Playing with the typical Randolph Scott-Ranown formula makes for an unsettling yet intriguing Western movie experience, a story about a good man out for the sort of vengeance that lessens him, even as he retains our rooting interest.
Bart Allison (Scott) rides into the town of Sundown with one thing on his mind: Doing in the man that drove his wife to her death. As he rides in with his buddy Sam (Noah Beery, Jr.), we learn that this man, Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) owns Sundown for all intents and purposes and has made many people there unhappy.
"Glad to hear he's doin' so well," Allison says of Kimbrough early on. "When a man's ridin' high, the ground comes up and hits him a lot harder when he falls."
The trick of the movie is learning that Kimbrough's not the only person this sentiment applies to. Allison's been riding high himself on false notions of honor and justice that will leave him in a dark place indeed by film's end.
Scott is a good guy in the film, but only barely. The opening scenes establish this well, when we see Allison stop a stage he's riding in at gunpoint. Is he holding it up? Randolph Scott? No, not quite, but he's establishing his character as an ornery, unreasonable cuss, not to mention a trifle too quick for his own good. He's supposed to be met when he stops the stage, but Sam's a bit slow, and there's an awkward moment where he's just standing there looking foolish while the others on the stage gawk at him which is kind of priceless.
The John Wayne western "Rio Bravo" is sometimes described as an anti-"High Noon" film, but that idea seems more at home here. Like in "High Noon," the town of Sundown is established as a rancid sort of place, not only because of Kimbrough but for the people who tolerate his rule. Allison may be the lone figure of justice a la Gary Cooper in "High Noon," but is he the right man for the job of cleaning Sundown up?
The early evidence indicates not. Confronting Kimbrough at the latter's wedding, he serves notice he plans to kill the guy, then runs away as Kimbrough's hired guns drive him and Sam into a livery stable, and lay siege.
Sam can't believe his partner did such a fool thing. Even rattlesnakes give warning, an unruffled and vaguely amused Allison tells him.
"If they gave as much advance notice as you're giving that Kimbrough, rattlesnakes would be as out-of-date as them diny-ah- sores," Sam replies.
Beery makes for a fine sidekick as always. Even better is Carroll as the film's heavy. Director Budd Boetticher always made sure he challenged Scott with a good bad guy, more complex than the usual ranch trash. Here, he lets us discover Kimbrough's bad side, a smooth operator who lets others do his dirty work, before turning the tables on us by showing he's not so vile in his way.
Carroll made a career as a kind of B-movie Clark Gable, a cocksure ladies' man which he plays here, but here he invests Kimbrough with shades of, well, not exactly decency, but enough common sense to wonder what Allison's really up to. By the end of the film, you are rightly torn as to whether Allison's brand of vengeance is really in order.
"Decision At Sundown" may be too offbeat in its aims to earn a high place among the Ranown run. It's too unfocused in places, so intent on presenting Allison's complexities in a way Scott's down-the- middle characterization doesn't allow for. The action is too fitful, the relationships somewhat underserved, and the final scenes strain at a sort of significance everything else in the movie undercuts ("I'll tell you one thing, none of us will ever forget the day that Bart Allison spent in Sundown," a philosophizing town doctor explains at the end, which hardly seems to cover it.)
Yet "Decision At Sundown" is a good movie for those who don't mind sacrificing a bit of the usual gunplay for a more probing examination of Western conventions. At under 80 minutes, it fills the time well enough, but its real strength is how it leaves you thinking after.
Bart Allison (Scott) rides into the town of Sundown with one thing on his mind: Doing in the man that drove his wife to her death. As he rides in with his buddy Sam (Noah Beery, Jr.), we learn that this man, Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) owns Sundown for all intents and purposes and has made many people there unhappy.
"Glad to hear he's doin' so well," Allison says of Kimbrough early on. "When a man's ridin' high, the ground comes up and hits him a lot harder when he falls."
The trick of the movie is learning that Kimbrough's not the only person this sentiment applies to. Allison's been riding high himself on false notions of honor and justice that will leave him in a dark place indeed by film's end.
Scott is a good guy in the film, but only barely. The opening scenes establish this well, when we see Allison stop a stage he's riding in at gunpoint. Is he holding it up? Randolph Scott? No, not quite, but he's establishing his character as an ornery, unreasonable cuss, not to mention a trifle too quick for his own good. He's supposed to be met when he stops the stage, but Sam's a bit slow, and there's an awkward moment where he's just standing there looking foolish while the others on the stage gawk at him which is kind of priceless.
The John Wayne western "Rio Bravo" is sometimes described as an anti-"High Noon" film, but that idea seems more at home here. Like in "High Noon," the town of Sundown is established as a rancid sort of place, not only because of Kimbrough but for the people who tolerate his rule. Allison may be the lone figure of justice a la Gary Cooper in "High Noon," but is he the right man for the job of cleaning Sundown up?
The early evidence indicates not. Confronting Kimbrough at the latter's wedding, he serves notice he plans to kill the guy, then runs away as Kimbrough's hired guns drive him and Sam into a livery stable, and lay siege.
Sam can't believe his partner did such a fool thing. Even rattlesnakes give warning, an unruffled and vaguely amused Allison tells him.
"If they gave as much advance notice as you're giving that Kimbrough, rattlesnakes would be as out-of-date as them diny-ah- sores," Sam replies.
Beery makes for a fine sidekick as always. Even better is Carroll as the film's heavy. Director Budd Boetticher always made sure he challenged Scott with a good bad guy, more complex than the usual ranch trash. Here, he lets us discover Kimbrough's bad side, a smooth operator who lets others do his dirty work, before turning the tables on us by showing he's not so vile in his way.
Carroll made a career as a kind of B-movie Clark Gable, a cocksure ladies' man which he plays here, but here he invests Kimbrough with shades of, well, not exactly decency, but enough common sense to wonder what Allison's really up to. By the end of the film, you are rightly torn as to whether Allison's brand of vengeance is really in order.
"Decision At Sundown" may be too offbeat in its aims to earn a high place among the Ranown run. It's too unfocused in places, so intent on presenting Allison's complexities in a way Scott's down-the- middle characterization doesn't allow for. The action is too fitful, the relationships somewhat underserved, and the final scenes strain at a sort of significance everything else in the movie undercuts ("I'll tell you one thing, none of us will ever forget the day that Bart Allison spent in Sundown," a philosophizing town doctor explains at the end, which hardly seems to cover it.)
Yet "Decision At Sundown" is a good movie for those who don't mind sacrificing a bit of the usual gunplay for a more probing examination of Western conventions. At under 80 minutes, it fills the time well enough, but its real strength is how it leaves you thinking after.