Le vengeur

"Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend" is a 1957 Randolph Scott Western that is plain terrible. There is no real shoot out in this movie, just a movie with a disjointed script and a bunch of actors playing their parts like moving statues. Scott had made a bunch of Westerns at Warner Bros. in the early 1950s, usually with Andre DeToth or Edwin Marin as the director and usually in Technicolor. "Shoot-Out" has centenarian director Richard Bare (100 years one week ago, August 12, 2013, a belated Happy Birthday) and Bare directs this movie like it was a long episode of a TV series. Filmed in black and white, not expensive Technicolor.

A major plot element of this movie involves Scott and his Army buddies pretending to be Quakers to work undercover to find out who sold Scott's brother bad rifle ammunition. I wonder if the writer saw the movie "Friendly Persuasion" in 1956. Another plot element is that the town of Medicine Bend is isolated from everywhere, so the crook who runs the town can rob wagon trains passing through, travelers like Scott and anyone else with total impunity. There are no marshals, no lawmen in other towns and no newspapers printing stories about these robberies.

Beautiful Angie Dickinson plays the daughter of a general store owner. She goes through the motions but she doesn't have that angry look you see sometimes on Randolph Scott's face, as if he is wondering what he is doing in this cheap movie directed by an incompetent. I am pretty sure Scott fired his agent after Scott starred in this movie. James Craig plays the villain in this movie, a businessman who owns almost every business in Medicine Bend. Craig's movie career had tanked by the time he made "Shoot-Out," a long way from Craig's starring role in 1942's "The Devil And Daniel Webster." The abrupt way Craig pops in and out of the movie makes me think that all of his scenes were shot bunched together, so Warner Bros. could pay him for the least amount of weeks' wages possible. That cheapness would explain this movie being shot in black and white, less chance of lab problems requiring reshoots after Craig finished all his scenes. In the 1950s, studio boss Jack Warner had reached the zenith of his cheapness. Every dollar not spent by Warner on this movie shows up on the screen.

Something else I really did not like about this Western is that while through most of the movie, the criminals restricted themselves to robbery, at the end, they are busy planning murders. One possible reason for the change could be the way Scott's character killed one of the gang. Scott never made another movie for Warner Bros. after this picture and I can understand why. As I have written before, "Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend" is a very bad movie.

With a title like "Shoot-out at Medicine Bend" you know exactly what you're going to get. This is a thoroughly likable B-Western with Randolph Scott, a young James Garner and Gordon Jones as ex-army buddies trying to find out who robbed them, (when they were doing a bit of skinny-dipping), aka the goodies and James Craig, Myron Healey, John Alderson and sundry others as the baddies. There isn't really much plot; it's really just the good guys vs the bad guys and that's it but it's exciting and quite funny. The females involved are a young Angie Dickinson, cast here as the 'nice' girl and Dani Crayne, the saloon singer. Richard L Bare is the director and he doesn't waste a single shot.

Buck Devlin (Randolph Scott), John Maitland (James Garner), and Wilbur Clegg (James Garner) are released from the Army and headed for Devlin's brother. They arrive to fight against Indians, but the brother dies due to faulty ammunition. They set off to Medicine Bend to find those who sold the ammunition. They get robbed on the way like everybody else. Ep Clark (James Craig) controls the town. Elam King with his niece Priscilla King (Angie Dickinson) is his last remaining competitor. In a confrontation, Devlin helps the Kings.

I feel like some of these characters don't treat their situation seriously enough. Maitland and Clegg are being a couple of idiots. More importantly, I can't take the story seriously. Devlin really needs to get harder and story needs to get darker. It's pretty obvious that the villains are going to hang them at the first opportunity. There is no point in stealing back the stuff. It's a western, but a little frustrating one.

One of the more minor-key of Randolph Scott's late 50's Westerns, with frequent era collaborator Budd Boetticher nowhere in sight. The more standard filming style is evident, but Scott offers his traditional dependable portrayal, and the film is of interest for the early big-screen work of James Garner and Angie Dickinson. Has some good action scattered throughout.

In 1957 Randolph Scott was in the middle of producing his best work in the Western genre. A run of seven films in collaboration with director Budd Boetticher and a magnificent career closer with Sam Peckinpah in 1962, would cement Scott's rightful reputation as a genre legend. So where did this oddity come from then? Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend was actually wrapped in 1955, a year which found Scott especially prolific with four other films up for release. This was Scott's last film on his long term Warner Brothers contract and the fact is is that the studio didn't know what to do with the film. This can be put down to a couple of things. Firstly it's shot in black & white, making it the only fully fledged black & whiter he made in the 50s. Secondly is that it's a somewhat bizarre Western as it mixes a revenge driven theme with outright comedy. In the end, after it sitting on the shelf gathering dust for two years, WB execs stuck the film on the bottom rung of 1957 double bills. All of which hopefully explains why the film is little known and rarely thought about in the context of Scott's career.

As another IMDb reviewer has rightly pointed out, the plot synopsis is wrong. Not only on IMDb, but also on TCM and some other on line sites! There is no Sioux massacre of the cavalry in this film. The plot sees Scott as Captain Buck Devlin, who along with two fellow cavalry officers (played by Gordon Jones and James Garner) muster out the army and head for Buck's brothers home. As they arrive they find that the Devlin home is under Indian attack, an attack that sees David Devlin killed on account of him not being able to fire his rifle due to faulty ammunition. Fighting the Indians off, Buck and pals learn of the faulty ammunition and trace it to a store in Medicine Bend. Swearing revenge the men set off to get to the bottom of it.

After a brisk and dramatic start the film quickly takes you by surprise before the three men even arrive at Medicine Bend. A comedy sequence suddenly unfolds and although it's real funny, it throws you a little off kilter. Here's the thing for first time viewers to note, this is a comedy Western, very much so. We then watch as the three men disguise themselves as Quakers as they go undercover in the town. This basically involves them wearing Quaker apparel and saying "thee" in every sentence! Oh and swearing off whiskey and women, something that doesn't prove easy for Garner & Jones' characters! It's great fun that sees Scott play it with tongue firmly in cheek, and even tho the comedy is at nearly every turn, there's also plenty of action to enjoy. There is after all a matter of revenge and some baddies {led by James Craig} to deliver divine retribution too. There's even a delightful tune into the mix as Dani Crayne (very sexy) huskily warbles "Kiss Me Quick," a tune that puts one immediately in mind of "Little Joe, the Wrangler" from Destry Rides Again. While the appearance of a young Angie Dickinson adds further sex appeal to proceedings.

The title is a little misleading since it lends one to expect a Gunfight at the O.K. Corral type movie. It's not of course, but in its own way this is very much a must see for those Western fans who might need a pick me up. Hey it's even got a nice print too. 7/10