FILM REVIEW OF ''TUMBLEWEED" (1953)

Audie Murphy finds himself in desperate trouble in “Land Raiders” director Nathan Juran’s exciting western “Tumbleweed” (*** OUT OF ****) when he tangles with hostile Yaqui Indians and treacherous whites.  What sets this Murphy horse opera apart is “Red Mountain” scenarist John Meredyth Lucas’ audacious screenplay based on Kenneth Perkins’ novel "Three Were Renegades."  Murphy gets himself mired deeper into danger to clear himself as this adventurous 79-minute oater winds down to its finale.  Initially, our resourceful hero displays benevolence when he comes to the aid of a wounded Yaqui brave in the desert.  Apparently, an unknown white gunman shot the Yaqui in the left shoulder and left him for dead.  Jim Harvey (Audie Murphy of “The Kid from Texas”) digs a bullet out of Tigre (Eugene Iglesias of “Apache Rifles”), the son of Yaqui chieftain Aguila (Ralph Moody of “Reprisal!”) who abhors whites with a passion.  At one point, a hateful Tigre tries to stab Harvey, but our hero manages to deflect this futile effort.  After saving Tigre’s life, our hero accepts a job as a guide for a group of pioneers.  At first, when he meets Harvey in the town of Mile High, wagon train master Seth Blanden (Ross Elliot of “Never So Few”) thinks Harvey is too young to provide them with adequate guidance.  Attractive Laura Saunders (Lori Nelson) is the sister-in-law traveling with relatives.  She likes the sight of Harvey, but Seth’s wife Sarah (Madge Meredith of “Trail Street”) disapproves of a drifter like Harvey.  Sarah wanted Laura to marry Seth’s brother Lam (Russell Johnson of “Gilligan’s Island”) because he is a stable individual. Harvey does a good job as a guide until the Yaquis box them in and try to burn their wagons.  Harvey sends the two women into hiding, and then he rides under a white flag of truce to parley with Aguila.  As it turns out, Aguila doesn’t believe that his son would befriend a white man.  The Yaqui chief ties Jim down between two spears and promises to carve his eyelids so he can watch the sun burn out his vision at dawn.  Tigre’s mother (Belle Mitchell of “Soylent Green”) lets Jim escape.  Afterward, Jim catches a ride back into the town of Borax.  He discovers that he is a persona non grata because the Yaquis scalped and killed the men, but the two women and a baby in the wagon train survived.

Ironically, Sheriff Murchoree (Chill Wills of “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid”) keeps the townspeople from lynching Harvey when he shows up in town and generates controversy with his unaccounted for presence.  The citizens have a noose around Harvey’s neck and they have Murchoree crowded, so he cannot get to Harvey until one of his deputies, Marv (Lee Van Cleef of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”), armed with a Winchester intervenes, and Murchoree can extract his six-gun from his shoulder holster.  Murchoree puts Harvey into protective custody.  Later, during the night, Tigre breaks into the jail where Harvey is being held, stabs the guard that Murchoree left in charge, and the Yaqui explains that the guards were going to let the townspeople into lynch him.  Not long afterward, they are pursued by the townspeople and Tigre takes a bullet and dies.  Before the Yaqui dies, he informs Harvey that a white man had a hand into the massacre.  Eventually, a posse pursues Harvey.  Meantime, he finds himself afoot again when his horse goes lame.  Initially, he tries to steal a horse from a rancher, Nick Buckley (Roy Roberts of “Kid Galahad”), but Buckley’s ranch hand catches him before he can.  Harvey meets Buckley and his wife Louella (K.T. Stevens of “Vice Squad”) and explains his awful predicament.  Buckley takes sympathy on him and loads him calls the decrepit looking horse called ‘Tumbleweed.’ An incredulous Harvey is surprised when the animal displays amazing mountain sense and enables him to elude the posse.  At one point, when Harvey is about to die of thirst, ‘Tumbleweed’ scrapes a hole into the dirt that yields water.  Murchoree catches up with Harvey, but he is dying from thirst, too, when our hero finds him.  Strangely enough, Harvey wants to find Aguila because he is the only man who can clear him.  The revelation as to the identity of the white man who worked with the Indians is a surprise.  Our hero and the villain battle it out with their fists and the fight progresses from the desert floor up atop a mountain where the villain tries to crush Harvey with a rock.  

Lee Van Cleef has a bigger than usual role and he isn’t a slimy villain like he was during his usual 1950s westerns.  “Tumbleweed” qualifies not only as an above-average Audie Murphy oater but a welcome departure from his more straightforward routine sagebrushers.

