Convict Stage

Very unusual, so interesting little western, far better for me than most of bigger budget productions, so sure of their cast. It was made by lesley Selander, one of the most prolific western provider of the industry, with also Ray Nazarro. This one is from the early sixties, a period where western topics could be very offbeat. The story of a vengeance and shown not in a classical and predictable way. The directing is unfortunately flat and without surprise. Don Red Barry is at his place in this role. This not STAGECOACH as you can easily guess, but for a B western it remains, I repeat, more interesting than most of them, where you have to watch one hundred of movies to find only one or two worth seeing.

Two venomous outlaw brothers are on "Top of the World, ma" for their Ma Jarrett type Hanna Landy, the scene-stealer of CONVICT STAGE, a b-Western with a tight, contained story to fit the tight, contained setting of a ghost town where all the characters wind up, including a tough old sheriff along with a gunfighter in Harry Lauter, whose sister gets violently murdered (in an eerily mundane fashion) during a prologue that ignites a revenge plot-line that doesn't completely own the programmer as often happens...

Only the revenge-seeker's wife is consumed by it.. by hating it... threatening to leave if he kills cold-blooded siblings Joe Patridge and Eric Matthews who, given more time and a bigger budget, would have made a classic antagonist duo...

But there's still some cool sporadic action in several dusty locales as the brothers are taken by that titular coach to/towards jail, and that's where faithfully resilient evil mom Hanna Landy comes in (as her phantom gang prepares elsewhere), going undercover under sheriff Don 'Red' Barry's nose as one of several supposedly mundane passengers, also including the ingenue/wife and a few other gun-toting cowboys, who wind up in a rushed shoot-em-up finale...

But only because so much essential time's spent building the characters and motivations since in CONVICT STAGE, everyone's got something either hidden up their sleeve or bleeding right outside it.

This was another low budget western film that 20th Century made in the early and mid 60's to be shown as a double feature mostly at drive-in theaters. And yes, there are a few rough spots in this movie but overall it was not as bad as expected for a 'B' western. As usual the production features a few name actors and many newcomers which makes some of the scenes rather rocky to watch. But because of the western genre, it is easier to pass over the rough spots and make the picture entertaining as possible.

It is a rather simple plot as two young robbers, Jeb and Johnny Sims, has been arrested by the local Marshal. The Marshal wants to get the two criminals out of his territory because he knows that the two boys have many friends and will be wanting to spring them from jail. The Marshal is also dealing with a former gunslinger named Ben Lattimore. Ben's sister was killed by the two boys when they robbed a stage in the area. Lattimore is out for revenge.

The Marshal, with some help from a few people, are taking the boys to the territorial prison on the upcoming stagecoach. Lattimore gets word that the two are being transferred and he rides out to meet the stage. He wants the Marshal to release the boys so that he can take out his revenge. But when the two criminal's friends decide to free the boys, Lattimore may have to help the Marshal keep the prisoners in custody.

There is more to this tale as the wife of Lattimore is leaving him because Ben refuses to stop his gun-fighting. Also the mother of Jeb and Johnny is set on making sure that her boys are freed before they reach prison. Just by luck, or by simple writing, the two women land on the same stagecoach that the Marshal is transporting the prisoners.

Unlike others, I found this low-budget film to be watchable. Sure the acting was rough, the scenes were cheaply done and it seems that the main characters only receive flesh wounds while the no-names are killed with one easy shot -- but overall the viewer got exactly what was expected. The film was made to entertain audiences for an hour, it accomplished its task.

Some time ago, stage-coach-robbing brothers Joe Partridge and Eric Matthews killed Harry Lauter's sister. He has been chasing them since. Marshall Red Barry has captured them and is taking them to prison by stage, and Lauter means to exact vengeance, though his wife tells him she won't be there when he returns. Others are there, too. Hannah Hertelendy, the robbers' mother is on the stage, and a drummer with a very large pistol...

The American B western had vanished under the assault of television. In 1965, the TV western was not in great shape and there was still a market for the darker western. 20th Century-Fox could always use one to offer for double or triple features, and if you could keep the budget down, you could give some professionals jobs and make yourself a few dollars, just like in the old days of the cinematic west. And that is what this was: classic, simple story, competent actors (mostly; I think Jodi Mitchell as Barry's wife offers poor line readings), some decent direction by Lesley Selander and the wide-open camerawork that was often the best part of the old B Western.

In many ways, it looks like a large and gracefully shot, serious episode of a TV western. It is distinguished by Gordon Avil's black-and-white cinematography of the badlands near Kanab, Utah -- John Ford Country, but contrary to legend, a lot of people shot westerns there. Lynn Reynolds was the first in 1924, a decade and a half before Ford first went there for DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. Avil was born in Philadelphia in 1899. His career as a cinematographer began in 1929. By 1930, he had worked on King Vidor's BILLY THE KID. In 1931, it was THE CHAMP, again for Vidor. Then his screen credits vanished for 16 years. He returned to the camera in B movies and television work. After camerawork on a third of the episodes of HOGAN'S HEROES, he retired. He died of a heart attack in the Barbados in 1970.

...to this nasty little Western.

Dated 1965 this was presumably a second or even third feature. It's put out by a major studio, but is in B&W-unusual by then. I can't believe that the overall bleakness and moral bankruptcy is deliberate, just a result of poor script, poor acting and consequent total apathy of the viewer to any of the participants. One doesn't even have the satisfaction of the death of the baddies at the end but the presumption of their demise on the gallows.

In its favour is quite good location photography in Utah, but that's no reason to last the course!

For obsessive "tickers" off the Western encyclopedia's entries only....