utgard14
A troop of Confederate soldiers, led by Randolph Scott, attack a wagon train in Nevada carrying gold for the Union Army. They kill the soldiers and take the gold, only to discover immediately after that the war has been over for a month. The troops now find themselves on the run with the gold, pursued by a posse. But is the posse out to bring the men to justice or just to steal the gold for themselves?Nice Technicolor western with a good cast. Randolph Scott always does good work and he's backed up here by a fine bunch of actors, including Lee Marvin, Frank Faylen, Richard Denning, Ray Teal, and Claude Jarman, Jr. Donna Reed is lovely as usual. The plot's pretty straightforward and predictable. This isn't a Mann or Boetticher western but it's pleasant enough.
rogerblake-281-718819
Robert.E.Lee only surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia so in Nevada which was in the far West robbing a Union gold train a month later would still have been a legal military operation.Also using dynamite was an anachronism as it wasn't patented till 1867.And where did Scott and his men get their spanking new Henry rifles from? In reality if the South had had such weapons the outcome of the war may have been vastly different.However when did Hollywood let the truth get in the way of a cracking good story and this certainly is one.Scott was one of the great westerners,tall and rugged always seemed to be about forty five years old.Rarely a take your shirt off merchant one of the exceptions being Carson City which showed what a fine physique he had.His quiet good natured characters were a pleasant contrast to John Wayne's extroverts.Lee Marvin has a typical role as a loose cannon obviously suffering from the traumas of war.His fist fight with Scott (or his double) was very well staged.Marvin played a similar character in "The Raid" in which his commanding officer solves the problem by shooting him out of hand.The plot concerns Scott and his men robbing a Union gold shipment not realising that the war is over.They hide out in a staging post surrounded by some drifters who are after the gold for themselves.Among the passengers is the lovely Donna Reed and yes Scott gets the girl,who worries about a twenty four year age gap? The action sequences directed by the great Yakima Canutt are far superior to the average western of the time.It is the only western directed by Roy Huggins,why he never continued to make main stream films is a mystery to me,he was lost to television.Scott made some outstanding westerns directed by Andre De Toth and Budd Botticher,this film is by far the best of the rest,a thoroughly entertaining western.
Tweekums
As this film opens a group of men hide among the rocks in the Nevada desert waiting for a wagonload of gold belonging to the Union Army to arrive. After a brief fire fight the wagon is theirs; there is one surviving soldier and they tell him that they are Confederate troops, led by Major Matt Stewart; on a special mission... he tells them that the war has been over for a month! Not knowing whether or not to believe him they head to their rendezvous. Here they quickly realise the man was telling the truth but their contact doesn't say anything to them as he intends to keep the gold for himself while the troops returned to Texas. Bainter, a hot-headed soldier shoots the man and the rest of the troop takes his wagon and head onwards until they meet a posse looking for them; some quick thinking from Stewart buys them some time but they know they will soon be back looking for them. After an accident leads to the loss of the wagon they hijack the passing stage coach and head to the station with the posse in pursuit. Once there they are holed up along with the two passengers, one of whom is a Union Army nurse and the old man and his daughter who run the station. As the time passes it becomes clear that the posse wants them all dead so that they can get their hands on the gold; tensions also mount within the group as Bainter starts to make advances on the nurse. Not all of them will make it out alive and not all of the dangers are outside.This was a solid B western with plenty of action at the start including the initial ambush and an exciting chase where the men on the stage flee the pursuing posse. Once in the station house there are still exciting moments although for the most part the events just serve to ratchet up the tension till the exciting finale where the survivors try to make their escape from the burning building during a heavy downpour. Randolph Scott but in his usual solid performance as Stewart and Lee Marvin was suitable unpleasant as Bainter. Donna Reid does a decent job as the beautiful nurse Molly Hull but her role is not as substantial as I'd expected given her second billing. At only eighty minutes in length the film doesn't outstay its welcome and still manages to tell its story effectively; something today's film makers could certainly learn a thing or two about! If you are a fan of westerns this one is certainly worth seeing and if you are a fan of Scott or Marvin I reckon it is a must see.