 

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE GRAND DUEL" (Italian-1972)

Prolific Spaghetti western scenarist Ernesto Gastaldi penned the script for this Lee Van Cleef continental oater "The Grand Duel," directed with considerable competence by Giancarlo Santi. Although he didn't helm any Spaghetti westerns aside from "Grand Duel" on his own, Santi served as Sergio Leone's assistant director on "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (1966) and his masterpiece "Once Upon A Time in the West" (1968) as well as Giulio Petroni's assistant director on "Death Rides A Horse"(1967). In short, not only did Santi know how to stage gunfights, but he also knew about the conventions of the Spaghetti western bullet ballet. Originally, Santi was hired to direct "Duck You Sucker," but Rod Steiger's complaints prompted Leone to replace Santi. "The Grand Duel" ranks high up in the lower 25 Spaghetti westerns out of the best 100. Three things make it memorable.  First, this above-average shoot'em up benefits largely from Lee Van Cleef's iconic gimlet-eyed presence. Second, the mystery gradually unraveled --presented in surrealistic flashbacks--generates suspense and tension. Third, Sergio Bardotti & Luis Enriquez Bacalov’s unforgettable orchestral score that signals the tonal changes in the narrative.

Roughly speaking, the motives of the characters in "The Grand Duel" reverse the relationship between the old gunslinger (Henry Fonda) and youthful gunfighter (Terence Hill) in Tonino Valerii's "My Name Is Nobody." Meanwhile, Van Cleef's entrance in "The Grand Duel" imitates his striking introduction in Leone's "For A Few Dollars More." In these Italian horse operas, Van Cleef is presented initially as a commercial passenger. In "The Grand Duel," he rides in a stagecoach, while he rides in a train with his head bowed beneath a black hat in "For A Few Dollars More." In the latter film, Van Cleef concealed his face behind a huge Bible when he asked the conductor about the train making an unscheduled stop. The conductor warns him they aren't going to stop where Van Cleef's frock-coated, black hat clad character wants. Nevertheless, Van Cleef tugs the emergency cord, halting the train, and disembarks to fetch his horse from the freight car.

As "The Grand Duel" opens, lawmen fire warning shots at the stagecoach that Sheriff Clayton (Lee Van Cleef) is riding in and refuse to let Big Horse (Jess Han of "Escape from Death Row") enter Gila Bend. They explain that escaped killer Philipp Wermeer (one-time-only actor Peter O'Brien, aka Alberto Dentice) has holed up with a girl in town after breaking out of jail in Jefferson. The authorities have posted a $3-thousand bounty on Vermeer's head. Nevertheless, Clayton disembarks and strolls without any apparent concern past two lawmen and several bounty hunters to quench his thirst in Gila Bend. This introductory scene unfolds at a leisurely pace as it covers points, such as where the bounty hunters are hidden and Clayton's imperturbability in the face of death. Clayton indicates the positions of all the bounty hunters to Vermeer. Later, after our wrongly convicted hero eludes the bounty hunters during a furious horse chase. The villains kill his horse, but he flags down a stagecoach. The entire scene resembles the scene from John Ford's "Stagecoach" when Ringo (John Wayne) who was afoot clambered inside the vehicle.

The omniscient Lee Van Cleef hero dominates the action. The hooked-nosed, veteran Hollywood heavy delivers a stern but seasoned performance as the worldly-wise elder. Van Cleef smokes his signature curved pipe. Actually, when we meet Clayton, he is no longer the sheriff of Jefferson. He protested Philip Vermeer's conviction, and the authorities stripped him of his badge. Earlier, he had taken the Patriarch to court three times. Eventually, as the best man with a gun in the entire state, Clayton ushers in justice above the law. Anyway, one of the Patriarch's sons Eli Saxon (bald headed Marc Mazza of "Moonraker") accused Philipp Vermeer of killing the Patriarch, (Horst Frank in a dual role wearing whiskers), a wealthy, unscrupulous power-broker abhorred by half of the state. Vermeer suspects that the Patriarch had his father shot in the back because he learned about the silver on Vermeer's land. Meanwhile, Eli demands to know the identity of the man who killed his father. Clayton reminds Eli that the Patriarch was gunned down from behind and that Vermeer stood in front of them at the railway depot. Clearly, Vermeer couldn't have killed the Patriarch.
 

