Westbound (1959)

Randolph Scott plays John Hayes, a Union officer talked into running the Overland Stage line by superior officers desperate to make sure the gold needed to fuel the war effort makes it safely from California to the East.

Confederate sympathizers, of course, are just as determined to intercept those stage shipments.

So Hayes rides into Julesberg, where he finds an old friend, Clay Putnam (Andrew Duggan), who has married Hayes’ former lover (Virginia Mayo as Norma) . He also makes two new friends in Union veteran Rob Miller and his pretty wife Jeannie.

Putnam is one of those Rebel sympathizers, and he has a gang of gunmen — headed by Mace (Michael Pate) — on his payroll to do the dirty work needed to stop the stages from running.

But he doesn’t want bloodshed, which is exactly the type of fighting Mace seems to prefer.

Norma still has feelings for Hayes, but she’s more disturbed by her husband’s decent into lawlessness in the name of the Southern cause.

As for the young couple, Rob is a union soldier just back from the war, minus one arm, who’s trying to prove he can still be useful.

Jeanie (Karen Steele) plays his wife, trying to convince her husband he’s not “half a man.” Hayes hires them to run a stage station.

Randolph Scott as Capt. John Hayes, witnessing a Civil War homecoming in Westbound (1959)

Michael Pate as Mace, the hired gun on Putnam’s payroll to help stop the stages from rolling in Westbound (1959)

Review:

A splendid little Western that packs lots of punches into its short running time. Among the memorable scenes: The shooting of a stage station operator, the wreck of a stage with a young girl aboard, and the confrontation between Putnam and Norma when she announces that she’s leaving him.

The solid performances go six deep, and it helps that not all the characters are cast in black or white. Putnam might want to stop Hayes’ stages, but he’s horrified by the violence he’s unleashed the hiring Mace. Norma might have been thinking of just herself when she married Putnam for his money, but she’s grown to love him.

Then there’s the strikingly beautiful Karen Steele, more convincing than you’d expect in her role as a young wife trying to heal a husband scarred by the Civil War.

Virginia Mayo as Norma Putnam, angered by her husband’s turn toward violence in Westbound (1959)

Andrew Duggan as Clay Putnam, explaing his goal to stop the stages without bloodshed in Westbound (1959)

Directed by:
Budd Boetticher

Cast:
Randolph Scott … John Hayes
Virginia Mayo … Norma Putnam
Karen Steele … Jeanie Miller
Michael Dante … Rod Miller
Andrew Duggan … Clay Putnam
Michael Pate … Mace
Wally Brown … Stubby
John Daheim … Russ
Walter Barnes … Willis

Runtime: 69 min.

Karen Steele as Jeanie Miller, worried about her husband’s adjustment to losing an arm in the Civil War in Westbound (1959)

Michael Dante as Rod Miller, eager to get back home to his pretty wife after losing an arm in the war in Westbound (1959)

Memorable lines:

Norma Putnam: “Won’t you come in?”
John Hayes: “I don’t think Clay would appreciate finding me in his house.”
Norma: “It’s my house, too.”

Clay Putnam: “There’s more than one way to skin the cat.”
Mace: “Sure, but you ever try to skin a live cat. Man’s gonna get pretty skinned up himself. You can’t play at gentleman Clay and do what you want done.”

Clay Putnam to Norma Putnam: “You walk out of this house, you go out the way you came in, with nothing but the clothes on your back. And I wouldn’t depend on going to Hayes either, because Mace is going to kill him, if he already hasn’t.”

Wally Brown as Stubby, one of Capt. John Hayes’ loyal and reliable stagecoach driver’s in Westbound (1959)

Walter Barnes as Willis, a station manager caught lacing his pie with salt to get back at a ‘blue belly’ in Westbound (1959)

Michael Dante as Rod Miller and Karen Steele as his wife Jeanie, offered a chance to run a stage station by Capt. Hayes (Randolph Scott) in Westbound (1959)

Virginia Mayor as Norma Putnam and Randolph Scott as John Hayes discuss old times in Westbound (1959)

Karen Steele as Jeanie Miller comes face to face with Mace (Michael Pate), Putnam’s hired gun in Westbound (1959)

Randolph Scott as Capt. John Hayes comforts Jeanie Miller in Westbound (1959)