Rick Freers’ “Scorching Fury” (** OUT OF ****) has been described as one of
“the worst westerns of the 40's and 50's.”
Indeed, this 63-minute, B-movie suffers from a bare-bones budget, and a
cast of little known actors and actresses.
Nevertheless, several factors distinguish it as an oater worth watching
if you crave westerns. First, the
filmmakers have lensed the action primarily on location without any reliance on
obvious back projection. You’ll see a
few scenes set in the typical western town.
Phyllis Coates of the 1950’s era “Adventures of Superman” television
series makes a cameo in the Tucson scene. Later, two scenes take place in a sheriff’s
office and a bank. Meantime, everything else happens in the wide-open spaces.
Second, if you pay attention to the dialogue, co-scribes James Craig and Richard
Devon cover all the traditional themes of a horse opera. They do a competent job of parceling out the
exposition among the various characters, most of it conveyed during the campfire
scenes. The theme of friendship is discussed in some detail since the two
heroes were friends to start out but have drifted apart in their quest to
capture the villain. Commenting about
the villain’s lack of qualms about resorting to violence, one character
observes, “With that .45 in his hand, he was a tall piece of lightning.” Third,
although the characters are sketchy, the actors breathe a modicum of humanity
into them. Interestingly, Richard Devon
made his cinematic debut here as a good guy in a white hat who went on to portray
low-down, no-account skunks in “3:10 to Yuma” and “The Comancheros.” Fifth, Freers
generates some suspense by concealing the identity of the villain until the
climactic showdown. The only thing that
we do know about Ward Canepa is he wears spurs the jingle, is a southpaw with a
six-shooter, and has on stripped britches.
The chief shortcoming of this western is the obligatory cavalry versus
the Indians subplot, with footage that looks like it might have been
appropriated from another bigger budget sagebrusher. Ironically, the heroes, the passengers, and
the villains are never aware of the tribe on a rampage because the cavalry repulses
them. Furthermore, no mention in made
about then in the dialogue among the passengers. Initially, Freers cross-cuts between a lone
Indian eavesdropping on the passengers around a campfire to it appear that the
Indian is near them, but we never see the Indian and the passenger’s campfire
in the same shot.
“Scorching Fury” is a traditional law & order western with
a surprise or two. A gang of outlaws with
bandanas over their faces waylay a stagecoach in the middle of nowhere. Not only do these outlaws clean out the
strongbox, but they also take anything of value from the passengers. Were this
not enough, they cut the team of four horses loose and stampede them. A fourth horseman
appears and blasts holes into a water barrel kept in the boot of the
coach. The quartet of bandits leave the
passengers unarmed, without water, and on foot.
The passengers consist of Mrs. Harrison (Audrey Dineen of “Medic”),
singer Cara Emmons (Peggy Nelson of “Camilla”), her guitar-playing accompanist,
Lockwin (Eddie McLean of “Riders of the Pony Express”), and a young couple Drew
(Allen Windsor of “The Purple Gang”) and Louise Macurda (one-time only actress Twyla
Paxton), and they follow the advice of a deputy sheriff, Kirk Flamer (Richard
Devon of “Magnum Force”), who was riding with them to Boone City, California. They
set out to find a suitable camp site for the evening. When the musician
suggests that they walk to the nearest stagecoach substation, Drew points out
that it lies about 15 miles away. While the
passengers are making the best of a bad predicament, Kirk gets chummy with Cara
and recounts the events that occurred in Tucson when his old friend Clint Rust
(William Leslie of “The Horse Soldiers”) and he rode into town on a jackass. Later, the two men decided to visit Adobe
Wells where Clint’s uncle was the town sheriff, Sheriff J.D. (Rory Mallinson of
“Dark Passage”), and he persuaded them to serve as deputies along with a third person,
Ward Canepa (Sherwood Price of “Ice Station Zebra”), who was extremely proficient
with firearms. J.D. assigned each of them to ride shotgun on different stagecoaches
to thwart a recent crime wave of hold-ups.
The coach that Ward was dispatched to guard never arrived at its
destination. Eventually, J.D., Clint,
and Kirk locate it. They find the driver
is dead and the gold shipment gone.
Worse, Kirk shows J.D. and Clint a deputy sheriff’s badge that he found beneath
the driver’s body. Clearly, the badge
incriminates Ward Canepa as an outlaw. Kirk and Clint ride separate trails to track
down Ward. Unfortunately, Clint’s uncle tries
to foil a daylight bank robbery, but he doesn’t know Ward is hiding behind the
front door. Ward shoots J.D. six times
and then laughs maniacally.
Clint quits his job as a deputy and plans to exact personal
revenge. Ward catches him out in the
open and shoots his horse, forcing Clint afoot.
Eventually, Clint finds Kirk and company. Kirk tries to convince his friend
to pin his badge back and stick to the letter of the law. Ward infiltrates the campsite, but the musician
wounds him in the shoulder. Despite his
wound, Ward maintains in control of the situation and challenges Clint to a duel.
A ritualistic, count-to-ten, face-to-face
showdown ensues. Sure, the production
values are nothing to brag about, but “Scorching Fury” isn’t as abysmal as some
critics contend. Indeed, it reminded me
of the rugged succession of westerns that Budd Boetticher would direct with
Randolph Scott in largely mountainous locales with Burt Kennedy’s atmospheric
dialogue. The title refers to the way
Clint feels about Ward as much as the situation that Kirk and the stagecoach
passengers find themselves in after they have been abandoned without water in
the desert.