The vicious and degenerate "Grand Duel" villains qualify as challenging adversaries. David (Horst Frank of "Johnny Hamlet") rules the Saxon clan, while Eli serves as Saxon City's marshal, and Adam Saxon (Klaus Grunberg of "Fire, Ice, and Dynamite") runs the saloon. Grunberg plays Adam as a depraved homosexual who wears a vanilla-white suit, fedora, and constantly caresses a long scarf looped around his neck. The first time that we see Adam, he guns down an old man that his henchmen have thrown out of the saloon. Later, Adam massacres a wagon train with a machine gun and Brother David orders him to leave no eyewitnesses. David's words: "In a violent country, he who seizes today, controls tomorrow," epitomizes his treachery.

"The Grand Duel" plays out in three settings: first in Gila Bend; second at the isolated Silver Bells stagecoach station, and third in Saxon City where a showdown occurs in the stock pens in traditional western style. The final showdown scene is very atmospheric with Lee Van Cleef and his adversaries opening huge gates to each of the stock pens before they finally settle down to the shootout.  Santi never lets the action malinger. He does a good job with the first large-scale gunfight at the stagecoach station. The bounty vermin not only blow-up the stagecoach, but also shoot each other to increase their shares after Vermeer surrenders. The Saxon City shootout when Vermin pole vaults to safety is neat. The black & white night sequence that he stages during the Patriarch's killing has surrealistic quality. Meantime, hardcore Lee Van Cleef fans won't want to miss "The Grand Duel" for its several shootouts as well as the twists and turns in Gastaldi’s screenplay. Get the letterboxed Wild East DVD; it surpasses the full-frame, public domain DVD or the foreign, semi-letterboxed version.

FILM REVIEW OF "THE STRANGER AND THE GUNFIGHTER" (Hong Kong/Italian-1974)

This lightweight international co-production between Hong Kong's Run Run Shaw and Italian producer Carlo Ponti amalgamates chop-socky martial arts combat with gritty Spaghetti western violence. An Asian kung fu master teams up with an American gunslinger to find his uncle's treasure. Variously known as either "Blood Money" or "The Stranger and the Gunfighter," this tame 'East Meets West' oater is predictable but amusing nonsense. The humor that lies at the bottom of the plot is that four women have tattoos on their backsides that reveal the whereabouts of a fortune in gold. "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye" director Antonio Margheriti and scenarists Miguel De Echarri and Barth Jules Sussman have incorporated a sex comedy in this Kung Fu/Spaghetti western. The running joke is that our heroes must obtain permission from four women to eyeball their butts. Veteran western villain Lee Van Cleef twirls his six-gun, while the often outnumbered Lo Lieh performs gravity-defying kung fu. Incidentally, Lieh emerged as the first martial arts superstar before Bruce Lee. "Blood Money" came about during Van Cleef's career when he started wearing a hairpiece. Despite his age, the actor spends the last ten minutes baring his whiplashed chest. The production values are sumptuous.

Martial arts movies were increasingly going mainstream by the early 1970s, and "Blood Money" (**1/2 out of ****) exemplified one of a handful of Italian westerns with Kung Fu. Not only did producer Run Run Shaw co-produce this hybrid horse opera, but he also co-produced the Hammer vampire epic "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" during the same year in 1974. Mind you, "Blood Money" premiered in Spain in 1974, but illuminated American screens two years later in 1976. Initially, the Tony Anthony western "The Silent Stranger" should have qualified as the first 'East Meets West' Kung Fu/Spaghetti western. Produced in 1968, "The Silent Stranger" was not released by MGM until 1975, so it beat "Blood Money" to the draw. Earlier, James Bond director Terence Young had helmed a European western with Charles Bronson as an outlaw who reluctantly joins up with Japanese samurai warrior Toshirô Mifune to recover the Nippon ambassador's valuable ceremonial sword. Director Mario Caiano's "Shanghai Joe" (1972) followed "Red Sun" and concerned a Chinese immigrant Chin How (Chen Lee) who helps Mexican laborers from their sadistic boss. Sergio Corbucci even got into this genre in 1975 with "Shoot First... Ask Questions Later" (1975) as a samurai warrior helps a lawman find a treasure.

