User Reviews

Even though Phil Karlson is a cult film noir director, his B movies are hard to find, especially his B westerns like "Adventures in Silverado", "They Rode West", "The Texas Rangers", or "The Iroquois Trail". I saw these westerns ("The Texas Rangers" and "The Iroquois Trail" are really tough), but the early "Thunderhoof" is the most invisible one, beginning to think this western is for ever lost. Maybe my fate was never to see Preston Foster, William Bishop, Mary Stuart and the handsome horse Thunderhoof I've been admiring on stills and lobby cards from my collection. And I finally saw a 16mm print, discovering another great western by Phil Karlson. "Thunderhoof" is really a B western shot only in mountains, no town settings, with only three characters and two horses. And there is a lot of tension between these three characters, the same kind of tension we see in Karlson's western masterpiece "Gunman's Walk". And maybe this was too unusual and too mature in a 1948 western, and it could explain why it was forgotten till now. Phil Karlson's touch is there : filming on location, smart camera tricks, tough fight, horse friendship. Preston Foster and William Bishop have shot other great titles with Karlson. Today, Phil Karlson's films noirs are easy to find, I hope one day his B westerns will be also available. Tough Phil Karlson really needs complete recognition, a book on his career is still missing.

An early drama for Phil Karlson is an unusual, character-driven western with a cast of just three, played out against a particularly bare and hilly background.

Texas rancher Scotty Mason (Preston Foster) goes into the Mexican desert-country in search of a wild horse, and takes his young wife, Margarita (Mary Stuart)and his hired-hand, The Kid (William Bishop,) whose life Scotty had saved a few years earlier.

The Kid falls in love with Magarita before they have crossed the Texas border, and spends more time plotting to get rid of Scotty than he does horse-hunting. Before long the two are engaged in fisticuffs in a mountain pass, but Scotty spots the horse he is hunting (Thunderhoof) and the chase is on. Scotty breaks his leg in the capture and, with a make-shift splint, Scotty, the Kid, Margarita and the horse start the return trek to Texas.

Scotty and the Kid get into another fight, in a blinding sand-storm, and the Kid tosses Scott in a ravine, and tells Margarita that Scotty has deserted them. She joins the Kid and the old-clichéd poisoned-water hole rears it head along the trail. She learns the truth about Scotty from the delirious Kid.

Anything with only three people in the cast and directed by cult-favorite Phil Karlson is sooner or later going to get tagged as a film noir sleeper, whether it was or not.