User Reviews

I've seen quite a few Randolph Scott movies, and the thing I notice about him as a Western star is the frequent number of outfit changes he goes through in a picture. It's more noticeable in color of course, but it occurs in his black and white films as well. The interesting thing about "The Nevadan" is that the story actually builds in reasons for those changes, as in the switcheroo with outlaw Tanner (Forrest Tucker) in an early scene. I've never really heard anyone mention it before, but the next time you watch a Scott picture, keep it in mind and you'll usually catch him in three or four different shirts at least.

As for the story, Scott's character Andrew Barclay keeps his identity under wraps as a federal marshal, as he tries to find out where Tanner has stashed a quarter million in gold from a prior robbery. He finds himself competing with Red Sand town boss Ed Galt (George Macready) who also has his eyes on the prize as it were. Galt already has a hand in every business enterprise going in town, but as is usual in such cases, more is not enough.

I always enjoy seeing Jock Mahoney in a Western, and in the ones where he doesn't have a lead role, he usually turns up as a villain. Same story here, he's Galt's main henchman Sandy, but with only a single viewing on Encore Westerns yesterday, it seemed that his face wasn't always clearly visible. Galt was always having him do some dirty work, so it probably doesn't matter much, but if you didn't know he was listed in the credits, it would be pretty easy to miss him. Mahoney started in pictures as a stunt man, and his riding skill is apparent in that scene when Karen Galt (Dorothy Malone) kicks his horse away. To really appreciate his skill on a horse though, try to catch a few episodes of his Range Rider series where he really gets to show his stuff. The only thing that bothered me about his role here was when he gave chase to another rider and wound up hitting a tree branch knocking him off his horse; that looked just dumb.

As for Dorothy Malone, I've seen her in back to back Westerns now, the other being 1955's "Five Guns West". Competent in both, I'm still waiting to catch her in a role more like the one of the bookstore clerk she portrayed opposite Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep". It was only a minor role, but the scene crackled with double entendres that made it a hit of the picture.

With all said and done, "The Nevadan" is merely an average flick, I really didn't detect much of a spark in any of the performances. Much of the supporting cast is composed of lesser known character actors, and the running gag between a pair of brothers (Frank Faylen and Jeff Corey) about a local saloon girl never amounted to anything. Encore Western fanatics like myself should be satisfied with a single viewing.

The Nevadan is too short and formulaic to work through all its possibilities, but if plots are the hardest parts of writing, this film had some story features that were interesting at least.

First, Randolph Scott's role as an undercover marshal is carefully set up to be convincing to the characters on screen but also to tip the audience off--Tom escapes from his lawman escort and the lawman acts chastened till everyone is out of sight, then smiles.

Forrest Tucker's bad-boy Tom is off for hidden gold, but Scott shows up to hang close with him, advising yet protecting Tom--if something happens to Tom, the gold's lost forever. Later, Scott strategically shares his identity with his love-interest, who blurts it to her villainous dad; then when bad dad comes after Scott and Tom, Scott informs Tom and keeps the young outlaw on his side. That had to be tough dialogue to write!

Another interesting plot-feature is that all the honest characters seem to like bad-boy Tom. (I too am automatically on Forrest Tucker's side if only b/c he would later carry F Troop with Larry Storch for, what, 3 seasons?) By the end of the story, Scott has helped him survive and sent him back to a few more years of prison, but everyone acts like the busted bad boy has a future. Compared to most westerns, there's something seriously moral going on here between the hero and villain, and I don't mean the usual hero-turning-villain that later 50s westerns develop--in this case, the hero's virtue and competence somewhat redeem the villain.

Third place in the story's redeeming features is the relationship between brother henchmen well played by Frank Faylen (Dobie's dad!) and Jeff Corey. The screenplay can't resolve the complicated relationships between the brothers and others, but families are like that, and both actors remain convincing.

As long as the subject is acting, though, I agree with other contributors who found Dorothy Malone a radiant young actress. The film's only (inadvertently) funny moment occurs when another character addresses her love interest, the 50-something Scott, as "young man."

I love Randolph Scott westerns. In this genre, his films usually stand out from the rest because of his laid back but likable characters as well as the usually better than average scripts. His films he made with Bud Boetticher and Sam Peckinpah are true classics. However, it was inevitable that he also made quite a few very ordinary films and THE NEVADAN is about as ordinary as you can get. Now I am NOT saying it's a bad film--it's just that there are way too many familiar plot points--to the point where they seem more like clichés than anything else.

The film begins with prisoner Forrest Tucker escaping while on his way to another prison. When he met up with "ordinary guy" Scott, I knew that it would turn out in the end that Scott was a lawman--rarely did Scott ever play the villain and there have been quite a few other films where a lawman makes friends with a robber to find out where he stashed the missing loot. And, surprise, surprise, that's exactly where the film ended up by the end. In addition, there must be a clichéd "big bad boss" (George Macready) who also wants to get the gold and, as usual, he'll stop at nothing to get it.

