There's a cool pair of Rory Calhoun Westerns currently playing on the Encore channel, this one and "The Domino Kid", both from 1957, a year prior to Calhoun's TV series debut in 'The Texan'. I guess he decided to keep the vest from both films because that was part of his attire as traveling gunslinger Bill Longley. That's one of the series I used to regularly watch as a kid along with 'Johnny Ringo' and 'Wanted:Dead or Alive'.
So here, his character is Mike 'Utah' Blaine, with a shady past and on the run from Mexico under questionable circumstances. Discreetly watching from a distance as a band of thugs intends to hang rancher Joe Neal (Ken Christy), Utah arrives in time to save the man's neck and is rewarded by the rancher with a job, and eventually, half of the sprawling 46-Connected Ranch. Blaine immediately finds himself opposite a vigilante group headed by Russ Nevers, who probably should have been portrayed by someone who wasn't typecast so much as a TV and movie sheriff, Ray Teal. Well, maybe that's just me, but I haven't seen Teal in enough bad guy roles to get used to the idea.
What was unusual to me in this picture was the fact that Utah Blaine's employer Neal was killed off screen with a throw away mention almost as an afterthought. With that, Blaine hooks up with former partner Rip Coker (Paul Langton) and Nevers' whipping boy Gus Ortmann to take it to the bad guys. Ortmann was portrayed by former heavyweight champ Max Baer, so forgive me for being skeptical to think that Rory Calhoun could actually knock him on his butt like he did in the picture. They all probably had a good laugh over that scenario.
Well you probably won't remember much of this picture like so many old Western flicks; I saw this one a week ago and it's already fading fast. I remember the fiery finale though when baddie Rink Witter (George Keymas) torched the hay wagon Utah was using for cover. That, and the coolest sounding location where Blaine told his men to hook up with him - the Big Rock at Hammerclaw Ridge. I'd like to see the place myself.
So here, his character is Mike 'Utah' Blaine, with a shady past and on the run from Mexico under questionable circumstances. Discreetly watching from a distance as a band of thugs intends to hang rancher Joe Neal (Ken Christy), Utah arrives in time to save the man's neck and is rewarded by the rancher with a job, and eventually, half of the sprawling 46-Connected Ranch. Blaine immediately finds himself opposite a vigilante group headed by Russ Nevers, who probably should have been portrayed by someone who wasn't typecast so much as a TV and movie sheriff, Ray Teal. Well, maybe that's just me, but I haven't seen Teal in enough bad guy roles to get used to the idea.
What was unusual to me in this picture was the fact that Utah Blaine's employer Neal was killed off screen with a throw away mention almost as an afterthought. With that, Blaine hooks up with former partner Rip Coker (Paul Langton) and Nevers' whipping boy Gus Ortmann to take it to the bad guys. Ortmann was portrayed by former heavyweight champ Max Baer, so forgive me for being skeptical to think that Rory Calhoun could actually knock him on his butt like he did in the picture. They all probably had a good laugh over that scenario.
Well you probably won't remember much of this picture like so many old Western flicks; I saw this one a week ago and it's already fading fast. I remember the fiery finale though when baddie Rink Witter (George Keymas) torched the hay wagon Utah was using for cover. That, and the coolest sounding location where Blaine told his men to hook up with him - the Big Rock at Hammerclaw Ridge. I'd like to see the place myself.