Pun Salad

Netflix has Inglorious Basterds, The Princess and the Frog, and The Blind Side on an (apparently) infinite waitlist, so I'm diving down for older movies that their algorithm says I'll like. This one is right on the money: a 1959 Cinemascope epic western, directed by Budd Boetticher, starring Randolph Scott. When they say "they don't make 'em like that any more", this is what they mean by "that."

Here, Mr. Scott plays Ben Brigade, a bounty hunter who's tracked down a goofy murderer named Billy John (played by Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane hisself, James Best). Brigade (seemingly) wants to get Billy John back to Santa Cruz to hang. Complicating that: the rest of Billy John's gang has fetched brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef) to intercept Brigade on the way. And Brigade quickly picks up some unwanted fellow travelers: Boone and Whit (Pernell Roberts and James Coburn), a couple of brigands who would prefer that they be the ones to turn in Billy John; and lovely Mrs. Lane (Karen Steele), who has been recently widowed, courtesy of some marauding Native Americans.

The movie offers spectacular scenery and a neat twist ending. As often happens in Boetticher/Scott movies, there's an interesting relationship between the hero and his nominal adversary (Pernell Roberts in this case): while they're on different sides of the law, and one may end up shooting the other, there's a mutual recognition of a shared bond of masculine honor.

Mr. Scott does his own stunts. He's very good on a horse. As usual, he seems not to be acting.

Karen Steele gets photographed mainly in profile for reasons that are immediately clear to any guy over thirteen. She's not a bad actress, but … hey, where have I seen her before? Oh, yeah: here.