L'Héritage de la colère

1958's "Money, Women and Guns" was a somewhat modest color B-Western from Universal, where Jock Mahoney was coming off his one science fiction title, "The Land Unknown." Elderly prospector Ben Merriweather (Edwin Jerome) is bushwhacked by a trio of masked marauders, two of which are killed in a brief shootout. In his final moments, the dying man writes out his last will and testament, leaving his wealth to a half dozen beneficiaries, and it's up to Mahoney's frontier detective 'Silver' Ward Hogan to track each one down. One is played by William Campbell, an ex-con struggling to go straight alongside young wife Judi Meredith (both worked for Roger Corman in 1966, Campbell in "Track of the Vampire" and Meredith in "Planet of Blood"). The youngest is David Kingman (Tim Hovey), a little boy whose only contact with Merriweather was a conversation about Santa Claus; his widowed mother (Kim Hunter) takes a shine to the wandering loner that David worships. One self contained vignette teams James Gleason's Henry Devers with Lon Chaney's Art Birdwell; Devers was Merriweather's former prospecting partner, who sends his poker playing partner Birdwell into town to cash his $50,000 beneficiary check. Jeffrey Stone followed up with "The Thing That Couldn't Die," while Phillip Terry did "The Leech Woman" (Tom Drake worked with Chaney in 1956's "The Cyclops" and 1966's "House of the Black Death"). As for Chaney, this innocuous little Western marked his final credit for Universal, the studio that cast him adrift following 1945's "House of Dracula," calling him back on only four occasions, the first three being 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," 1951's "Flame of Araby," and 1952's "The Black Castle" (he previously worked for director Richard H. Bartlett in 1955's "The Silver Star," for Lippert Pictures).

Jock Mahoney, TV's Range Rider, stars in this routine B-western involving gold, pretty gals and greed. Mahoney, who had also doubled for Charles Starrett in the Durango Kid movies, strikes an imposing figure in this routine oater.

Kim Hunter and the always reliable Gene Evans turn in decent performances as Jocko tracks down the heirs to a fortune in gold. The budget as well as the writing are barely adequate, but the cast makes the best of a familiar plot. Look also for the great Lon Chaney, Jr. in another post-Wolfman supporting role.

Recommended for B-western fans only .....

This film is very unexpected. Almost from the beginning it just does not seem like a western and it really is not. It's a first rate drama that just happens to have a western setting. There's no gun shooting, no chases, no brawls - but there is serious dialogue that grips you immediately. The story is also very unusual, hardly the kind of matinée western Universal was famous for. But through all of it Jock Mahoney is absolutely luminous he is so handsome, dashing, and sexy. You just cannot take your eyes off him. Kim Hunter, the woman Jock falls for is a perfect foil for him. He is interested right away but the idea of settling down is more than he can take. What happens and how it happens is a delightful surprise.

A prospector has been murdered. He has left a will splitting a quarter of a million dollars among five heirs. The problem is no one is sure who they are. Detective Jock Mahoney is assigned to track them down, and to figure out why the dead man chose them.

Maohoneyis rather stiff in his line readings, and his outfit looks odd, all velveteen and bright silver buttons for riding the range. Even so, it's an interesting Shaky A western from Universal, not only for the figuring out of the why of the mystery, but for some casting, including Kim Hunter, and James Gleason in his last screen role.

Other than SILVER STAR - which I found utterly mediocre and full of clichés - I had not seen any film directed by Richard Bartlett. Now, I have watched somewhat better MONEY, WOMEN AND GUNS, but still I feel I know too little about Bartlett to comment on direction.

Cinematography by Philip Lathrop rates effective, if nothing to write home about.

Playing a detective simultaneously looking to pass inheritance checks to a group of people and trying to identify the murderer of the miner leaving the large fortune, Jock Mahoney seems too aware of his good looks to focus on a proper and convincing performance. Kim Hunter gets a small part and very little to chew on. The rest of the cast is similarly easy to overlook, apart from Lon Chaney, who I expected to be the criminal, but actually acted honorably.

Thus, the plot is unusual for a Western: a will written on wood by a miner shot dead in the late 19th Century, in frontier land to boot, provides the foundation to a well structured script - and that is the best thing about this otherwise not particularly memorable movie. 7/10.