WESTBOUND (USA, 1959) ***
Distributor: Warner Bros.; Production Company: Warner Bros.; Release Date: 25 April 1959 (USA), May 1959 (UK); Filming Dates: 8 October 1957-early November 1957; Running Time: 72m; Colour: WarnerColor; Sound Mix: Mono (RCA Sound Recording); Film Format: 35mm; Film Process: Spherical; Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1; BBFC Cert: U.
Director: Budd Boetticher; Writer: Berne Giler (based on a story by Berne Giler and Albert S. Le Vino); Executive Producer: ; Producer: Henry Blanke; Director of Photography: J. Peverell Marley; Music Composer: David Buttolph; Film Editor: Philip W. Anderson; Art Director: Robey Cooper (uncredited); Costumes: Marie Blanchard, Alexander Velcoff (both uncredited); Sound: Samuel F. Goode.
Cast: Randolph Scott (Capt. John Hayes), Virginia Mayo (Norma Putnam), Karen Steele (Jeanie Miller), Michael Dante (Rod Miller), Andrew Duggan (Clay Putnam), Michael Pate (Mace), Wally Brown (Stubby), John Daheim (Russ (as John Day)), Walter Barnes (Willis – Stage Depot Cook).
Synopsis: In 1864 a Union captain goes to Colorado to take over the stagecoach line and keep the flow of Western gold flowing and help the North win the Civil War.
Comment: This was the sixth collaboration between Scott and director Boetticher. However, this time writer Burt Kennedy is missing from the mix. The screenplay treatment here is by Giler and as such the story veers much more into the traditional B-movie territory. the story sees Union soldier Scott take over the Overland stage company to ensure gold gets from California to the Union coffers. Duggan and his confederate sympathising town are out to stop him. Duggan is aided by Pate’s gunslinger. Scott is commanding, as ever, and Steele and Duggan also turn in strong performances. Pate is a stock heavy and Dante lacks depth as the romantic hero returning from the war to his bride Steele with only one arm. Mayo is Scott’s ex-flame, now married to Duggan. The pot boils nicely toward its shootout finale before the whole thing is wrapped up a little too slickly. Perhaps the weakest of the Scott/Boetticher Westerns, but still an entertaining ride.