Day of the Outlaw (1959)

Director:

André De Toth

Writers:

Lee E. Wells (novel)
Philip Yordan (screenplay)

Release Date:

July 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Cowboys and ranchers have to put their differences aside when a gang of outlaws, led by army captain Jack Bruhn...

Plot Keywords:

Outlaw | Winter | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

Robert Ryan	...	Blaise Starrett
Burl Ives	...	Jack Bruhn
Tina Louise	...	Helen Crane
Alan Marshal	...	Hal Crane
Venetia Stevenson	...	Ernine, Vic's Daughter
David Nelson	...	Gene, Bruhn's Gang
Nehemiah Persoff	...	Dan, Starret's Foreman
Jack Lambert	...	Tex (Bruhn's gang)
Frank DeKova	...	Denver, Bruhn's Gang (as Frank deKova)
Lance Fuller	...	Pace, Bruhn's Gang
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Larry Teter (town barber) (as Elisha Cook)
Dabbs Greer	...	Doc Langer, Veterinarian
Betsy Jones-Moreland	...	Mrs. Preston (as Betsey Jones-Moreland)
Helen Westcott	...	Vivian
Donald Elson	...	Vic, General Store Owner

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Sound)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:PG | USA:Approved (certificate #19266)

Filming Locations:

Mount Bachelor, Oregon, USA

Company:

Security Pictures

Quotes:

Hal Crane: I'll fight for what I believe, Mr. Starrett. I'll die if i have to, but I'll fight. I want you to know that.
Blaise Starrett: You got a big mouth, farmer. You got big eyes, too. You came here a year ago in your broken down wagon looking for a choice spot to settle and you think you found it. But you never stopped to think what made it such a good place. When Dan and I came here...

Where's the Snow Plow

Underrated Western with some genuinely unusual features. As a long-time fan of Westerns, I've seen only a handful hardy enough to film in the mountains in winter. But the results here are riveting, especially in grainy b&w. Those bleak snow-scapes with the horses trying to plow across are a rare glimpse of trail blazing before the 4-lane highway. The toll on man and beast must have been excruciating. Those memorable scenes are, I believe, the movie's high point, and to the credit of the producers, I could spot only one minor exterior set to break the continuity. Then too, the weather-beaten town looks authentic as heck. I just wish IMDb had been able to identify the locations so I'll know where not to winter hike.

Unusual too is the absence of a good-guy hero. The two leads, Ryan and Ives, are both strong characters, but with a wobbly moral compass that wavers somewhere between low- down meaness and high-type nobility. In short, you never know what they're going to do. That makes for two interesting non-stereotypes to drive the plot. I expect one reason the film was passed over by critics is because of sexpot Tina Louise as an audience draw. Known more for her Amazonian measurements than her acting skills, she nevertheless does well enough here, while watching her get bounced around the dance floor, hair flying, is not anything you'll see her Ginger do on TV's Gilligan's Island. Speaking of vintage TV, there's Ozzie & Harriet's elder son David as a good kid who's fallen in with the wrong crowd, and a teenage Venetia Stevenson who looks and sounds more like a malt shop than a frontier town. Somehow, you just know they'll end up together.

Nonetheless, it's a payday for a lot of sturdy Hollywood veterans in supporting parts, including the always dependable Dabbs Greer and my favorite plug-ugly bad guy Jack Lambert. Then too, maybe you can figure out what Elisha Cook Jr.'s role is supposed to be, but who cares, just seeing the little fall-guy resonates across a couple of memorable Hollywood decades. And who better to manage scriptwriter Phillip Yordan's parade of shifting alliances than a central European like Andre de Toth, whose 1947 Western Ramrod remains another hidden gem. Anyhow, no movie that pits the steely Robert Ryan against the immovable Burl Ives can afford to be passed up, especially when stretched across an unusually polar landscape that still gives me the cold shivers.