I can't tell you how many other films reminded me of THE NEVADAN, but because it had all been seen before, there were absolutely no surprises. However, given Scott's likable persona, at least the journey to the all-too-predictable finale was pleasant.

Oh, and did I mention...there also was a love interest for Scott--and it was Macready's daughter! Again, been there, done that--though often it's a wife, not a daughter.

Agree with Ashew,Macready unfairly discounted in Westerns.He was definitely equal to a star like Randy Scott,and he was convincing as a Western heavy.Who else could direct a bunch of dopes to do his bidding?That he had good manners,dressed well,spoke with a commanding voice only made him more convincing as a brilliant man gone bad,perfect for any Western.This is his third movie opposite Scott,Coroner Creek when he's nastier to his wife than here,Doolins Of Oklahoma as a good lawman and the narrator,and The Stranger Wore A Gun.There's plenty of action and Dorothy Malone as Galt's daughter (pre Peyton Place for Malone and Macready)comedy with Faylen and Corey,additional menace from Tucker.I liked it!

A fun and exciting Western that entertains as much today as it did in wintry early 1950 when it was first released.

After enjoying the film on a Saturday morning, which is the best time to enjoy films like THE NEVADAN, I read all 15 reviews posted here. Many are eager to point out how this humble film pales in comparison to the Westerns of Boetticher, Mann, and Peckinpah, lacking as it does deep psychological themes and Method actors wringing their hands and contorting their faces in painful introspection. There's an unwillingness or perhaps an inability to consider THE NEVADAN on its own merits. It's only aspiration was to entertain--and it succeeded.

Now I'm not casting stones or even aspersions. I count myself among the guilty, admitting I too am unable to see this film wholly on its own. Each of us brings to the movie-going experience all we've already seen, and most people watching a 1950 Western are aging cinephiles bringing a LOT to the experience. For me, Forrest Tucker will always stir up fond memories of Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke. And when Jeff's dimwitted brother Bart pulled another boner, I was just waiting for Frank Faylen to look into the camera and mutter, "I gotta kill that boy; I just gotta" like he would a decade later on DOBIE GILLIS. Those associations added to my enjoyment.

Speaking of Faylen and Jeff Corey as brothers Jeff and Bart, I suspect they were loosely based on brothers George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's 1937 novella Of Mice and Men. The script and the actors elevated Jeff and Bart far above the expendable and disposable "red shirt" henchmen of lesser Westerns. I can also see in them a foreshadowing of the memorable and scene-stealing Sam and Whit, the duo played by Pernell Roberts and James Coburn in RIDE LONESOME.

The closing gunfight with Andy and Tom against Galt, Jeff, and Bart was a highlight, topped only by Andy and Tom's brawl to end it all in the collapsing mine. Karen's appearance added to the excitement, even as it allowed Tom to remind us he's the bad guy when he shoots Galt in the back. Jeff's ruthlessly shooting the mules and canteens showed the depth of his depravity, and lessened the regret I felt when he took a bullet to the brain (a surprisingly graphic scene for 1950, I thought).

The grimness is balanced by lighthearted moments. An uncredited Nacho Galindo is funny as an apoplectic stagecoach driver. Also unbilled are Olin Howard and Lewis Mason as Rusty and Wilbur, two cowpokes straight out of a 1930's programmer who look for a laugh from supposed greenhorn Andy and get egg on their faces. It's a funny scene, but also serves as good character development as the audience is made aware that Andy is not the dapper tenderfoot he initially appeared to be.

I saw THE NEVADAN as one of six films on Mill Creek's second Randolph Scott Round-Up DVD collection. The print is beautiful, the colors rich, and the price right--only about ten bucks! Slip it in on a Saturday morning and "forget about life for awhile," as Billy "the Kid" Joel once sang.

PS: The gold fever that drove Galt to greed-driven madness and violence is a recurring theme in Westerns. No film captures it as well as A MAN CALLED SLEDGE, an under-appreciated 1970 film directed by Vic Morrow and starring James Garner, Dennis Weaver, and Claude Akins among others familiar faces to film and TV fans.

Shot mostly in the spectacular Alabama Hills, with the High Sierras often in the background. The particular variety of granite this region is made of weathers into picturesque combinations of boulders and arches, perfect for playing hide and seek between the good and bad guys. Many of the later Scott-starring firms directed by Budd Boettricher were mostly shot in this region.

