reprtr
I finally caught this film in its entirety on the Fox MOVIES!!! channel (or whatever they call it), and it has more than its share of compelling moments. Given the personnel and the people behind the production, one might suspect that this was a project aimed at television, except that A) it is apparently intended to be shown in 1.85-to-1 aspect ratio (irrelevant to TV in 1966) and B) it is so violent that it is difficult to believe that it could have gotten on the air without some serious cuts, and there is no way that the makers wouldn't have known this in 1966. But the director and producers were the same people behind the series BRANDED, starring Chuck Connors, which went out of production at just about the time that this movie was released.Chuck Connors plays Jonas Trapp, a proud but poor laborer in a small western town who -- as we learn from the backstory unfolded in a string of flashbacks -- married the wealthiest young woman in town (Kathryn Hays). Unable to abide the ease of their life together, or to persuade her to join him in building up a fortune of their own, he lights out for the frontier to become a buffalo hunter, and, as the movie opens (following an introductory section set in 1966), he is returning home after 11 years, carrying over a decade's worth of hard-earned cash. Alas, he has the bad luck to chance on a small encampment, seemingly abandoned, and is accused by three riders of trying to rustle the calf that is found bound nearby. The leader of this trio, Coates (Claude Akins), is drunk and a little crazy to start with, and wants to hang Trapp as a rustler; the banker Durham (Michael Rennie), talks him out of that, despite the egging on off sleazy, fancy-dan hanger-on "Johnnsy" (Bill Bixby). So instead, they put a large branded "T" on his chest and leave him for dead, and one of the trio takes Trapp's money before abandoning him. He doesn't die, however, partly through the intervention of seemingly kindly farmer Hanley (Paul Fix), who chances along to find him. Realizing what has happened to him, and seething with rage, Trapp goes into town, where all three of his attackers live. His own wife, not knowing who he is after 11 years absence, rejects him violently. But he manages to track down his attackers, one by one, over the next 24 hours, and takes revenge on each of them. But more difficult than vengeance will be any possibility of putting his life back together, not only in the wake of his maiming but also the 11 years dividing him from his wife. And complicating matters further is the fact that she was preparing to marry Durham. There's a pretty good pacing to this picture, despite having at least one foot in old-style Hollywood story-telling. And the violence, when it comes, is rather startling to see, given the vintage of this picture (could it have been intended for overseas distribution?). And director Andre Fennady has a good handle on action and narrative, so that not a huge amount of time is wasted. But -- and this is a big caveat -- the movie falls short in many ways. It's all well and good to have startling images and convincingly nasty villains of all types. But this is still a fairly flat western compared either to the Italian-financed oaters that were making their way across the Atlantic (most notably those made by Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood, natch). Fennady has no sense of the over-the-top dramatic nuance that made not only Leone's westerns, but also those of Sergio Sollima and other filmmakers of the era, so indelible to the viewer. The action here is just that, action, with no dramatic artistry. And Richard Markowitz, try and he might, never does come up with a sufficiently memorable soundtrack to underscore that action. This is a good try at something different in the genre -- and kind of remarkable, coming from Goodson-Todman Productions (yes, the game show guys) -- but I'd rather watch A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS or THE BIG GUNDOWN. On a more positive note, it is entertaining to see these actors in something this jarring in its viciousness, and the supporting players populating the screen: Joan Blondell, Gloria Grahame (in too short an appearance), Gary Merrill, Frank Gorshin, and Buddy Baer, along with a youngish Jamie Farr; and, in the framing sequences, James MacArthur and Arthur O'Connell.
Spikeopath
I see why some folk like it, the downbeat and harsher edges appealing, if only it wasn't so badly constructed and played! It is to my mind a classic example of the funk American Westerns had got themselves into at this juncture of genre film making.Michael Rennie and Bill Bixby are badly miscast, Claude Akins overacts to within an inch of his life (a rare poor show from him), while Bernard McEveety's direction shows why he was more at home in TV work. It all looks desperately fake, the interiors of key buildings looking like Wild West themed restaurants, the rest of the exteriors looking like what they are - stages! (most likely built from Chuck Connors' woodenness) Script is weak, which leads to a story that is never once authentic in tone or feeling, scenarios that are meant to be telling are unconvincing and the action is laughably staged.No hidden or misunderstood gem here, just bad film making that irritates as opposed to entertaining. 1/10
jazerbini
A surprisingly good western in the 60s A nice way to present the Old West where the bartender played by Arthur O'Connell tells the story to the young man played by James MacArthur. And this is a powerful story. Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors), buffalo hunter, returns home 11 years later and found his wife taking another wedding. But the story becomes even more complicated when it is robbed on the way and marked with hot iron by three men (Michael Rennie, Bill Bixby and Claude Akins) one being the pretender (Rennie) to the wedding with his wife. Jonas Trapp brings hell to the small town. It becomes a powerful avenger nickname in the city of "The Tiger" becoming a legend. It is a great western, maybe a western B but high level, with a well-written script and great performances of the cast. Chuck Connors is perfect in his role transmitted all the bitterness and disappointment of a man who returned home with plans for the future. The fight between Connors and Claude Akins is pure adrenaline, only seen in "Shane" and "North to Alaska". A western that will always be in our memory, still one of the great westerns of the 60s Very good, very good.
classicsoncall
I think my summary quote might have been more appropriate for Bill Bixby's character Johnsy Boy after the old rifleman came on the scene for a little payback with the branding iron. Man, wasn't that some crazed way to go out? About as good as Frank Gorshin describing the incident to his buddies at the Two Butt Saloon. It looked like Gorshin was still stuck on his Riddler character from the Batman TV series of the mid-Sixties.So I just watched two Westerns back to back that ended with unsatisfying conclusions. The other one was "Will Penny" starring Charlton Heston. I guess one could make a case for Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors) riding off into the sunset without his wife considering what happened here, but he went to a lot of trouble for nothing. Not that the revenge angle didn't play out satisfactorily enough, but he should have figured after eleven years gone, nobody was going to hang around waiting for him to show up again.This is one of those movies where it seems like the roles were handed out by drawing names from a hat. The casting is really eclectic, with players like Connors, Bixby, Gorshin, Michael Rennie, Kathryn Hays, Joan Blondell, Gloria Grahame, Claude Akins and Paul Fix. The Western movie character actors all made sense, but the rest looked a little out of place. Even the opener was a little strange with the modern day setting resolving to a flashback to reminisce about La Noche del Tigre, the Night of the Tiger.But at least it had that great bar room brawl with Claude Akins up against Connors; that was one of the more memorable ones you'll find in a Western. It certainly felt more realistic than Connors knocking out Buddy Baer with one punch. You know, I'm still thinking about the cast list, and it brings to mind a picture made a decade later called "The Night They Took Miss Beautiful". That one had Gary Collins, Henry Gibson, Victoria Principal, and Phil Silvers, and right in the middle of it all was a guy who's name was pulled out of a hat - Chuck Connors.