Dakota (Lee Van Cleef of "Barquero") arrives in Monterey by train. A conductor confronts our protagonist as he slips out from under the passenger coach. Before the conductor can do anything to him, Dakota escapes in a cloud of steam. Breaking into the local bank, Dakota picks the lock to the safe but he finds only photographs of women. Meantime, one of those women alerts Wang (Al Tung), a short fat Asian fellow that somebody is in the bank. Wang scrambles over to the bank. Dakota relies on explosives to blow the vault. As the dynamite explodes, Wang is blown off his feet. Dakota finds a fortune cookie and the photographs. He queries Wang about the contents, but Wang has died. The authorities arrive and arrest Dakota. Meanwhile, in Asia, kung fu teacher Ho Chiang (Lo Lieh of "Five Fingers of Death") is escorted by the warlord's troops to his headquarters. The warlord questions Ho's father about his deceased brother who left behind nothing valuable. The warlord confronts Ho. "I was tricked by your uncle. Unwisely, I entrusted him with a vast fortune and all he did to repay me before he died was to send me that wooden figures." The warlord indicates the statue of a noble Plains Indian chieftain. Since nobody can satisfy the warlord’s curiosity, he gives Ho's sister to the guards. Ho intervenes but to no avail. Nevertheless, Ho’s martial arts skills impress the warlord. "You're brave and intelligent and I believe you can be useful in recovering my fortune," he informs Ho. "Find my gold in one year or all of you will --," the warlord completes his sentence with a slashing motion at his throat.

Ho arrives in Monterey. He meets with Wang’s lawyer and learns his uncle left behind a $1000 and four photographs of women. According to the lawyer, Wang's death was ruled accidental. Nevertheless, the authorities sentenced Dakota to swing. The lawyer (Paul Costello of “Cannibal Apocalypse”) adds that Dakota's trial lasted several months. Not surprisingly, Ho encounters racism in a saloon and defends himself against two gunslinging bouncers. The sheriff (Barta Barri of “Horror Express”) arrests Ho for hitting him. Ho lands in a cell next to Dakota. Dakota assures Ho that he didn’t murder his uncle. Moreover, Dakota acquired no fortune. The sheriff releases Ho. Later, the Asian rescues Dakota as he stands poised on the gallows’ trapdoor with his noggin in a noose. Together, Dakota and Ho embark on an unusual search for Wang's four mistresses. Along the way, they incur the wrath of a hypocritical preacher, Yancey Hobbitt (Julian Ugarte of “Autopsy”), who wears a long, black duster with a ridiculous hat. Yancey quotes scripture and wields a devastating six-gun. Yancey abducts the Chinese mistress (Karen Yeh of “The Iron Dragon”) with the aid of a Mexican bandit (Ricardo Palacios of “Return of the Seven”) and his gang. They take her to an old mission. Dakota and Ho follow, but they have a minor falling out when Ho refuses to let Dakota accompany him. Calico captures Dakota when the American tries to sneak into the mission. He uses a bullwhip on Dakota to loosen his tongue about Ho. Ho helps Dakota escape, and Dakota appropriates a Gatling gun. He places the Gatling gun between two horses in harness and rides through the mission firing the weapon and exterminates half of Calico’s gang, while Ho releases the Chinese mistress. Yancey has tried to torture her to translate the tattoos by suspending her in a metal cage and stoking blaze beneath to loosen her tongue. Fittingly, Dakota kills Yancey when the dastard lunges for a gun in a dead man's hand.

Margheriti directs with customary aplomb. Everything unfolds fluidly. Clocking in a 107 minutes, "Blood Money" looks like a Spaghetti western, but the sex comedy often undercuts the usual high body count violence. "Goliath against the Giants" lenser Alejandro Ulloa gives everything a larger-than-life grandeur. "Secret Agent Fireball" composer Carlo Savina drums up a snappy, non-western orchestral score. Savina's music has nothing in common with the quintessential Ennio Morricone Spaghetti western music with whistles, bells, and whipcracks. Interestingly, the mission that Calico and his bandits occupy is the same fortress that Lee Van Cleef and Jim Brown assaulted in "El Condor." Indeed, the fortress was constructed for "El Condor" and has appeared in other major films, such as "Conan the Barbarian" and "A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die." The ending may surprise those who aren't expecting it. It is a hoot to see Lee Van Cleef in a Chinese bamboo hat and robe in the final scene in Hong Kong.

