Fred MacMurray doesn't really have the face for an outlaw, nor the voice, which makes it difficult to picture him in a Western. However in "Face Of A Fugitive", he fares much better than he did in "The Oregon Trail" from the same year. The unshaven look and casting as a loner adds to the appeal of his character Jim Larsen, who takes on the masquerade of a mine inspector looking for a change. Trouble finds him after escaping arrest from a territorial marshal, but the brother who helped him winds up dead, and things get even more complicated when circumstances find him siding with a lawman against Reed Williams (Alan Baxter), a rancher who intends to fence his range land in violation of a government order. Wouldn't you know it, sheriff Mark Riley (Lin McCarthy) has a widowed sister (Dorothy Green) who falls for Larsen/Kincaid, and the feeling is mutual. It's the typical recipe for trouble.
You know, I had to stop and think about the value of merchandise as presented in the story. Larsen paid eighteen dollars for a gun belt and firearm, but only five dollars for a pair of pants and a jacket. Perhaps it was meant to indicate that protection had it's price in the old West, but I wonder if the numbers were accurate; I'll have to dig up an 1880's Sears catalog.
The action takes place in a Wyoming town called Tangle Blue, which is one of the coolest sounding place names I've come across in a Western, and there are plenty. I wonder if that might have been the inspiration for Bob Dylan's song "Tangled Up In Blue"? Nah, I doubt it.
You'll probably have to look long and hard for another story where the outlaw on the run needs to get as creative in dispatching a dead body. With no alternative, Larsen bundles up brother Jim in a canvas mail sack and heaves him off a train as it heads over a river crossing. Somehow you just knew that it wasn't the last you'd see of the young outlaw, he washes up ashore some time later, and for Larsen/Kincaid, it arrived with postage due. By the time it's all over, the Williams gang is no match for reluctant outlaw Larsen in a creative shoot out, leaving sheriff Riley a tough time matching up the face with the wanted poster.
You know, I had to stop and think about the value of merchandise as presented in the story. Larsen paid eighteen dollars for a gun belt and firearm, but only five dollars for a pair of pants and a jacket. Perhaps it was meant to indicate that protection had it's price in the old West, but I wonder if the numbers were accurate; I'll have to dig up an 1880's Sears catalog.
The action takes place in a Wyoming town called Tangle Blue, which is one of the coolest sounding place names I've come across in a Western, and there are plenty. I wonder if that might have been the inspiration for Bob Dylan's song "Tangled Up In Blue"? Nah, I doubt it.
You'll probably have to look long and hard for another story where the outlaw on the run needs to get as creative in dispatching a dead body. With no alternative, Larsen bundles up brother Jim in a canvas mail sack and heaves him off a train as it heads over a river crossing. Somehow you just knew that it wasn't the last you'd see of the young outlaw, he washes up ashore some time later, and for Larsen/Kincaid, it arrived with postage due. By the time it's all over, the Williams gang is no match for reluctant outlaw Larsen in a creative shoot out, leaving sheriff Riley a tough time matching up the face with the wanted poster.