**_Randolph Scott and Glenn Ford are very young in this decent old Western_**
In 1863 Utah, a wanted gunman (Ford) meets a winsome woman that makes him want to go straight and settle down (Evelyn Keyes), but a murderous bank robber’s false accusations get him into trouble with the law. Scott plays the sheriff of the town, Claire Trevor a hotel madam and Edgar Buchanan a duplicitous widower. Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams is also on hand as a dubious expert with Nitroglycerin.
"The Desperadoes" (1943) is worthwhile just to see Scott and, especially, Ford when they were younger. There’s also some spectacular Utah scenery in Technicolor and both Evelyn Keyes and Claire Trevor are pleasing to the eyes. Evelyn looks especially good in semi-tight brown leather pants.
The tone is mostly serious with a few amusing bits, some of which work (the guys concentrating on poker during the saloon brawl) and some that don’t (Buchanan’s two-faced character is too revolting to be amusing). There’s also some lame writing, like Cheyenne Rogers forgetting to inform the guy he robs a horse from that there’s money in the saddlebags of his injured horse for him to replace it.
Moreover, there are some glaring anachronisms: A train is shown in the opening with Utah Southern Railroad on the tender, yet the story takes place in 1863 and the USR wasn’t in service until 1871. Also, just prior to the horse stampede thru town someone says, "...they'll think they're riding into Custer's Last Stand," which didn’t take place until 1876.
Assistant director Budd Boetticher met Randolph on the set and they would go on to team-up later for some very good Westerns, e.g. “The Tall T” (1957), “Decision at Sundown” (1957) and “Ride Lonesome” (1959).
The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot at Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, SoCal, with wilderness scenes shot in Utah at Johnson Canyon, Kanab Canyon, the Gap, and Paria.
GRADE: B-
Though Randolph Scott takes top billing, I think it's Glenn Ford who takes the plaudits here in this ultimately rather predicable western. It starts off quite promisingly when the town of Red valley has it's bank robbed and suffers three citizens slaughtered. The bank's owner, "Clanton" (Porter Hall), magnanimously decides to pay out 50 cents on the dollar to those who lost out. In his back room, though, we realise that's a bit of an empty gesture as he and cheery stagecoach driver "Uncle Willie" (Edgar Buchanan) are part of a wheeze to pocket quite a lot of loot. Thing is, the robbery didn't quite go to plan and the gang employed are just a bit too local for comfort when sheriff "Upton" (the so-so Scott) starts to investigate. He is caught off guard by "Rogers" (Ford) who pinches his horse and arrives in town at the stable run by "Allison" (Evelyn Keyes) - who just happens to be the daughter of the dodgy stagecoach captain. She recognises the horse as that of the lawman but luckily it turns out that when they are face to face, these two men are actually friends and swiftly turn their attentions to exposing the crooked "Clanton" before he manages to frame "Cheyenne" for the hold-up. Claire Trevor also features as the glamorous, bar-owing, "Countess" who also has some skin in the game with both men and luckily for this now rather muddling and over-populated narrative she has a pal who likes to play with nitro-glycerin! There are just too many characters vying for a space in the story here, and that story is just too thin to sustain it after about thirty minutes when the audience knows all there is to know and the path is laid towards a standard conclusion. There's some gunfighting now and again, but otherwise this isn't much to write home about, sorry.