FILM REVIEW OF ''COMMANDOS'' (ITALIAN-1968)

"Autopsy" director Armando Crispino's historically inaccurate but nevertheless gripping World War II behind-enemy-lines, secret-mission thriller "Commandos" (***1/2 out of ****) qualifies as a rugged, gritty, suspenseful combat epic. This cynical Italian produced melodrama about a group of Italian-Americans masquerading as Royal Italian infantry so they can capture an oasis on the eve of the North African campaign in early 1942 removes any traces of glamour about war. Crispino and fellow scenarists Lucio Battistrada of "Crime Boss," Stefano Strucchi, and Dario Argento of "Suspiria" drew their robust screenplay from a short story by Israel filmmaker Menahem Golan as well as a story by Don Martin of "The Storm Rider" and Teutonic producer Arthur Brauner. Brauner is a landmark German filmmaker who refurbished the "Dr. Mabuse" franchise in the early 1960s. Lee Van Cleef of “For A Few Dollars More” delivers a riveting performance as a belligerent, battle-scarred Bataan hero who survived, along with two other companions, a death-defying ordeal. He relives the horror of the experience throughout “Commandos.” Van Cleef has a lot to sink his teeth into and he dominates the action.

The supporting cast is good, particularly Joachim Fuchsberger as Oberleutnant Heitzel Agen, nicknamed the professor because he studied insects at the university. Götz George shines as Oberleutnant Rudi, the type who could have excelled as dedicated Hitler Youth. The most unusual role—as it says something about the difference between the Allied armies and the Axis foe—belongs to actress Marilù Tolo who plays a prostitute named Adriana. Although she doesn't play a major part, she poses an interesting complication for our heroes. Interestingly, she points out that she canearn more money in the army camp than back home. The two characters who triumph over adversity at the conclusion were well known character actors. Giovanni Scratuglia played in many Spaghetti westerns, while Heinz Reincke played one of the two German pilots that strafed the beaches in “The Longest Day.”

The conceit of "Commandos" is that our heroes are descendents of genuine Italians, and Sergeant Sullivan and his right-hand man Dino (Romano Puppo of "Death Rides A Horse") have spent a month training them for the mission. Sullivan has little regard for most of them, but he has nothing but sheer contempt for his superior officer, Captain Valli (Jack Kelly of "To Hell & Back") who has never baptized in combat. Sullivan and Valli get off to a bad start when Sullivan describes their objective as “some harebrained mission you made up yourself.” Valli defends the mission and his knowledge. “I know this operation exactly, right down to the last detail.” Sullivan criticizes Valli’s shortage of experience. “You got a lot of bright ideas, Captain, but do you know what killing is—exactly—with these (makes gestures with his hands) and (brandishing a bayonet) this?”

Later, during the inevitable briefing session,Valli explains they will parachute near their destination. They will drop two or three miles from the objective and then take an hour to march to the Italian garrison and occupy it. Arriving after dark, they encounter soon opposition and have to resort to their machine guns instead of knives. Captain Valli refuses to watch Sullivan turn the raid into a massacre and he spares the lives of Italian Lt. Tomassini (Marino Mase of "The Five Man Army") and many of his troops. Valli warns Tomassini that the lives of his men depend on his cooperation with Sullivan and him. “I mean exactly what I say so you better get that through your head.” Germans from a nearby base show up for spaghetti and our heroes struggle to suppress any suspicious behavior, especially from Rudi who wants to locate his missing engineers. Sullivan kills the surviving German engineer, but during the struggle the German fires Sullivan's pistol. Everybody stops what they are doing and disperses into the open with guns drawn. A soldier apologizes for shooting at a jackal. No sooner do the Germans leave than the Italian hatch a plan of escape.

They rig up a hook that enables them to shut off the electricity in the barracks where they are being held. They jump the guards, disarm them, disable a couple of transports and take off in another truck to the German camp. Early the next day, Valli and Sullivan cut them off and gun them down. Meanwhile, the Germans are about to pull out and the German commanding officer lets Oberleutnant Heitzel Agen inform the Italians to blow up the wells before they leave. Initially, Agen believes that he is just going to visit an old friend. After Agen leaves, one of the wounded Italians makes it to the German lines and informs them that the Italians are impostors. Agen is wearing the headset and talking to his commandant when he learns this alarming news. Eventually, the Germans arrive and it turns into a pitched battle. Only one Italian and one German survive the firefight and they throw away their guns and march off into the desert at fade-out

The themes of "Commandos" include the inhumanity of war, experienced versus inexperienced combatants, battlefield shock, and the duty that an officer has both to his men and the mission. The irony is that the Germans and the Italians are depicted with greater sympathy than the tough guy Americans. The German soldiers get along with each other as do the Italians, but the Americans clash, principally Sullivan and Valli. Other instances of irony occur that heighten the philosophical mindset of “Commandos.” The ending summarizes the madness of war as depicted here. Allied command scrubs the mission that Captain Valli has carefully orchestrated and he cannot accept this change of mind. Surprisingly, Sergeant Sullivan refuses to obey higher authority. Consequently, "Commandos" concludes with the Americans exploding the water holes and fighting the Germans with tragic results for both Sullivan and Valli.

