Producer: Grant Whytock. An Admiral Pictures production, released through Columbia. Copyright 1 May 1964 by Admiral Pictures. No New York showcasing. U.S. release: April 1964. U.K. release: 10 May 1964. Australian release: 10 April 1964. 7,918 feet. 88 minutes. Censored to 86 minutes in Australia.
SYNOPSIS: Clint Cooper, who left his home town after being forced into a duel in which the sons of a powerful rancher were killed, decides to return and claim his right to his father's ranch and to Helen Reed, his schoolteacher sweetheart. On the way he learns that a large gang plans to rob the town bank. When he arrives he finds that most of the townsmen have left on a cattle drive but he agrees to help Scotty the sheriff, an old friend of his, and a few elderly men remaining in the town, defend the town against the gang.
NOTES: This movie was filmed in Techniscope which was an anamorphic projection system developed by the Technicolor company. Scenes were photographed in CinemaScope proportions by using a wide-angle lens that threw two images instead of one on a single frame of standard 35mm film stock, thus saving companies half the cost of raw film. In processing, each wide-angle image was anamorphically squeezed on to a single frame. The prints look identical to CinemaScope prints and are projected in the same way. Despite the 50% reduction in camera frame area, the prints were claimed to be nonetheless sharp and well defined.
COMMENT: Villain Ted de Corsia is not nearly as appealing in the first half of this low-budget western, as he is in the second half where he shares a delightful scene in a saloon with heroine Merry Anders. Indeed most of the action in the film also takes place in the second half and while this is attractively photographed (the townsfolk against the yellow flames of the barricade), the people generally, with the exception of Audie Murphy, are not photographed half as well. Miss Anders, particularly, suffers from this unattractive lensing.
Musician Richard La Salle has obviously been listening to Jerome Moross' score for "The Big Country", but I liked it anyway!
The film does have one really unusual feature in that the script kills off the second lead before the big action finale. Frank Ferguson does not altogether make the happiest of substitutes.
SYNOPSIS: Clint Cooper, who left his home town after being forced into a duel in which the sons of a powerful rancher were killed, decides to return and claim his right to his father's ranch and to Helen Reed, his schoolteacher sweetheart. On the way he learns that a large gang plans to rob the town bank. When he arrives he finds that most of the townsmen have left on a cattle drive but he agrees to help Scotty the sheriff, an old friend of his, and a few elderly men remaining in the town, defend the town against the gang.
NOTES: This movie was filmed in Techniscope which was an anamorphic projection system developed by the Technicolor company. Scenes were photographed in CinemaScope proportions by using a wide-angle lens that threw two images instead of one on a single frame of standard 35mm film stock, thus saving companies half the cost of raw film. In processing, each wide-angle image was anamorphically squeezed on to a single frame. The prints look identical to CinemaScope prints and are projected in the same way. Despite the 50% reduction in camera frame area, the prints were claimed to be nonetheless sharp and well defined.
COMMENT: Villain Ted de Corsia is not nearly as appealing in the first half of this low-budget western, as he is in the second half where he shares a delightful scene in a saloon with heroine Merry Anders. Indeed most of the action in the film also takes place in the second half and while this is attractively photographed (the townsfolk against the yellow flames of the barricade), the people generally, with the exception of Audie Murphy, are not photographed half as well. Miss Anders, particularly, suffers from this unattractive lensing.
Musician Richard La Salle has obviously been listening to Jerome Moross' score for "The Big Country", but I liked it anyway!
The film does have one really unusual feature in that the script kills off the second lead before the big action finale. Frank Ferguson does not altogether make the happiest of substitutes.