The plot of this entertaining color western much reminds me of two of Scott's last westerns, shot a decade or so later: "Ride Lonesome" and "Ride the High Country". Each screenplay included two distinct villains or groups of villains, one of whom spent most of the film as Scott's traveling partner, while the other villain(s) was external. This film differs from the other two in that the young woman included didn't form part of the traveling group. However, each film included a young villain as Scott's traveling companion who, at the film's conclusion, is treated as reformed or potentially reformable, hence does not die. In contrast, the external group of villains are characterized as not reformable, and die or run off after the principle villain is killed in a gun battle in which the internal villain participates against the external villains. It's a compellingly interesting plot, thus it's not surprising that it has been recycled in these, as well as some other westerns. Actually, Forest Tucker, at age 30, was a bit long in the tooth for his character(Tom Tanner), who probably should have been in his early 20s.Of the 3 young men in these 3 films, Tanner clearly is the most risky bet for a successful reform, and ends the film with Scott's character, Marshal Andrew Barclay, taking him back to prison for a few more years for his crime of stealing $250,000. in gold. That was a whale of a lot of gold at the price/oz back when this story took place. In fact, he and Barclay hired two mules to carry it all out from its hiding place in an old mine shaft, deep in the Alabama Hills. We are never given any details about the robbery, nor whether Tanner managed to pull off this megaheist by himself(unlikely). Actually, it's difficult to understand why Barclay turns friendly with him in the parting scene, after Tanner repeatedly tried to ditch him as a partner when he thought Barclay was no longer useful to him and threatened to kill him after learning that he was an undercover federal marshal. Their very well staged fight in the gradually collapsing mine tunnel, after together dispatching Galt and his gang outside the tunnel, is doubtless the most memorable sequence in the film. As they fight, they periodically knock down another rotten beam, causing more of the roof to collapse. Barclay pulls the nearly unconscious Tanner out of the entrance, probably saving his life, as the entrance area roof collapses where they just were. Before the fight, Barclay gives Tanner a lengthy lecture on what he best do for his future, which Tanner didn't agree with.

For much of the early part of the film, a treasure map that Tanner retrieves from a bank deposit box is a periodic subject of discussion or conflict. But, it turns out to be a bit of a red herring. Galt, who also wants to steal the gold, can't make any sense out of it after he steals the map from Tanner. Tanner later clearly doesn't need it to find the gold, although it may have earlier refreshed his memory about some details.

Old Galt is characterized as the stereotypical power-mad crooked 'town boss', who owns most of the key businesses in town, along with a nearby ranch. While he spends his days in town managing his businesses and scheming to increase his wealth, his marriageable daughter Karen(Dorothy Malone) manages the ranch, apparently oblivious to the pathological greed of her father. Initially, when Barclay arrives dressed as a dude from the East, she decided to have some fun by loaning him a notorious bucking horse. but he instead impresses her with his horse taming skill, causing her to gradually warm up to him during their periodic meetings. In the end, after she learns that he is a federal marshal and that her father is intent on stealing the gold from Tanner and Barclay, she switches her loyalty from her father to Barclay, warning her father that she will shoot him if he tries to shoot Barclay for the gold. This is part of the dramatic complex confrontation around the mine entrance. The finale scene in the film hints at a possible marriage with Barclay: a typical ending for westerns of this era. Scott, at 52, still looked young enough to be a plausible suitor for the young women in his films. in contrast, in his films as he approached or exceeded 60, he usually served as more of a father figure.

Jock Mahoney, who played Galt's henchman Sandy, sometimes starred in Hollywood and TV films. I remember him as Joe Dakota. He was also a good stunt double, and probably doubled for Scott in the bucking bronco episode and in parts of the mine tunnel fight...Charles Kemper made a memorable town sheriff.

I found this film as enjoyable as some of Scott's later higher rated films. It's currently available on You Tube, as well as a print-on-demand DVD.

A western drama with Scott as a federal agent, Tucker, Dorothy Malone, Macready as the insatiable rich man, wounded and obtuse (who has an otherwise austere life), Faylen and Corey as the henchmen, and Kemper in a supporting part as the dentist; all of it was shot in … California. The younger actors provide refreshing roles, Dorothy Malone has a glow of romance; one feels that the young woman is a great person.

The movie has a delicious brio, the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the script make up an exciting yarn, each player's performance stands the expectation; the plot works with relatively few characters, no townspeople, no barroom fistfights …. It's a stylish action drama, unsentimental, with a strong psychological core, mostly delving into familial relations, and each role is nicely crafted; Tucker reminded me of Stewart more than of McQueen. Some of the things which made the quirk of the adult westerns of the '50s are already here, including the scenes of violence (done to the marshal by the henchmen, or to a henchman by the ruler) or the undertones of mischief (the precocious girl).

These are plasticine characters.

Kemper was a dependable character actor, deft, experienced. Tucker's role is intriguing, being simultaneously more and less likable than it could of been, as the player was indeed very likable, but despite his style here (his idea of the character seems to have been mediocre, or maybe even lacking, given that the role he got was a leading one); like he underplays the outlaw. Physically, Tucker aged quickly; like Chaney the 2nd, he also got ugly, of an expressive ugliness. Here, he was 30, he's effective, but doesn't care much about crafting his performance.

There is a possibility he has been inhibited by the fact that he co-starred with a western lead, he was overwhelmed by the chance he got, he may have been taken aback, perplexed, so here he is perhaps a reluctant 2nd lead ….

Scott's overall reputation today seems fair; he never made it to the hallmark of the greatest western players. Scott plays a quiet and self-controlled marshal; he cheats his partner, and has no prior life to be mentioned. The actor was unglamorous and workmanlike.

Think of the westerns as of an exciting almanac.

Also, think of this movie thus: its release year means to us now what 1884 could of meant then; today, its birthday is what then, by the year of its release, was 1884.