and her dialogue delivery seemed so natural and at ease) and an outstanding Gunsmoke episode - "The Cabin", where she did such a great job, it's a shame to never seen her give another performance even close to that quality...
Wonder if during the 50's and 60's, producers would say "I need an actress that'll "overact". If I can't get Crowley, call Barry!"
Back to the movie - Enjoyed it overall.
Many familiar actors of the TV western genre from that era.
2 did stand out for me
Charles Horvath - think his dialogue with Stone near the end was the most I've seen him deliver, let alone the deepest. Felt sympathy for him wanting to just let Murphy go and get away because he knew what was coming but resigned himself to it nonetheless.
Carol Thurston - though her screen time was short, she looked just as she did playing the hopelessly in love gypsy girlfriend of the wrongly convicted outlaw in the Lone Ranger.
Can't believe she was dead within 6 years of this film, while still in her 40's.
Felt bad for the Murphy character who had to make the right choices not only for himself but for everyone else. He looked so beaten and sick of it all by the end.
BTW, not sure if the movie would've been any better shown in color. Think the B&W helped the dark, hopeless mood set for the hero.
Also - sure would've wanted to see the sheriff's face when he realized Murphy risked his life to bring back the bond money to the town who treated him so poorly.
Drake's character...phew. That fella's the one "friend" some of us have, (or if lucky) HAD in our lives that's a guarantee trouble magnet. Of course, they somehow make sure you get involved... and always expect you to get them out of the trouble THEY always cause.
His character was such a PITA. Every opportunity he had to do the right thing, he chose poorly...until his last scene. Even then, it seemed he did it only to save the (hopeless) relationship with his girl.
Crowley's character... well it's the same one she's played in everything I've seen her in - besides one exception early in her career when she played a tomboy in a Lone Ranger episode.
PS - she's played the same character so much, she reminds me of being another actress - Patricia Barry.
Who too have played the same character in everything I've seen - except for 2 roles - a B/C level crime drama (light noir?) set around Staten Island early in her career (she and her dialogue delivery seemed so natural and at ease) and an outstanding Gunsmoke episode - "The Cabin", where she did such a great job, it's a shame to never seen her give another performance even close to that quality...
Wonder if during the 50's and 60's, producers would say "I need an actress that'll "overact". If I can't get Crowley, call Barry!"
Back to the movie - Enjoyed it overall.
Many familiar actors of the TV western genre from that era.
2 did stand out for me
Charles Horvath - think his dialogue with Stone near the end was the most I've seen him deliver, let alone the deepest. Felt sympathy for him wanting to just let Murphy go and get away because he knew what was coming but resigned himself to it nonetheless.
Carol Thurston - though her screen time was short, she looked just as she did playing the hopelessly in love gypsy girlfriend of the wrongly convicted outlaw in the Lone Ranger.
Can't believe she was dead within 6 years of this film, while still in her 40's.
Felt bad for the Murphy character who had to make the right choices not only for himself but for everyone else. He looked so beaten and sick of it all by the end.
BTW, not sure if the movie would've been any better shown in color. Think the B&W helped the dark, hopeless mood set for the hero.
Also - sure would've wanted to see the sheriff's face when he realized Murphy risked his life to bring back the bond money to the town who treated him so poorly.
SHOWDOWN (1963) has extensive location shooting around Lone Pine, California at the foot of the Sierras. Because it was shot in black-and-white, however, ostensibly to save money, the picturesque locations are not seen to their best advantage the way they are in Murphy's color westerns from that era (e.g. HELL BENT FOR LEATHER and SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN, both 1960). Color cinematography would have given us something interesting to look at during the labored proceedings. It's a low-budget affair with a contrived script provided by "Bronson Howitzer," a curious pseudonym for Ric Hardman, a writer of TV westerns. The plot is one of those routine potboilers about a group of outlaws holding the hero and various people hostage in hopes of a big payoff. At too many points in the script, people engage in uncharacteristic behavior in order to keep the basic situation intact. Two innocent cowboys, Chris (Audie Murphy) and Bert (Charles Drake), are detained after a drunken saloon fight and chained to an outdoor post alongside desperate outlaws in a town that doesn't have a jail. When the outlaws break free, the two friends inexplicably flee instead of staying and trying to explain their situation. Bert (Charles Drake) even steals some banknotes, which he then uses to bargain for his and Chris's life after the outlaws grab them. Each subsequent chain of events arises from the outlaw boss (Harold J. Stone) letting one friend or the other go off on his own on a mission involving the money, even though no self-respecting gang leader would place such trust in his hostages or let them go off on their own so easily. These outlaws are neither very tough nor very smart.
