Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)

A wagon train is massacred, a fort falls to the Indians, and everyone blames the disaster on an order sent by Gen. Blackwell.

So Blackwell is hauled before a military court where he swears that he never sent the order in question. But he dies of a heart attack before a verdict can be rendered.

After that, his two sons set out to clear his name, though they do so independently.

Glenn Langan is Rufe Blackwell, who followed his father’s footsteps and became a military man; Victor Mature is Cash Blackwell, a gambler estranged from the family.

Cash reaches the booming town of Furnace Creek first, and quickly locates the key witness against his father, former Capt. Grover Walsh.

Having resigned from the army shortly after the trial, he’s now a drunk — a drunk fearful that someone’s eager to see him dead.

Using an assumed name, Cash lands a job as a fast-gun protector of Leverett (Albert Dekker), the richest man around, then starts working to convince Walsh to spill his secrets.

The unexpected rival of brother Rufe complicates matters, especially Cash’s primary goal, protecting Walsh until he can do so.

Review:

An entertaining Western with especially strong performances by Reginald Gardiner as the former Capt. Walsh and Mature in the lead role.

Charles Kemper has a neat bit part as a teamster who keeps getting in trouble on Saturday nights and finding himself chained to a tree trunk in the middle of the street come Sunday morning. No problem. He’s strong enough to haul the tree trunk wherever he wants to go.

And Coleen Gray, 25 and looking closer to 15, plays Molly Baxter, a young woman whose father died in the massacre at Fort Furnace Creek and had long suspected Gen. Blackwell wasn’t the only responsible party. She falls for Cash quickly, but disapproves of his new job.

You’ll also spot Jay Silverheels in an uncredited role as the Indian chief. He played mostly uncredited parts for nearly a decade before landing the role of Tonto in 1949, the year after this film was released.

The film-opening attack on the fort helps is well done, and the script takes viewers back to the now burned-out fort for the climatic showdown.

Directed by:
H. Bruce Humberstone

Cast:
Victor Mature … Cash Blackwell
Coleen Gray … Molly Baxter
Glenn Langan … Rufe Blackwell
Reginald Gardiner … Grover Walsh
Albert Dekker … Leverett
Fred Clark … Bird
Charles Kemper … Peaceful Jones
Robert Warwick … Gen. Blackwell
George Cleveland … Judge
Roy Roberts … Al Shanks
Willard Robertson … Gen. Leads
Griff Barnett … Appleby

Runtime: 88 min.

Memorable lines:

Jail guard: “Hey, your name is Blackwell, ain’t it?”
Cash Blackwell, sitting in a jail cell: “It is.”
Jail guard: “You any relation to a General Fletcher Blackwell.”
Cash: “Not that I know of. Why?”
Jail guard: “He just died. Luck for him he did. Or they probably would have hung him. Well, I’ll go and see if they’ve decided what to do with you yet.”

Cash Blackwell, ordering a drink in a saloon: “How come this place is open? I thought everything was sowed up on Sundays.”
Peaceful Jones: “It belongs to the syndicate. Like the hotel. Mr. Leverette don’t like sin on Sunday. But if you gotta have it, he figures you better have it in his place.”

Pop, after Molly and Cash show up together: “Sparking?”
Molly: “Don’t be foolish, Pop. I just met him an hour ago.”
Pop: “An hour’s an awful long time when you’re sittin’ on a hot stove.”

Molly Baxter: “My pa used to say, when a man asks you to trust him, it’s time to get out of his firing range.”

Peaceful Jones: “Comes a time in every man’s life, when you have to be an ostrich or a man. I’m a thinking this is it.”

Coleen Gray as Molly Baxter with J. Farrell MacDonald as Pops Murphy in Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)

Reginald Gardiner as Grover Walsh getting a warning from saloon manager Al Shanks (Roy Roberts) in Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)

Charles Kemper as Peaceful Jones with Cash Blackwell (Victor Mature), a newcomer to town in Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)

Victor Mature as Cash Blackwell and Coleen Gray as Molly Stevens talk about a massacre in Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)

Robert Warwick as Gen. Blackwell, on trial for orders that led to a massacre in Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)

Victor Mature as Cash Blackwell, making sure the bad guys follow the decoy not the evidence in Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)