Truly Dreadful Film

Not even bad in a good way

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This film, which features a production credit for star Randolph Scott and direction by H. Bruce Humberstone, is typical of his post-war output with Columbia. Jocelyn Brando appears, without much to do, but the film does have some nice bits for Richard Boone, Leo Gordon, and Lee Van Cleef (all of whom would later reappear even more memorably in the Ranown series with Budd Boetticher later in the 50s/early 60s). There are some strange shifts of focus.... early in the film, the focus is more on Scott's family, and later it is more focused on Dennis Weaver's sheriff character. The Ranown films would benefit from better direction by Boetticher, better stories by Burt Kennedy and Elmore Leonard -- but this one is a step in the right direction, with Boone and Van Cleef in particular giving their characters some nasty meat on the bones, and Scott's characters gradually becoming more convincingly bitter and hard-edged.

In contrast to his usual roles as a loner or "stranger in town", Randolph Scott plays a very successful rancher, but doesn't really fit the patriarch mould, though he does get to wear a fancy waistcoat.Like other commentators, I thought that his practical joke at the beginning was foolish, and that the way the chip on bad guy Wick Campbell's shoulder grew was a bit unbelievable. And it was way into the film that I started to wonder about the "Ten Wanted Men" of the title. When the imported bad guys massed for the final shoot-out I tried to count them, and they did seem to number ten.I wondered if the version I saw on British TV had been subject to editing, such was the jerky plot, but the original runtime of 80 minutes was accommodated by the 85-minute viewing slot (including a couple of commercial breaks). The relationship between Maria and Howie seemed to happen instantaneously, and the "ten wanted men" turned up in town almost spontaneously.It was good to see Skip Homeier acting against type; he's nearly always a bad guy who gets killed; here he's even slow to rise to provocation from one of Campbell's heavies. I was half-expecting him to turn out bad but...Leo Gordon stole quite a few scenes from Richard Boone, who didn't perform that well. He had the most complex role in the film, with a chip-on-the-shoulder, somewhat pathetic infatuation with a young girl, and a really mean streak.Lee van Cleef didn't have much to do. "High Noon" apart, his filmography up to now had been unimpressive, but his day was coming.Quite apart from his misplaced sense of humour at the beginning, Scott took a foolish risk by walking into the bad guy's saloon by himself, and where were all his ranch-hands in the final confrontation? Without them, he had an unimpressive set of allies in the siege. Earlier he had recalled how he had won his land from the Apaches despite them burning him out four time, so perhaps he had a strong sense of indestructibility. John Wayne would have carried off the role better.Moonraker

Saloon owner Richard Boone and cattle rancher Randolph Scott have had an uneasy rivalry for years. But the final straw comes when Scott's nephew starts sparking Donna Martell who Boone had considered his private preserve. Of course she never saw it that way and when she goes to Scott for protection, Boone starts a range war over it.Richard Boone is presented to us as having a chip on his shoulder to begin with. But he truly goes over the top because of his hatred for Scott. He kills poor Clem Bevans to get possession of his ranch which is next to Scott's. Boone rustles Scott's cattle of course, he shoots Scott's lawyer brother, he imports several hired guns like Leo Gordon, Lee Van Cleef, and Denver Pyle. Pyle in fact tries to rawhide Scott's nephew, played by Skip Homeier, into a fight. That one doesn't work out to well for Pyle.My favorite in this film is Leo Gordon. He's one mean man as he is in so many films. But what's funny here is the way he keeps slipping the needle to Richard Boone. Oh, he'll take Boone's money and Gordon's the sort who likes mayhem and violence for its own sake. But he does think Boone's motives a bit nuts and lets him know a few times in the film.It's not one of the best of Randolph Scott's westerns and it does seem a mighty silly reason to start a range war.

"Ten Wanted Men" probably would not make a list of must see films, for the simple reason that it was released during the 50's as a movie bound for the Saturday afternoon double feature bill at the local movie house. The viewer will recognize a lot of Grade-B western movie actors, and this does give a bit of nostalgia to the film.Scott plays the rancher in the valley with most of the power and influence, while Richard Boone plays an up-and-comer who has designs to crowd in on Scott's area. Assisting Boone in this plan are veteran western heavies Leo Gordon and Lee Van Cleef and Dennis Weaver playing the sheriff before his "Gunsmoke" days. As indicated, it is a simple tale of the good guy against the bad guy, with a fistic brawl between Scott and Gordon settling the issue. A good film for the western fans.