Things get more complicated when Bert's purported girl, a saloon singer named Estelle, enters the picture. She has a couple of dramatic scenes, including an extended monologue, that must have made the actress (Kathleen Crowley) quite happy but tend to slow the movie down. Only when Chris is on his own against the remaining gang members in rugged terrain does the picture get interesting. Unfortunately, there are not enough of these scenes to save the movie. Murphy's very good in a patented role as a decent ordinary guy caught up in the machinations of lawbreakers, but he would have been better in color and with a more thought-out script. There's a sense here that the production was just a bit on the hurried side.
Strother Martin plays a town drunk and L.Q. Jones plays a silent member of the gang. Both are among the town's prisoners chained to the same post early in the film. They're seen in shots together but don't interact. These two actors would make a memorable team six years later as the squabbling "gutter trash" bounty hunters Coffer and T.C. in Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH.
According to "No Name on the Bullet: A Biography of Audie Murphy," by Don Graham, Murphy was quite upset when he learned that SHOWDOWN was being filmed in black-and-white and almost stopped working. "I'm not gonna act," is how he put it. The producer eventually talked him into finishing the movie, but Murphy vowed, "This is the last picture I'm gonna do in black and white." It was.
(Regarding the filming of Lone Pine locations cited in the first paragraph, I should stress that those landscapes can look absolutely breathtaking in black-and-white when captured by a master cinematographer. Just look at classic movies like LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1935), CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1936) and HIGH SIERRA (1941), to name three. But we're simply not going to see images like that in the kind of rush job we get in SHOWDOWN.)
Things get more complicated when Bert's purported girl, a saloon singer named Estelle, enters the picture. She has a couple of dramatic scenes, including an extended monologue, that must have made the actress (Kathleen Crowley) quite happy but tend to slow the movie down. Only when Chris is on his own against the remaining gang members in rugged terrain does the picture get interesting. Unfortunately, there are not enough of these scenes to save the movie. Murphy's very good in a patented role as a decent ordinary guy caught up in the machinations of lawbreakers, but he would have been better in color and with a more thought-out script. There's a sense here that the production was just a bit on the hurried side.
Strother Martin plays a town drunk and L.Q. Jones plays a silent member of the gang. Both are among the town's prisoners chained to the same post early in the film. They're seen in shots together but don't interact. These two actors would make a memorable team six years later as the squabbling "gutter trash" bounty hunters Coffer and T.C. in Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH.
According to "No Name on the Bullet: A Biography of Audie Murphy," by Don Graham, Murphy was quite upset when he learned that SHOWDOWN was being filmed in black-and-white and almost stopped working. "I'm not gonna act," is how he put it. The producer eventually talked him into finishing the movie, but Murphy vowed, "This is the last picture I'm gonna do in black and white." It was.
(Regarding the filming of Lone Pine locations cited in the first paragraph, I should stress that those landscapes can look absolutely breathtaking in black-and-white when captured by a master cinematographer. Just look at classic movies like LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1935), CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1936) and HIGH SIERRA (1941), to name three. But we're simply not going to see images like that in the kind of rush job we get in SHOWDOWN.)
Partners Audie Murphy and Charles Drake wind up in a jailbreak with Harold Stone and his gang. When they find out that Drake has $12,000 hidden with his girl, Kathleen Crowley, they send Murphy to fetch it. But she wants the money, too.
I have some issues with how the situation is set up, but once it starts moving, it's pretty good: people doing what they're doing, and story being the conflict that occurs when their paths intersect and no one will walk away. It's why director R. G. Springsteen was still directing this western, the last one released under the Universal-International banner: a good eye, story sense, and ability to get good performances out of actors, even when the lines are overblown. Producer Gordon Kay may have ordered this shot in black & white to save some money, but cameraman Ellis Carter shoots the Alabama Hills as dry and dusty.
