I've always liked Randolph Scott westerns. It's hard not to if a person likes Scott's style, manner, authority and, in his movies with Budd Boetticher, his approach to being an aging, moralistic grim reaper in showdowns with bad guys like Lee Marvin and Richard Boone. I'll make an exception for Decision at Sundown.
What put me off was a drama without, for 50 minutes of the 77-minute running time, any gripping motivation for Bart Allison's (Randolph Scott) hatred. We know something, probably nasty, happened to Mary and that the slick Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) had something to do with it. But what? Allison's sick obsession with killing Kimbrough ("For three years I've hunted Kimbrough, but he didn't know it. Before I settle with him I want him to know he's being hunted."), even on Kimbrough's wedding day when Allison arrives at Sundown, seems more like a plot device than a major justification for violence. With Kimbrough running the town, with a sly and cowardly sheriff in his pocket and his bride's wealthy father somehow beholden, it's everybody against Allison and his sidekick, Sam (played by that good-natured actor, Noah Beery, Jr.).
While we learn that Mary had some qualities other than saintly goodness, for most of the movie Scott winds up sounding like a man choking back tears and irrationally unwilling to hear a bad -- or even balanced -- word against his dead wife. It's an odd performance. By the time we really get to know the people of Sundown -- not just Tate Kimbrough, but his fiancé (Karen Steele), who doesn't love Tate, his girl friend (Valerie French), who does, and leering barbers, avuncular barkeeps, a noble doctor, a vicious deputy sheriff and assorted nervous and cowed onlookers -- the fact that there might be two sides to what Allison believes becomes more of a righteous afterthought. There are too many clichés in the screenplay ("You just stood up there in church and told Kimbrough you wuz gonna kill him? Bart, you must be plumb crazy!"), an uninvolving plot and an unsatisfactory character for Scott. The movie's not all that bad, but not very good. I'll say this: The conclusion, bitter and drunken, almost makes up for the rest. Some think this movie holds up well, including Taylor Hackford, who provides an analysis of the movie. This is one to watch and then make up your own mind.
Scott commands the screen, even when a couple of times he sounds like he's about to cry when he thinks of Mary. He was 59 when he made this movie. He made two more before retiring in 1962 with a great finish as Gil Westrum in Ride the High Country. Here he's starting to show his years but it doesn't matter. Whether he was lucky with his metabolism or just dieted rigorously, he doesn't carry an ounce of fat on his frame. He's lean, muscular, moves well and looks believable in a show down. If, like me, you weren't impressed with the Boetticher/Scott combo in Decision at Sundown, just take a look at The Tall T. This Boetticher/Scott movie was made two years earlier. It benefits enormously from a story by Elmore Leonard and a taut, suspenseful screenplay by Burt Kennedy. The Tall T, together with Seven Men from Now and Ride the High County are Randolph Scott in his later years at his best.
What put me off was a drama without, for 50 minutes of the 77-minute running time, any gripping motivation for Bart Allison's (Randolph Scott) hatred. We know something, probably nasty, happened to Mary and that the slick Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) had something to do with it. But what? Allison's sick obsession with killing Kimbrough ("For three years I've hunted Kimbrough, but he didn't know it. Before I settle with him I want him to know he's being hunted."), even on Kimbrough's wedding day when Allison arrives at Sundown, seems more like a plot device than a major justification for violence. With Kimbrough running the town, with a sly and cowardly sheriff in his pocket and his bride's wealthy father somehow beholden, it's everybody against Allison and his sidekick, Sam (played by that good-natured actor, Noah Beery, Jr.).
While we learn that Mary had some qualities other than saintly goodness, for most of the movie Scott winds up sounding like a man choking back tears and irrationally unwilling to hear a bad -- or even balanced -- word against his dead wife. It's an odd performance. By the time we really get to know the people of Sundown -- not just Tate Kimbrough, but his fiancé (Karen Steele), who doesn't love Tate, his girl friend (Valerie French), who does, and leering barbers, avuncular barkeeps, a noble doctor, a vicious deputy sheriff and assorted nervous and cowed onlookers -- the fact that there might be two sides to what Allison believes becomes more of a righteous afterthought. There are too many clichés in the screenplay ("You just stood up there in church and told Kimbrough you wuz gonna kill him? Bart, you must be plumb crazy!"), an uninvolving plot and an unsatisfactory character for Scott. The movie's not all that bad, but not very good. I'll say this: The conclusion, bitter and drunken, almost makes up for the rest. Some think this movie holds up well, including Taylor Hackford, who provides an analysis of the movie. This is one to watch and then make up your own mind.
Scott commands the screen, even when a couple of times he sounds like he's about to cry when he thinks of Mary. He was 59 when he made this movie. He made two more before retiring in 1962 with a great finish as Gil Westrum in Ride the High Country. Here he's starting to show his years but it doesn't matter. Whether he was lucky with his metabolism or just dieted rigorously, he doesn't carry an ounce of fat on his frame. He's lean, muscular, moves well and looks believable in a show down. If, like me, you weren't impressed with the Boetticher/Scott combo in Decision at Sundown, just take a look at The Tall T. This Boetticher/Scott movie was made two years earlier. It benefits enormously from a story by Elmore Leonard and a taut, suspenseful screenplay by Burt Kennedy. The Tall T, together with Seven Men from Now and Ride the High County are Randolph Scott in his later years at his best.