It was only a matter of time before Universal's two biggest western heroes of the 1950s got together and appeared in a film with each other. And this one is a good vehicle for both of them, although it does have a couple of hokey touches too it.
The story involves some railroad workers who haven't been paid in weeks due to the train constantly being held up by Whitey Harbin (Dan Duryea) and his gang. Whitey's partner in all this is the "Utica Kid" (Audie Murphy) who has better ideas like letting the payroll go through every once in awhile because he's afraid their luck may run out.
In comes former railroad detective Grant McLaine (James Stewart), disgraced because many years ago he cut the Utica Kid a break by letting him go after a train robbery. He's reduced to playing an accordion for loose change because he can't get a decent paying job after what he's done. What the railroad doesn't know is that there was a very good reason why McLaine let the Utica Kid go, and it is explained later in the movie.
As a ruse, the railroad offers McLaine a deal. If he can get the payroll through to the workers without it falling into Whitey's hands, he can get his old railroad job back. So he shows up inconspicuously on a train with abandoned waif Joey Adams (Brandon DeWilde) in tow. When Whitey and his gang rob the train, McLaine hides the money inside Joey's lunchbox.
After they hit McLaine over the head and leave him for dead beside the railroad tracks, he gets up and tracks them down to their hideout. When he gets there, he tries to reason with the Utica Kid, but he's having nothing of it. At least not yet, anyway. But soon, they manage to get away with Whitey's gang not far behind.
The ending shootout near the mining camp is pretty good and few shots are wasted. Especially when Whitey is gunned down by McLaine and Utica takes a bullet for McLaine. It's quick moving and fast and not bogged down with unnecessary dialog.
The Colorado locations are fantastic and it's another example of Universal not sparing any expense when it came to on-location filming for it's westerns, although some shots (especially at Whitey's hideout) were clearly filmed on soundstages. With nice widescreen cinematography by William Daniels and a decent score by Dimitri Tiomkin, this is a good addition to any western collection, even though Murphy and Stewart have appeared in better.
Btw, I haven't seen the DVD yet, but it's presentation on TCM is a vast improvement over the grainy old pan-and-scan version they used to use.
Recommended.
7 out of 10
The story involves some railroad workers who haven't been paid in weeks due to the train constantly being held up by Whitey Harbin (Dan Duryea) and his gang. Whitey's partner in all this is the "Utica Kid" (Audie Murphy) who has better ideas like letting the payroll go through every once in awhile because he's afraid their luck may run out.
In comes former railroad detective Grant McLaine (James Stewart), disgraced because many years ago he cut the Utica Kid a break by letting him go after a train robbery. He's reduced to playing an accordion for loose change because he can't get a decent paying job after what he's done. What the railroad doesn't know is that there was a very good reason why McLaine let the Utica Kid go, and it is explained later in the movie.
As a ruse, the railroad offers McLaine a deal. If he can get the payroll through to the workers without it falling into Whitey's hands, he can get his old railroad job back. So he shows up inconspicuously on a train with abandoned waif Joey Adams (Brandon DeWilde) in tow. When Whitey and his gang rob the train, McLaine hides the money inside Joey's lunchbox.
After they hit McLaine over the head and leave him for dead beside the railroad tracks, he gets up and tracks them down to their hideout. When he gets there, he tries to reason with the Utica Kid, but he's having nothing of it. At least not yet, anyway. But soon, they manage to get away with Whitey's gang not far behind.
The ending shootout near the mining camp is pretty good and few shots are wasted. Especially when Whitey is gunned down by McLaine and Utica takes a bullet for McLaine. It's quick moving and fast and not bogged down with unnecessary dialog.
The Colorado locations are fantastic and it's another example of Universal not sparing any expense when it came to on-location filming for it's westerns, although some shots (especially at Whitey's hideout) were clearly filmed on soundstages. With nice widescreen cinematography by William Daniels and a decent score by Dimitri Tiomkin, this is a good addition to any western collection, even though Murphy and Stewart have appeared in better.
Btw, I haven't seen the DVD yet, but it's presentation on TCM is a vast improvement over the grainy old pan-and-scan version they used to use.
Recommended.
7 out of 10