weezeralfalfa
This film showcases the legal problems that occur in the transformation from war to peace. This was made more difficult in the days before rapid communications over long distances. Thus, the most important battle in the War of 1812 was fought some time after the peace treaty was signed. In the present case, we also have the problem of determining exactly when the Confederacy ceased to exist. Lee's surrender of his army did not constitute an official end to the Confederacy. In fact, another army surrendered several weeks later. There was no general peace treaty. Of course, Major Stewart(Randy) only knew what a dying Union commander told him: that the Confederacy was dead. Thus, he and his follow Confederate raiders had to decide what was the likely best thing for them to do with the gold they had just stolen from a Union cavalry detachment in this Nevada wasteland. They were afraid they would be hung either as Confederate spies or as civilian thieves if they turned the gold over to local authorities. This was made much more likely by the fact that they had killed the cavalry escorting the gold shipment. Thus, they decided to keep the gold until they decided for sure to split it. The raiders returned to their base camp and piled into their stolen buggy, leaving their horses behind(why?). Later, they are met by a group of horsemen who identify themselves as a posse looking for the gold thieves. Randy tells them a story that makes them travel in the opposite direction, but he knows they will be back after they find out this is a lie. The raiders then ditch their buggy and stop a stage, which they all fit into or onto. They convert the next way station into a fortress, with the posse in hot pursuit. There are 2 hostages from the stage: ex-union army nurse Molly(Donna Reed)and her semi-fiancé, as well as the elderly station caretakers. Randy tries to convince the posse that they left the gold elsewhere , but they don't buy it. The raiders make an escape attempt that night, but only succeed in rescuing a raider captive. He tells them the men outside are no posse, rather a gang of drifters. Meanwhile, the raiders and hostages are getting to know each other better, Molly's nursing skills being put to good use. Molly gradually warms up to Randy, as we expect, after she sees how he handles various sticky situations. Ralph(Lee Marvin) is jealous and tries to shoot Randy, after they have quite a brawl, but brother Jamie shoots Ralph first.The outlaw gang now tries to tunnel under the building, then set fire to it. As burning roof beams fall, Molly's fiancé runs out, but is shot by the outlaws. Luckily, a rare severe storm then strikes, putting out the fire and providing some cover for the raiders, who exit the building and kill or confuse some of the outlaws, while other outlaws look for the gold inside. Satisfied there is no gold, the remaining outlaws ride off to look for it elsewhere(presumably somewhere near the abandoned buggy). The now 2 remaining raiders(Randy and Jamie) make peace with the remaining hostages and promise to return after a cooling off period in former Confederate territory.We're left wondering what happened to the gold, since Randy and Jamie decided to leave it with the hostages. They are characterized as honest folk, thus most likely turned it over to authorities, explaining that the thieves had all been killed in a shootout between two gangs or by themselves.This is an excellent intense western drama, quite in keeping with the later series of Scott-staring westerns directed by Boetticher. The one positive thing that came out of this fiasco was that Molly came to realize that Randy, not her handsome urbane semi-fiancé, was the right man for her, provided he did the right thing and left the gold for her and the station attendants to dispose of honorably. However, as typically, the budding romance is left in an uncertain state at ending. In additional to the interesting screenplay, the crisp Technicolor cinematography of the unique giant boulder-strewn Alabama Hills, with snow-capped High Sierras in the background, makes for a spectacular-looking physical setting.Anyone who has seen "The Yearling" will instantly recognize an older Claude Jarman, as Scott's young friend, Jamie.... Perennial 'old codger' Clem Bevans, also in "The Yearling", serves as the stage station master...Familiar-looking Ray Teal, playing the leader of the bandits, meets a fate similar to that of Bruce Dern, in "The Cowboys", although clearly a dummy was used in the dark rainy conditions....Lee Marvin plays his typical sneering bully or cynic character....Handsome Richard Denning as Donna's dandy semi-fiancé saves the situation, if not his life, by correctly predicting a violent thunderstorm will soon strike. The long rain-soaking sequence, shot in near darkness, is unique in westerns that I have seen.If you've seen "Virginia City"(1940), with Scott and Flynn costarring, you will recognize a basically similar plot.