Mind you, the authenticity of the action doesn't bear close scrutiny. Most military
enthusiasts will recognize the flaws immediately. For example, the Afrika Korps tanks are not the genuine vehicles. Instead, they are repainted U.S. Army Chaffee and Walker Bulldog tanks with German insignia, and the M3A1 submachine guns that the Americans tote weren't available for another year. Allowances must be made, however, and the Cold War tanks overlooked since the German tanks were long since kaput, while the "Dirty Dozen" machine guns look cool. Incidentally, the first American commandos were the U.S. Rangers as portrayed in the James Garner World War II movie "Darby's Rangers."

The sun-scorched widescreen photography of "Taste of Death" lenser Benito Frattari makes this desert-locked minor war film look sprawling and the nocturnal actions scenes have a perilous, primitive quality. The strident music of composer Mario Nascimbene enhances the suspense, especially when Sullivan and his men search for a wounded German engineer who remains at large in the compound. Nascimbene makes superb use of classical music from composer Edvard Grieg, specifically "In the Hall of the Mountain King." Whatever the case, “Commandos” neither glorifies nor glamorizes combat. Fighting is a hard sweaty business. Sergeant Sullivan summarizes it succinctly to Captain Valli in an earlier scene. “Do you know what blood smells like, Captain? It’s a hot smell, and it can get things messed up, too, because most men die hard.”

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE NEBRASKAN (1953)

"Raiders of Tomahawk Creek" director Fred F. Sears' "The Nebraskan" (** out of ****) attests to the popularity of westerns during the Eisenhower era. This standard cavalry versus the redskins horse opera set in Nebraska packs plenty of action as white men trapped in an isolated way station battle bloodthirsty savages.

Predictable as the stock characters that inhabit it, "The Nebraskan" contains a couple of narrative revelations as well as good, solid performances from Phil Carey, Richard Webb, Jay Silverheels, but veteran screen heavy Lee Van Cleef takes top honors as a thoroughly evil cavalry deserter who has no qualms about killing in cold blood.

You will no doubt notice all those wonderful images of objects, arrows, knives, and flaming ceiling posts thrust toward the camera. "The Nebraskan" was one of Columbia's entries in the 3-D sweepstakes in the year 1953 right after United Artists released "Bwana Devil" as the first example of 3-D. Many of the effects here appear to be inserted just as some stock footage of Indians on the warpath look like they were re-photographed with rocks laid into the foreground to enhance the 3-D look. "The Nebraskan" isn't the best nor is it the worst 3-D movie, just as it is neither the best nor the worst western.

The action unfolds with Wade Harper (Phil Carey of "Return to Warbow") and Indian scout Wingfoot (Maurice Jara of "Take the High Ground") riding hell-bent-for-leather across rugged scenery with Spotted Bear (Jay Silverheels of "The Lone Ranger") and his Sioux warriors hot on their heels. Our hero and his prisoner barely make it inside Fort Carney before the rampaging Indians pull up outside the gates. Colonel Markham (Regis Toomey of "The High and the Mighty") warns Spotted Bear that Nebraska has just become a state and that both whites and Indians must obey the law. Wingfoot and Harper, it seems, were sent to conclude a peace pact with the Sioux, but Spotted Bear discovered Chief Thundercloud with a knife in his back dead not long after Wingfoot had left the chief's tent. Harper brought Wingfoot back as his prisoner so that the Sioux wouldn't use the occasion as a pretext to violence. Spotted Bear isn't happy with this arrangement, but he accepts it.

The Army locks Wingfoot up in the guard house with notorious Private Reno Benton (Lee Van Cleef, who wears his cavalry hat like he did years later in "The Big Gundown"). The villainous Reno strangles an inept guard (Robert Williams) who gets too close to the barred cell door, and then he relieves him of his keys. Reno forces Wingfoot to join him so that the Indian lead him to safety amidst all the irate Indians. Reno isn't content with killing one sentry. He stabs another in the back before the bugler sounds the alarm and Wingfoot and he high tail it out of Fort Carney. Markham assigns Harper and a handful of men, led by Captain De Witt (a barely recognizable Dennis Weaver of "McCloud") to pursue the escaped prisoners. Four days later, a tired, irritable De Witt rejects Harper's suggestion about taking the long way instead of a short cut in their pursuit of Reno and Wingfoot, and everybody but Harper survives a cleverly laid ambush by Reno. No sooner has Reno and Wingfoot taken off than they run into another cavalry patrol on the way to Fort Carney. Reno cannot argue his way out of this predicament so Wingfoot and he ride along until the cavalry patrol ride to the rescue of a stagecoach being chased by whooping Indians in war paint. The stagecoach overturns but the cavalry arrives in time to save two passengers, Ace Elliot (Richard Webb of "Prince Valiant") and his wife Paris (Roberta Haynes of "Hell Ship Mutiny"), and the commander allows Reno and Wingfoot to escort them to a nearby watering hole called MacBride's.

