Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend ** (1957, Randolph Scott, James Garner, Angie Dickinson, Gordon Jones, James Craig) – Classic Movie Review 3506

‘He called himself the ‘Preacher’…and he wrote his sermon in lead!’ Randolph Scott, James Garner and Gordon Jones star in director Richard L Bare’s 1957 average Western movie Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend as former soldiers who pretend to be Quakers while hunting down some bad members of the Sioux tribe who killed Scott’s brother as well as the evil gun-runner Ep Clark (James Craig) who sold him useless weapons, faulty ammunition that did not fire.

Once again Scott makes a fine cowboy hero as Captain Buck Devlin, the squeaky-clean, steely-eyed good guy, in this creaky but reasonably enjoyable and likeable revenge Western support feature.

Warner Bros round up all the usual suspects in terms of stock characters and the right actors to play them, but they are unable make anything too much out of them.

Alas, Garner (as Sergeant John Maitland) and Angie Dickinson (as Priscilla King) are largely squandered in insignificant roles, and some of the technical work is surprisingly feeble for a big studio feature, though not Carl Guthrie’s black and white cinematography, which impresses. It ends up as the kind of routine Western that saw the whole genre going out of business in the cinema not much after this, as TV took it over.

Also in the cast are Dani Crayne, Trevor Bardette as Sheriff Bob Massey, Don Beddoe as Mayor Sam Pelley, Myron Healey, John Alderson, Harry Harvey Sr, Robert Warwick, Ann Doran, Lane Bradford and Harry Lauter.

Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend is directed by Richard L Bare, runs 87 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by John Tucker Battle and D D Beauchamp, is shot in black and white by Carl Guthrie, is produced by Richard Whorf and is scored by Roy Webb.

It was shot in 1955 at Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California; Warner Ranch, Calabasas, California; and Laramie Street, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California.

Dani Crayne, playing Nell Garrison, says Scott is High, Wide and Handsome, the title of his 1937 movie. Dani Crayne sings Kiss Me Quick (music by Ray Heindorf, lyrics by Wayne Shanklin).

The Indian attack sequence was rewritten after Garner sprained his right ankle while filming.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3506

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/