An oldish Western storyline - a cowboy gets revenge on the land owners who kill his gal - is given some freshness by being set in Spanish California, and have its characters be Spanish Americans. There's also Yvonne de Carlo in a dual role as said dead gal and her twin sister - both of whom love Cornel Wilde. And some spectacular scenery - the Sierra mountains, a shoot out in snow...
But it's a curiously flat movie. It's a vigilante tale - Wilde killing off the baddies one by one - but I didn't feel too much for his pain since he'd been away from de Carlo for ages, hadn't even married her, and indeed didn't know she was pregnant. He didn't seem to particularly like her.
The film lacks another twist or complication - I kept expecting Raymond Burr, as a local law man, to provide this (a reveal he's in on it, or in love with one of the de Carlos, etc), or maybe the second de Carlo (to betray Wilde or something) but it never happens. It's very linear and monotonous. The reveal that his baby is still alive isn't it - if anything it makes Wilde look like an idiot for going off on this rampage.
I loved the idea of seeing two de Carlo's, one a tomboy the other more feminine, but the two of them are only around for ten minutes before one is killed and that's no time to do anything. It was fun to see Lon Chaney Jnr as a dodgy cowboy.
No comments:
Post a Comment