Duel dans la poussière

Decent Western , but neither extraordinary , nor notable , but acceptable ; dealing with two tough men who had been friends from infancy , until they fell out over attentions of their intimate sweetheart whom one of them married . After a train robbery committed in New Mexico, a small bunch sets-out to divide the loot . However , a disagreement over the shares causes one gang member , Billy Massey (Dean Martin) , to take the whole loot and run towards the Mexican border , being pursued by the remaining band formed by revenge-seeking outlaws . Unfortunately , band member Billy Massey is a very close childhood friend of the sheriff Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson) who's married to their beloved sweetheart (Susan Clark) . Now it's up to Chuck to bring Billy to Justice ....when the running stops and the bullets begin . Together they fought for survival...now their guns must turn against each other!

This is a tremendously exciting story of two men who have been friends since childhood - Damon and Pythias lookalike- , as they find themselves on opposite ends of the law , as Chuck became the honest town sheriff , while Billy took to train robbing . It begins as a sluggish , slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with peculiar , rudimentary characters and solid plot . The tale is almost routine , and full of clichés , an upright sheriff and his old partner turned into a bandit come to join and separate , just in time to confront enemies but later the events get worse . The highlights of the film are the facing off between Rock Hudson and Dean Martin and the climatic showdown on the ending . Sober and adequate acting by Rock Hudson , but Dean Martin is better as the rebel and unconventional outlaw , his performance and role bear similarity to the one he played in ¨Rough Night in Jericho (1967)¨. It displays a vivid and lively musical score by David Rose and atmospheric cinematography by Ernest Laszlo . Watchable results for this offbeat Western.

The motion picture was professionally directed by George Seaton. This craftsman was a nice professional and a polish writer and a director who occasionally rose well above his average standard and was twice rewarded with Academy Award for so making . Seaton formed a partnership with William Perlberg , was to produce all Seaton's movies for several years . Both of them produced and directed the following successes as ¨Miracle on 34th Street¨, ¨The country girl¨, a monster Box office as ¨Airport¨ , the warlike movie : ¨Counterfeit traitor¨ and , another unusual War film as ¨36 hours¨ . Rating : 6/10 , acceptable and passable . The flick will appeal to Rock Hudson and Dean Martin fans. Worthwhile watching .

The plot for Showdown is so ordinary that you might just find yourself asking why you picked this up in the video rental place. But there's enough star power on the first through third tiers that this 1973 oater can't be a complete waste of time.

I remember seeing the movie on NBC some thirty years or more ago. I'd never heard of it, it had interesting people, and how badly could it be butchered for television? It was only PG back then.

Showdown is one of those movies you should see just so you can say something like, "Hey, I saw this old western with Rock Hudson and Dean Martin, and it wasn't too bad." Of course, if your time is just too valuable, then skip it.

But it's a decent excuse to eat some popcorn.

"The Western", in the 70's was a New-Breed Formed in the Genre that was In-Flux by the Likes of Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher, in the 50's...

Followed and Substantially Changed by Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone in the 60's, it was a Reboot of the Genre.

That Resulted in a New-Look, New Mind-Set and Landscape. Introducing the Psychological, a Grittier, more "Realistic" Show of Blood-Spurting Violence, with a Grittier Template...more Dirty, more Earthy, a more Lived-In Feel of Frontier-Times and the True Pioneers and Outlaws that were Alive During the Great American Expansion.

A Reflection of the Genre's Maturity and Expansion as an Art-Form Excising the Easier on the Eyes Consumption of "Western-Movies" that Remained Resonant for Movie-Goers Insatiable Desire to "Look" at the Every-Day Life During the Migration to Undiscovered Territory.

A Significant Change with New-Thinking Getting-Around the Traditional, Format, UN-Complicated. White-Hat Black-Hat Mostly "Kiddie-Affairs" that Main-Stayed the Genre Ever Since "The Great Train Robbery" (1903), the 1st Movie to "Tell a Story" was a "Western"

The Result Remaining and Oblivious to "Change", was the History of Westerns that Remained for the Ensuing 50 Years.

"Showdown" was a Movie Marketed for the Establishment that Embraced the "Old-School" and Went Against the Grain of the Trend and Felt Uneasy with the New-Fangled Revisionism that Contained a "Future-Shock", Considered Extreme, Excessive and Not-Entertaining.

The Most Conservative of Genres, "The Western", in 1973, Offered Up as an Alternative to Reform...

2 Conservative Actors that Personified Entertainment in Years-Gone-By, Dean Martin and Rock Hudson that Nobody Pictured Akin to "Bloody Sam" or that "Foreigner" Leone.

They were a Comfortable "Clean-Cut" Duo as Easy as a TV-Dinner, and a Reliably, Absent of Cringe, and were Invited by the Moral-Majority into Their Lives Without Regret.

An Anti-Programmer to the Anti-Establishment Take on 'The Western" that Had Been an Established Entertainment for the Aforementioned 50+ Years.

If You Fall into that Category, this Movie, that was Out-of-the-Corral "Dated", it's...

Worth a Watch.

I have always had difficulty watching Rock Hudson getting into physically grittier parts; somehow he just doesn't ever quite convince me - he is just a bit too "clean cut" to be seen in a muddy outfit, or be in a fist-fight... This film sees him as the sheriff ("Chuck") out on the trail of old pal Dean Martin ("Billy") who has - almost playfully - helped a gang of outlaws rob a train. Things start to go south shortly after that and soon Hudson is on his trail and a local posse is on the trail of them both! It's not the most complex storyline you will ever see, and the stars - alongside a rather feisty Susan Clark as Hudson's wife provide a nicely paced western adventure. Apparently the two men were a bit like rutting stags during filming, but it doesn't cross into the production - it's a decent, if largely forgettable, 100 mins.

I am quite satisfied by this western which looks very like an Andrew Mc Laglen's film from the early seventies; I mean a plot that sounds like a sixties scheme or late fifties but with the seventies melancholia touch. Nothing to do with Monte Hellman nor Sam Peckinpah's style, but it could be an Arnold Laven's film ; such as his ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO - with also Dean Martin as the villain, unlike FIVE CARDS STUD where he was the good guy and Bob Mitchum the bad one. Rock Hudson is better than ever here, totally different from his Douglas Sirk's films characters, not the handsome son in law anymore, but a rough, disillusioned and bitter, poignant man. Yes a good film to close a career, especially from a director for whom western was not the speciality. Donald Moffat in a very interesting supporting character, a villain, former ranch owner for whom we feel some empathy. In the Budd Boetticher - with Randolph Scott - manner...As Richard Boone in TALL T.