Better Late Then Never

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

5 USA showed "Rough night in Jericho"yesterday evening in pan and scan that is generally the kiss of death to any movie and certainly the big fight between Mr Peppard and Mr Pickens loses much of its impact,but generally the whole piece held up reasonably well. Good old pros in front of and behind the camera do their stuff very professionally and Mr McIntyre is particularly good as a retired sheriff turned stage driver. Mr D.Martin plays Flood as "Dude" in "Rio Bravo" might have turned out if MrJ.Wayne had ridden away and left him after the closing titles. He has the veneer of charm and bonhomie but it is stretched pretty thin by Mr G Peppard as a former deputy who involves himself in what Flood considers to be his town and with Miss J.Simmons who he considers to be his woman. "Rough night in Jericho" would have been a very good TV Western but doesn't quite reach the heights on the big screen. Nonetheless it is pleasing enough and well cast enough to be worth your time.

Normally I love westerns, and I am willing to accept some flaws in them, but I found this particular western a chore to sit through. The lead performances, for one thing, hurt the movie. Now, I am not saying that Peppard and Martin were miscast, but they were not directed well here. Peppard seems out of place, while Martin does not come across as ruthless enough to be believable as a villain.But what really hurts the movie is the script. The mix between comic sequences and brutal action do not fit together very well. Also, the first half of the movie is almost all talk talk talk, and not very interesting talk. And Peppard's character doesn't do anything in that first half to try and change the desperate situation. Things do pick up somewhat in the last part of the second half, but it's too little too late.By the way, Leonard Maltin's video guide branded this movie as "gory", but by today's standards it's not very bloody.

Dean Martin for the first and only time in his career played a villain, a town boss named Alex Flood who still hasn't gotten control of the stagecoach line Jean Simmons runs. She's sold it to George Peppard and John McIntire. McIntire is wounded on the way into town and he and Peppard are put up by Simmons. This doesn't sit well with Dino, he and Simmons have had their moments in the past.It's a good adult western with lots of action to satisfy everyone. One of the most brutal fight scenes in cinema history takes place between Peppard and Slim Pickens who's Martin's chief henchman. More brutal than the one between Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt against Barton MacLane in Treasure of the Sierra Made. More brutal because Pickens meets his demise. The rest of the film is Peppard rallying forces to take the town away from Martin's control. Of course having Jean Simmons to come home to is enough to inspire anyone.Simmons is no longer playing the young girls she played in the 1950s, but she gives a good account of herself as the stageline widow. She's always good, one of the most under-appreciated actresses in movie history.Good adult western, worth a view. And if you want to see a modern remake, catch the Patrick Swayze film Road House.

Dean Martin plays the corrupt sheriff, who has controlling interest in virtually every enterprise in the small town of Jericho. Virtually every enterprise except the stagecoach service owned by Jean Simmons. Martin wants to control ALL of Simmons' property. In rides George Peppard, a former "town tamer" and his partner, John McIntire, a former lawman. Peppard had planned to be a driver for Simmons, but wants no part of taking on Martin and his men, including Slim Pickens. When Pickens arrives at Simmons ranch to damage her stagecoach, Simmons resists him, and is struck by Pickens. What follows is one of the most violent fights in the history of the western. Peppard finally shows the townspeople how to defeat Martin and his men. Martin beats Simmons savagely, and Peppard pursues Martin to the final showdown. Unlike most westerns the showdown takes place in the woods, and it is not altogether clear that either man survives.Martin makes a charming, if vicious, villain. Peppard brings more emotion than one usually expects to his western hero. Simmons, as always, is radiant. There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.