7 Men from Now [Seven Men from Now] **** (1956, Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin) – Classic Movie Review 6431

In 1955, screenwriter Burt Kennedy wrote a screenplay entitled 7 Men from Now to be filmed by John Wayne’s Batjac Productions with Wayne as star and Budd Boetticher as director.

But Wayne was committed to John Ford’s The Searchers and suggested his Republican friend Scott instead after Gary Cooper turned it down. 7 Men from Now made only minor impact when it was released in 1956 but is now generally regarded as one of Scott’s best movies, launching Scott and Boetticher into a successful collaboration of seven films.

They are sometimes called the Ranown Cycle, after the production company run by Scott and Harry Joe Brown. Kennedy scripted four of them.

Scott stars in the exciting, super-efficient Western 7 Men from Now as avenging lawman former sheriff Ben Stride, who gets into his stride and hunts down the band of seven bad guys who executed a heist on Wells Fargo, murdering his wife.

Ben Stride (Scott) links up with married couple Annie and John Greer (Gail Russell and Walter Reed), along with lip-smacking, greedy villain Bill Masters (Lee Marvin). Kennedy’s taut script keeps the pace up, and talented director Boetticher (in his first of the seven rightly admired Westerns with Scott) puts pace and action high on the agenda. And Scott shows himself a rousing Western hero.

Also in the cast are Don ‘Red’ Barry [Donald Barry], John Larch, Fred Graham, John Barradino, John Phillips, Chuck Robertson, Steve Mitchell, Pamela Duncan and Stuart Whitman.

A Warner Bros release, running just 78 minutes, it is shot in WarnerColor by William H Clothier, produced by Andrew V McLaglen and Robert E Morrison, and scored by Henry Vars.

Seven Men from Now (1956) launched Scott and Boetticher into a successful collaboration that totalled seven films, including The Tall T (1957), Decision at Sundown (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Westbound (1959), Ride Lonesome (1959) and Comanche Station (1960).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6431

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Randolph Scott in a publicity shot from the early Thirties.