A modern Western, set near the border of Mexico. A card game turns into a gold hunt when one of the players mentions that his horse tripped on a wagon wheel crossing the desert.
One hundred years earlier, a small wagon train carrying $5 million in gold got lost in that same desert. Within hours, the card players — led by Jim Carey (Randolph Scott) — are on horseback, searching for the lost treasure.
It’s a tense group, because a private detective named Frazee (John Ireland) is along for the ride. Three of the gold hunters — Johnny, Chalk and Dave Wilson — figure the detective is after them. After all, they were hiding out just south of the border for a reason.
Further complicating matters is the fact that Chris Jackson (Ella Raines) is along for the ride. She promised to marry Jim before Dave — a good looking rodeo rider — won her heart. Now she’s torn between the two men, and Dave’s in no position to bargain, having accidentally killed a man in Denver during a different card game.
Review:
Perhaps the most unique of Randolph Scott’s 1940s Westerns. It benefits from an unusual setting and a strong cast that also includes Edgar Buchanan as an old man who’s been dreaming of finding the lost wagon train for years, Jerome Courtland as a young man who’s shot and badly wounded in a scuffle with Frazee and Arthur Kennedy.
Ella Raines’ character is introduced through a shop window, but she’s more than window dressing. At first she shows up because she thinks Dave Wilson abandoned her in Denver and she can’t wait to see the law catch up with him. Her attitude toward him quickly softens. Later, she’s horrified that Scott’s character seems more interested in a new foal and finding gold than getting held for the wounded Johnny. What she doesn’t know is that Johnny has asked him not to summon help, for fear of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
Just don’t think too long about the film’s ending. No one seems to miss Jim Carey’s wrangler, who dies during a sandstorm, and Carey rides off with a newborn foal, not the least bit concerned that the foal’s mother has wandered off and gotten lost during the same sandstorm.
Folk singer Josh White is also among the treasure hunting party and provides plenty of musical interludes, including a very nice version of “I Gave My Love a Cherry.”
Directed by:
John Sturges
Cast
Randolph Scott … Jim Carey
Ella Raines … Chris Jackson
William Bishop … Dave Wilson / aka Shep
Edgar Buchanan … Old Willy
Arthur Kennedy … Chalk
John Ireland … Frazee
Jerome Courtland … Johnny
Russell Collins … Bibbs
Josh White … Josh
Houseley Stevenson… Mr. King
Reed Howes … King
Runtime: 78 min.
Memorable lines:
Jim Carey, playing cards as Old Willy recalls a gold train carrying millions that was lost in 1852: “Look, Willy, everyone around here has heard about that wagon train a hundred times. It’s been hunted for 200 times. How about having a gander at your hand?”
Frazee, after Carey has punched out Chalk: “That’s one way to settle an argument.”
Jim Carey: “I ran out of words.”
Dave Wilson: “Self defense, huh? Only there was a hole in it. There wasn’t any gun in the guy’s coat. Only a bottle — busted — right through his heart. A joke, see? I killed a guy, for reaching for a drink.”
Jim Carey, as Johnny lies wounded: “If you’ve killed this boy, keep that gun handy.”
Frazee: “Yeah, I’ll keep it handy.”
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