The Vanquished ** (1953, John Payne, Jan Sterling, Coleen Gray, Lyle Bettger) – Classic Movie Review 11,269

John Payne stars as Rockwell Grayson, a Confederate soldier who is freed after the American Civil War and returns home, and finds he has to defeat the town crooks, led by patriarch Roger Hale (Lyle Bettger), by going undercover to work for him to gather evidence of his corruption..

Director Edward Ludwig’s 1953 The Vanquished is a minor, mostly forgettable formula B-movie Western, with some rather boring acting and an efficient but fairly tedious script, with no new ideas in the screenplay, adapted from the novel by Karl Brown. But there is brisk and competent direction by Ludwig and the Technicolor shooting is an advantage. And Jan Sterling and Coleen Gray impress as the contrasting women in Payne’s life.

The cast are John Payne, Jan Sterling, Coleen Gray, Lyle Bettger, Willard Parker, Roy Gordon, Russell Gaige, Leslie Kimmel, Voltaire Perkins, Sam Flint, Freeman Morse, Charles Evans, Richard Shannon, John Dierkes, Karen Sharpe, Ellen Corby, Louis-Jean Heydt and Jack Hill.

The Vanquished is directed by Edward Ludwig, runs 84 minutes, is made by Pine-Thomas, is released by Paramount, is written by Winston Miller, Frank L Moss and Lewis R Foster, based on the novel by Karl Brown, is shot in Technicolor by Lionel Lindon, is produced by William H Pine and William C Thomas, and scored by Lucien Callet.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,269

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