Wednesday, August 5, 2009

ol Randy in FIGHTING MAN OF THE PLAINS

Finally got around to watching this pretty darn good Randolph Scott movie. (I'd been letting it age for a couple of weeks on the ol' Tivo.) Made in '49 and it again, seems like half of the pre Boetticher films ol' Randy is in, he was either involved with Quantrell....or some other quasi post civil war raider and his band.... or some undercover shenanigans to either clear his name or to find the killler of his...........(choose from the following brother, father, best friend, dog). Well this one had both. Randy was involved with Quantrell (the great James Griffith....unbilled), went undercover (took the name and identity of the detective who got killed while attempting to take him in) so to speak, to try and clear his name and to look for and to kill his brother's killer whose brother he had killed. Confusing? Well, it all works out in the end for ol' Randy. Why he even gets the girl. Funny thing is though....as she runs up to ol' Randy and right before she gets to embrace him the screen goes black and "The End" comes on. Well he got the girls but he didn't get the hug. Oh, well! Pretty good supporting cast, too. Victor Jory (in a good guy role for once) plays a gambler who becomes a friend and ally of Randy and Paul Fix and Bill Williams turn in good performances as the rotten to the core bad guys. Worth mentioning is the fact that Dale Robertson was introduced in this fillm "as Jesse James." All and all worth watching. On the Randy scale with THE TALL T being a 10.....this one is a 6. But then the script was by Frank Gruber from one of his novels, and you can't get much better than that.
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