I have some issues with how the situation is set up, but once it starts moving, it's pretty good: people doing what they're doing, and story being the conflict that occurs when their paths intersect and no one will walk away. It's why director R. G. Springsteen was still directing this western, the last one released under the Universal-International banner: a good eye, story sense, and ability to get good performances out of actors, even when the lines are overblown. Producer Gordon Kay may have ordered this shot in black & white to save some money, but cameraman Ellis Carter shoots the Alabama Hills as dry and dusty.
"Neither one of you can make it alone....
maybe together you might make one good man...
pull you apart ...it's like an oyster.....
You're a couple of shells sharing one set of guts"
Things turn bad for a couple of drifting cowboys when they go into town to cash their pay.....real,real bad.
Excellent hard boiled Noir tale of the drifting cowboy hard luck trail with a very sinister edge. Some great massive landscapes position the claustrophobic anxiety and ultimate insignificance and futility of this nasty human story.
Audie gives one of his strongest performances and delivers some excellent patois dialogue full of cowboy logic and figuring. Chas Drake is great as the weak willed problem gambling pard.
Harold J stone is frightening and relentless as gang boss LaSalle and Skip Homier, is very disturbing as one of the stupid sadist henchman.
Strother Martin gives an excellent performance as pathetic town drunk Charlie Reeder and the scenes with his hard talking children are disturbingly frank.
Kathleen Crowley proves to be an excellent casting choice as pathetic ruined Estelle.
This is my favorite Audie Murphy western and I think one of his best films.
Things turn bad for a couple of drifting cowboys when they go into town to cash their pay.....real,real bad.
Excellent hard boiled Noir tale of the drifting cowboy hard luck trail with a very sinister edge. Some great massive landscapes position the claustrophobic anxiety and ultimate insignificance and futility of this nasty human story.
Audie gives one of his strongest performances and delivers some excellent patois dialogue full of cowboy logic and figuring. Chas Drake is great as the weak willed problem gambling pard.
Harold J stone is frightening and relentless as gang boss LaSalle and Skip Homier, is very disturbing as one of the stupid sadist henchman.
Strother Martin gives an excellent performance as pathetic town drunk Charlie Reeder and the scenes with his hard talking children are disturbingly frank.
Kathleen Crowley proves to be an excellent casting choice as pathetic ruined Estelle.
This is my favorite Audie Murphy western and I think one of his best films.
I loved this movie. Having watched so many old westerns recently that lacked much realism, I found this to be quite a hard edged and grim atmospheric piece that I really enjoyed. Audie Murphy with his baby face can be very convincing and was perhaps a better actor than I previously remembered from when I was young, and I'm constantly having to remind myself that he was the most decorated American soldier of World War II. Kathleen Crowley,who I had forgotten about, was quite sexy in a mature way, and I grew to like her as her part went on. There's a great cast of old character actors who never fail to please in old westerns, Harold J. Stone, Skip Homier, L. Q. Jones, Strother Martin and Charles Drake. There's not a lot to not like I thought, although I kept thinking this would have been so much better in colour and wide screen which let it down just a little bit. I thought it was quite tense throughout, mainly brought about by the fact that Murphy is chased (and I love chase pictures) throughout the film by various characters and for the most part he has to outsmart his opponents and overcome them in spite of the fact that he rarely has the chance of acquiring a weapon. Very well made on what appears to be a low budget.
Did you know
- TriviaProducer Gordon Kay shot the film in black and white, to save money, which infuriated Murphy but the movie earned about the same as other Murphy films of the era.
- GoofsLeft behind when a gang steal saddleless horses Chris and Burt make their getaway on the two remaining horses and later while taking a breather are found by two of the gang who take them to a small ranch where the rest of the gang are hiding. The following morning when every on leaves all the horses are saddled.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Great Train Robbery: A Copper's Tale (2013)
- How long is Showdown?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime
- 1h 19m(79 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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