Great Film overall

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The acting in this movie is really good.

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

WESTBOUND 1959This western was produced by Warner Brothers and stars, Randolph Scott. The rest of the cast includes, Andrew Duggan, Virginia Mayo, Karen Steele, Michael Dante and Michael Pate.The film, set in 1864 during the US Civil War, has Union Officer Scott being sent west to Colorado. Scott is to supervise the running of "The Overland Stage" company. The government uses the stage line to ship the gold from California needed to finance the war effort.Needless to say there are some Confederate types out to disrupt the plan. The group is controlled by former Overland manager, Andrew Duggan. Duggan has a gang of most unsavoury types doing his dirty work. The gang is led by a top gun-hand, played by Michael Pate. Pate and his mob burn stage way stations, run off the stock etc. Also in the mix here is a former squeeze of Scott, Virginia Mayo. Mayo is now married to Duggan.Getting involved with helping Scott set things up is one-armed Union veteran, Michael Dante, and his wife, the drop dead gorgeous, Karen Steele. There is a series back and forth raids on both camps horses etc. Matters really turn nasty when young Dante is killed by one of Pate's hired guns. Then, Pate and mob run a stage off a hill killing the passengers including a little girl, so they could grab the gold shipment.Duggan is having second thoughts about Pate's methods. He wants to stop the gold shipments, but killing women and children is going too far. There is now a big showdown in the local burg between Scott and Pate's bunch. The townsfolk join in to help Scott. Duggan, Pate and the rest soon end up ready for Boot Hill.This was the sixth of seven films made by Scott and director, Budd Boetticher. It is also only one not made by Scott and Harry Joe Brown's production company, Ranown. Scott it seemed owed Warner Brothers a film from an earlier contract and this was it. Boetticher volunteered to direct and Warner Bros agreed hoping to continue the box office streak of Scott and the director. At 72 minutes the film moves well enough, but is the weakest of the pair's collaborations.The story is a bit shopworn and has all been seen before. The Miss Mayo part could have been left out and no one would have noticed. Michael Pate though is particularly good as the kill happy gunman. As for Karen Steele, this is one hot looking bit of womanhood.The director of photography was the twice Oscar nominated, J. Peverell Marley. The talented Marley lensed films like, THE SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS, SUEZ, LIFE WITH FATHER, PRIDE OF THE MARINES, KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE and DRUM BEAT.The score by David Buttolph is effective, with all the right flourishes in all the right places.

There is a lot of experience in this 1959 Randolph Scott film. Scott is about 62 when this one was shot and it shows. He is still a good actor but the script makes him a romantic lead and that is a bit of a stretch here. Both the ladies are less than 40.Virginia Mayo at 39 is still quite fetching though she really has a small role. The younger Karen Steele, oh mama, looks like she has a body that will not quit. There are scenes with both women together and it is kind of like dueling blonde's on the screen in this Technicolor B feature. The plot is really far fetched. The Union needs gold shipped from the West Coast in order to continue financing weapons to fight the Confederates? The Union had all the factories so this makes little sense. It does give the actors something to fight about - Confederates stealing gold shipments, but I doubt in 1864 it could have been a factor to change the war.The color and the cast and the best looking women in many a Western gives this one some eye candy in case you have trouble with the rather predictable plot.

During the American Civl War, an Army captain is tasked with ensuring the safe transport of government gold in the Old West. This is perhaps the weakest of the seven Boetticher-Scott Westerns, thanks to a so-so script that fails to evolve into a compelling narrative. The best of the series featured the writing of Burt Kennedy, and he's absent here. Scott plays a character similar to the others in the series, an easy-going fellow pushed to fight by the bad guys. Mayo plays the love interest, although she has a small role. Featured in a more prominent female role is Steele, who also appeared in two other Boetticher-Scott Westerns.

This film is set during the Civil War. Randolph Scott is dispatched by the Union Army to the West in order to ensure that stagecoaches filled with gold make it unscathed--without the Confederates capturing it. Unfortunately, at one place along the route, Andrew Duggan is the town big shot and he's determined to wreck Scott's plans because Duggan is a Confederate sympathizer.Now it's pretty obvious early on that while Duggan is boss, that eventually there will be some sort of showdown between him and his foreman--the impulsive and violent Mace (Michael Pate). This was telegraphed all the way, as was the pending breakup between Duggan and his wife (Virginia Mayo). About the only surprise, and it was a very, very mild one, was how ineffective Scott was for much of the film. While he acted tough and in control, an amazing number of his people were killed before he took any serious action.The story in this Western isn't that unusual and seems very, very similar to at least a hundred other films in the genre. So, from the outset, the story is awfully derivative and keeps this film from really succeeding. However, because Budd Boetticher was the director and Randolph Scott the leading man, there was an aura of class and sophistication that made this film a bit better than just another ordinary Western. Scott, as usual, was exceptional in his low-key and realistic delivery. If only the source material had been a bit better.