No sooner have the cavalry ridden away than Reno turns his carbine on the Elliots and robs them. Unfortunately, for Reno, the resilient Wade Harper makes a convenient appearance and turns the tables on the murdering cavalryman. Our heroes, heroine, and the prisoners ride off to McBride's way station, run by a crusty old-timer 'Mac' McBride (Wallace Ford of "Freaks"). About that time, Spotted Bear and his Sioux warriors descend on the way station with all their guns blazing and lay siege to our heroes.

Phil Carey portrays buckskin clad cavalry scout Wade Harper as an omniscient expert in all things Indian, but his character isn't very comfortable around women. It seems that Paris and he had a thing going once that didn't pan out because Harper wasn't very good with words. Paris, on the rebound, wound up getting hitched so-to-speak to the duded-up city-slicker Ace who reveals his true colors later after the Indians besiege them in Mac's stone cabin. Richard Webb does a better-than-average job as the cowardly Ace. Veteran western scenarist David Lang of "The Last Outpost" and "Ambush at Tomahawk Gap" co-wrote this passable oater with Martin Berkeley of "Red Sundown" and "Revenge of the Creature." According to IMDb.COM, Berkeley gained a notoriety by naming more Hollywood directors, actors, and writers at the infamous HUAC hearings in the 1950s than anybody else. Lang and Berkeley wrap up everything, even the mystery behind Chief Thundercloud's death, in a finale that leaves the dust settled. Appropriately enough, Lee Van Cleef dies with an Indian knife in his back.

"The Nebraskan" is nothing special, certainly not a memorable cavalry oater of John Ford quality. Nevertheless, it reminds us how many hundreds of westerns like it were produced in the 1950s when moviegoers couldn't get enough of the Old West. Picture's saving grace is its trim 68-minute running time.

FILM REVIEW OF ''KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL" (1952)

“Dark Alibi” director Phil Karlson’s “Kansas City Confidential” (***1/2 out of ****) qualifies as a crisply-made, smartly-plotted, entertaining heist caper about the perfect crime. This imaginative, 1952 release from United Artists and producer Edward Small about an innocent man framed for a robbery that he didn’t commit teems with interesting characters, a seasoned cast, edgy predicaments, and a fine resolution. Good guy John Payne musters considerable credibility as the flawed protagonist who is punished for the crime, while a dream cast of classic heavies--Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand—enjoy their ill-gotten gains until our hero can pay them back with interest. “Red River’s” Coleen Gray plays Payne’s love interest, but her character is strictly peripheral in the greater scheme of the action. Yes, she does figure into the plot, but she isn’t front and center like the rest of the cast, including Preston Foster as the mastermind of the a million dollar hold-up.

“Narrow Margin” lenser George E. Diskant’s moody black & white photography is first-rate, and several camera angles stand out, enhancing the thrills and chills. Rowland Brown and Harold Bruce provided the basis for the story, while Harry Essex and George Bruce penned the tightly-knit screenplay with uncredited assistance from both Karlson and Payne. Clocking in at a trim 99 minutes, “Kansas City Confidential” doesn’t squander a second and never wears out its welcome. Moreover, some commentators have described it as a film noir entry when it really isn’t film noir. The interesting thing is that Karlson’s crime thriller seems a little ahead of its time with its post-modern spin on events. The cops are portrayed as pretty ruthless and the mastermind has a back story that makes him a tragic character. All in all, “Kansas City Confidential” delivers more than the usual 1952 thriller about a robbery.

The film opens with this foreword: “In the police annuals of Kansas City are written lurid chapters of criminals apprehended and brought to punishment. But it is the purpose of this picture to expose the amazing operations of a man who conceived and executed a ‘perfect crime,’ the true solution of which is not entered in any case history, and could well be entitled ‘Kansas City Confidential.’”

