The setting: Texas, just after the Civil War. The land is under martial law and the carpetbaggers — H.L. Balfour and Joseph Standish — are getting rich by constantly raising taxes, then foreclosing on property when the landowners can’t keep up.
Ben Westman (Charles McGraw) is out to do something about that. He plays a Robin Hood sort of character, robbing the newly rich by stampeding their cattle and horses and setting fire to the cotton they’ve purchased at rock bottom prices.
Into this situation rides Randolph Scott in the role of cavalry Capt. David Porter, a man sworn to duty but a Texas native who can’t help but feel for the suffering of its people. When Balfour kills an informant and successfully pins the murder on Westman, Porter swings into action, attempting to prove the Texan’s innocence even if it means a court martial.
All the while, he must deal with an egotistical younger officer (Lex Barker as Capt. Bill Hodges), who’s wooing his wife (Phyllis Kirk as Nora Porter) with stories of a more comfortable and far less lonely life back East.
Review:
Efficiently done Western with an interesting plot and Scott as the stoic cavalry officer who won’t shy away from his duty, as unpleasant as it is, because he fears any replacement will lack compassion for his fellow Texans.
Lex Barker actually has the more interesting role. Fresh off his fifth and final outing as Tarzan (1953’s “Tarzan and the She-Devil”), he’s anything but a hero here, romancing Porter’s wife at the first chance he gets. This was the second in about a half dozen mid-1950s Westerns in which he’d star.
Phyllis Kirk plays Porter’s wife, lonely because most of the local resident hate her husband for the job he has to do. She’d be far better remembered for another 1953 role, as the woman Vincent Price stalks in “The House of Wax.” She also went on to star opposite Peter Lawford as his wife in “The Thin Man” TV series.
This movie also marks the third credited role for Fess Parker. He plays Kirby, a member of Westman’s band who is gunned down from behind by Capt. Hodges early in the film.
Directed by:
Andre de Toth
Cast:
Randolph Scott … Capt. David Porter
Lex Barker … Capt. Bill Hodges
Phyllis Kirk … Nora Porter
Charles McGraw … Ben Westman
Henry Hull … Lt. Col. Chandler
Elisha Cook Jr. … Joseph Standish
Hugh Sanders … H.L. Balfour
Lane Chandler … Mike Faraday
Fess Parker … Kirby
James Brown … Conrad
Mark Dana … Lt. Williams
Runtime: 83 min.
Memorable lines:
Lt. Col. Chandler after Ben Westman and his men have escaped: “Lt. Hodges. Good work, sir. A child of 5 couldn’t have done better.”
Nora Porter: “I’m afraid you hurt Mr. Balfour’s feelings.”
Capt. Bill Hodges: “To do that, I’d have to kick him in the pocketbook.”
Lt. Col. Chandler to Capt. David Porter: “Do your job, Dave. Help me do mine. Even if it turns your stomach.”
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