The Desperadoes

The Desperadoes

By

  • Genre: Western
  • Release Date: 1943-05-25
  • Runtime: 87 minutes
  • : 5.7
  • Production Company: Columbia Pictures
  • Production Country: United States of America
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5.7/10
5.7
From 28 Ratings

Description

Popular mailcoach driver Uncle Willie is in fact in league with the town's crooked banker. They plan to have the bank robbed after emptying it, and when Willie's choice for this doesn't show in time, he gets some local boys to do it. When his man does turn up he decides to stick around, as he is pals with the sheriff and also takes a shine to Willie's daughter Allison. This gives the bad men several new problems.

Trailer

Reviews

  • CinemaSerf

    6
    By CinemaSerf
    Though Randolph Scott takes top billing, I think it's Glenn Ford who takes the plaudits here in this ultimately rather predicable western. It starts off quite promisingly when the town of Red valley has it's bank robbed and suffers three citizens slaughtered. The bank's owner, "Clanton" (Porter Hall), magnanimously decides to pay out 50 cents on the dollar to those who lost out. In his back room, though, we realise that's a bit of an empty gesture as he and cheery stagecoach driver "Uncle Willie" (Edgar Buchanan) are part of a wheeze to pocket quite a lot of loot. Thing is, the robbery didn't quite go to plan and the gang employed are just a bit too local for comfort when sheriff "Upton" (the so-so Scott) starts to investigate. He is caught off guard by "Rogers" (Ford) who pinches his horse and arrives in town at the stable run by "Allison" (Evelyn Keyes) - who just happens to be the daughter of the dodgy stagecoach captain. She recognises the horse as that of the lawman but luckily it turns out that when they are face to face, these two men are actually friends and swiftly turn their attentions to exposing the crooked "Clanton" before he manages to frame "Cheyenne" for the hold-up. Claire Trevor also features as the glamorous, bar-owing, "Countess" who also has some skin in the game with both men and luckily for this now rather muddling and over-populated narrative she has a pal who likes to play with nitro-glycerin! There are just too many characters vying for a space in the story here, and that story is just too thin to sustain it after about thirty minutes when the audience knows all there is to know and the path is laid towards a standard conclusion. There's some gunfighting now and again, but otherwise this isn't much to write home about, sorry.

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