The action occurs in three parts. The mastermind checks his plan. He has decided to rob an armored car as the cops tote the money sacks out to the vehicle. A florist truck usually parks near where the armored car is parked. The florist delivery man, Joe Rolfe (John Payne of “Tripoli”), parks his truck and takes flowers into a building. The mastermind, Tim Foster (Preston Foster of “Guadalcanal Diary”), has been planning the heist fastidiously as a close-up reveals a time table of events he has made. For example, he notes the times that police squad cars cruise past, the arrival and departure of the Western Florist Delivery truck as well as the Bank Armored cars. Foster has timed everything at least five times for pin-point accuracy. He has calculated that he will need between two and four minutes to pull the job. He picks three criminals, Pete Harris (Jack Elam of “The Comancheros”) a trigger-happy, chain-smoking, dice gambler; ladies man Tommy Romano (Lee Van Cleef of “High Noon”) who is a habitual criminal, and Boyd Kane (Neville Brand of “Riot in Cell Block 3”) a cop killer who chews bubble-gum.

The second part involves the bank hold-up. As Foster has planned it, the criminals slip up beside the armored car and in unless than four minutes, they appropriate the money bags and hightail with one guard snapping off a couple of rounds at them. Predictably, the Kansas City cops pull over Joe, search his florist delivery truck, and haul him off to the station for some police brutality. Eventually, the authorities discover the abandoned florist delivery truck, but by then Joe has lost his job. “Thanks for nothing,” he utters contemptuously.

We learn that Joe fought in World War II hero and saved a man’s life on Iwo Jima. Joe’s grateful pal provides Joe with a tip about Harris’ whereabouts through a third party. What Joe doesn’t realize until he catches up with shifty-eyed Jack Elam is that Foster planned the crime wearing a mask. He almost entrusted each criminal enough money to leave the country until he thinks thing have cooled down enough to divide the loot. None of them knows what Foster looks like and they don’t know what the others look like because Foster forced them to always wear masks in front of each other. “I’ve made you cop-proof and stool-pigeon proof,” Foster brags. He gives them each a tore playing card in case he doesn’t make it to the split-up. Later, Tijuana authorities get the drop on Harris as Joe and he are about to leave for the Central American hamlet of Borados. Harris tries to shoot his way out and dies. Somehow, Joe appropriates Harris’ luggage with the mask and the torn poker card that Foster gave each of them.

What sets “Kansas City Confidential” apart from most B-pictures about the perfect crime is mastermind Tim Foster’s motivation. He spent 20 years on the KCPD and he was forced to retire because of politics. He engineers this perfect crime so that he can weasel his way back into the good graces of the department. Even his daughter has figured out a way for him to get another shot at being a cop. However, Foster has gone beyond the point of no return. Nevertheless, he almost pulls it off. Tracking down Foster and company is no picnic for Joe, but he manages to clear himself in the end rather neatly. Karlson does an outstanding job pacing this little thriller and revealing only a bit at a time. The scene where Joe loses his revolver at the swimming pool and finds himself pitting against Kane and Romano in his bungalow is terrific.

Critically speaking, “Time” magazine observed that “Kansas City Confidential” “combines a ‘perfect crime’ plot with some fair-to-middling moviemaking.” However, the November 10 review added: “After a few brawls and beatings, both justice and love emerge triumphant. Obviously, the ‘confidential’ of the title does not refer to the picture’s plot, which is a very model of transparency.” Meanwhile, “The Nation” magazine on November 8, 1952, opined: “For a fairly good movie you can see “Kansas City Confidential,” which in general burglarizes another burglar movie, “The Asphalt Jungle,” adds a few wrinkles picked up from the Brink robbery, and passes over probability faster than any movie in memory. But unlike any of the above films, it tells a story with gimmicks or short cuts, and all the people involved—director Karlson, actors Elam, Van Cleef, Brand—were not only concerned with the best way to express the material on hand but obviously enjoying themselves.” “The Saturday Review” stipulated that “for all its titular hints at daring political expose, is really just another cops-and-robbers thriller, somewhat better done than most and far more absorbing than many, thanks to its taut and logical story.” “The Saturday Review” went on to say: “There are some surprisingly explicit hints at police brutality, a good deal of gratuitous violence all around. The director, Phil Karlson, keeps his action whipping along at full tilt, aided considerably by George Kiskant’s clean, imaginative camera work. “Newsweek” magazine in its December 8, 1952, review avers that after the set-up for the crime that the film slid down hill. “From this point on George Bruce’s and Harry Essex’s script loses in tension and gains in elaboration and incredibility. The picture never recaptures the cold, fast drama that director Phil Karlson got into the sinister masquerade of the earliest footage.”

Altogether, “Kansas City Confidential” is worth watching again and again.