Well Deserved Praise

Boring, long, and too preachy.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie was exciting and had a good story line, but I feel the cast is what sold this 1952 "B" western. Bill Elliott was my favorite cowboy actor, and he did well as the low-keyed-yet-very tough, determined rancher. Kermit Maynard was excellent as the rancher sometimes at odds with Elliott yet basically his friend. To state it mildly, Phyllis Coates was a very attractive attention-getting icon as Ken Maynard's daughter and Elliott's lover, as she was in other movies with him. (Oh! She was adorable!) As for the villains, Robert Wilke and Myron Healey were mean outlaws par excellence: you almost have to feel sorry for those two who were primarily portrayed as crooks during their film careers. And Stanley Andrews, later to be known as the Old Ranger on "Death Valley Days" fell well into his role as the judge. Truly, this was a well-amassed cast for a movie of its kind. In this movie whose story line centered around the rancher (Elliott) wanting to ward off cattle stampedes by building barbed-wire fences, there was no dearth of action. Yes, the movie was very exciting and rather tense all the way through. It was for me personally very much of a favorite.

"Fargo" follows the tried and true story line of the cattlemen trying to drive out the nesters plot. For a "B" series western, I thought it was pretty good.Bill Martin ("Wild Bill" Elliot) returns home when his brother, a farmer, is murdered by stampeded cattle. He encounters Red Olsen (Myron Healey) and his co-horts Link (Robert J. Wilke) and Alvord (Terry Frost) and gets into a fight with Olsen when he berates Martin's brother. It turns out that Olsen is working for "respectable" townsman Austin (Arthur Space) to drive out the arriving nesters in order for the cattlemen to retain control of the range.Lining up with Martin are ranchers McKenzie (Jack Ingram), who has a feisty daughter Kathy (Phyllis Coates), and Tad Sloan (Fuzzy Knight). Martin and Sloan develop a form of barbed wire which is successful in preventing the cattle from encroaching on their lands. In a bizarre, if not frightening sequence (for kids), Martin is captured by Olsen and wrapped up in barbed wire and delivered to the town meeting. Meanwhile Austin orders his men to drive out the nesters at any cost. But Martin, recovering from his ordeal, decides to stop them and...............................................Elliott, always the straight laced ever serious no nonsense hero, is in top form as Martin. His experience with the barbed wire was unusual for a series western but is nonetheless an integral part of the story.In an unusual bit of casting, perennial bad guy Ingram is a crusading good guy rancher and Fuzzy Knight, who usually played the comic relief, plays it straight this time around. Myron Healey is as nasty as can bee as he mercilessly guns down several people over the course of the film. Others in the cast are Robert Bray, Denver Pyle and House Peters Jr. as ranchers. Peters incidentally, is listed in some sources as having played Elliot's brother. In fact he as stated, plays one of the ranchers. Elliot's brother's face is not shown.

Fargo has Wild Bill Elliott coming back to Dakota Territory to take up a crusade that his murdered brother House Peters, Jr. tried. While Elliott was roaming the west Peters took up the family ranch and sublet it to a lot of homesteaders with the inevitable barbed wire that they bring to fence in crops. That got Peters killed and Elliott back to Fargo.Elliott continues with his brother's ideas which is that the days of open range are over, that if worked right the farmers can sell their grain to the ranchers for feed as well as to outside markets. But some people are set in their ways.Wild Bill really gets wrapped up in this one when chief enforcer Myron Healey and his gang capture him and send him back to the farmers and sympathetic ranchers gift wrapped in barbed wire. Quite lucky he wasn't killed in the process. All that did was get the peaceable man quite provoked.Their are some plot holes in this western, but the final gun battle between Healey's gang and the forces of law and order and progress will not be denied. As if they ever are in these westerns.

William "Wild Bill" Elliott was one of the better western stars of the 1940's and 1950's. His no-nonsense, peaceable man demeanor served him well in this and dozens of other films. Whether it was fistfights, gunfights or shootouts, he was always on top of his game.This film was exciting, fast-paced and entertaining. Elliott was fine in this role and was supported by a fine cast. The production values and budget on this film seem a notch above other similar films of the era.All in all, this was one of Elliot's best films. this is good, quality entertainment........ the kind that is sorely lacking nowadays !