Coroner Creek (1948)

Randolph Scott is Chris Denning, a man with a single focus: avenging the life of his fiance.

She was kidnapped during a stage holdup, pulled off by Indians but planned by a white man. She later committed suicide with a knife now in Denning’s possession.

And he knows this:: The man responsible is tall, strong and blonde. He also has a scar on his right cheek.

Denning’s quest leads him to Coroner Creek. There, he finds Younger Miles (George Macready), who has used to money from the stage holdup to set himself up as a respectable citizen.

He owns a cattle ranch and a freight line, and he’s busy trying to squeeze out the smaller ranchers with the help of a hand-picked sheriff (Edgar Buchanan) and a pack of gunmen (led by Forrest Tucker).

Denning decides to work for a rival female rancher so he can get his revenge little by little, day by day.

It doesn’t take Miles long to revert to his lawless ways, and Denning is determined to see his mission through to the end, though a new woman in his life (Marguerite Chapman as Kate Hardison) warns that no good can come from the hatred he’s bottled up inside.

Randolph Scott as Chris Denning, pondering his quest for vengeance in Coroner Creek (1948)

George Macready as Younger Miles, wondering about the stranger in town in Coroner Creek (1948)

Review:

The first collaboration between producer Harry Joe Brown and star Randolph Scott, this film starts off with a flourish.

It also includes a memorable fight scene in which Tucker and Scott take turns crushing one another’s gun hands.

The presence of multiple female characters and aging actors like Wallace Ford and Edgar Buchanan allow for a plot that takes several twists and turns before the sure-to-happen final confrontation between Dennis and Younger Miles.

If the film strikes a false note, it’s an ending that comes off as a mite too convenient and way too preachy, thanks to several final lines of dialogue that really aren’t needed to make the point.

Marguerite Chapman as Kate Hardison, warning Chris Denning about the cost of living on hate in Coroner Creek (1948)

Sally Eilers as Della Harms, the ranch owner who hires Chris Denning as her foreman in Coroner Creek (1948)

Directed by:
Ray Enright

Cast:
Randolph Scott … Chris Denning
Marguerite Chapman … Kate Hardison
George Macready … Younger Miles
Sally Eilers … Della Harms
Edgar Buchanan … Sheriff O’Hea
Barbara Read … Abbie Miles
Wallace Ford … Andy West
Forrest Tucker … Ernie Combs
William Bishop .. Leach Conover
Joe Sawyer … Frank Yordy
Russell Simpson … Walt Hardison
Douglas Fowley … Stew Shallis
Lee Bennett … Tip Henry
Forrest Taylor … McCune
Phil Schumacher … Bill Arnold
Warren Jackson … Ray Flanders

Runtime: 90 min.

Wallace Ford as Andy West, the ranch hand who becomes Chris Denning’s friend in Coroner Creek (1948)

Forrest Tucker as Ernie Combs, Younger Miles’ right-hand henchman in Coroner Creek (1948)

Memorable lines:

Younger Miles: “When I pay a man, I expect him to be loyal enough to keep his mouth shut.”
Chris Denning: “And if you don’t pay him?”
Miles: “He still gets paid. Some other way.”

Ernie Combs, after Chris Denning has insulted his boss: “Why’d you let him get away with it?”
Younger Miles: “He wanted me to draw. I wonder why.”

Kate Hardison to Chris Denning: “I thought I could change you. I know now I can’t. Nothing can. You’re caught in a web of your own making and rather than trying to search for a way out of it, you’d rather strangle in it.”

Kate Hardison: “There’s something peaceful about a church bell, isn’t there dad?”
Dad Haridson: “Well, I don’t know. There’s something ominous about the way it sounds today. There’s an unhealthy air about the whole town.”

Tip: “Denning as much as kicked me off my own cliam. I’m scared Miles.”
Yourdy: “He’s the kickingest-off dodo I ever seen. He run me off the Box H same way.”

Edgar Buchanan as Sheriff O’Hea, a lawman inclined to turn a blind eye to Younger Miles’ misdeeds in Coroner Creek (1948)

INSERT HIS DAUGHTER

William Bishop as Leach Conover, one of Della’s ranch hands in Coroner Creek (1948)

Joe Sawyer as Frank Yordy, a Della ranch hand not inclined to follow the new foreman’s orders in Coroner Creek (1948)

Russell Simpson as Walt Hardison, Kate’s crippled father in Coroner Creek (1948)

Randolph Scott as Chris Denning, with the knife his fiance used to kill herself in Coroner Creek (1948)