Quote:
Originally Posted by Angel  The Love Butcher
Silly but entertaining. Sadly still no official UK release...35 years on. |
Wonderful stuff!
I have the big ass American VHS of it.
"The Tall T"
Another of the Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher Westerns that opens with all dazzling smiles and happy-happy dialogue and attitudes (and a typically crap 50's Western musical score that drowns you in saccharine and cheese) before it becomes surprisingly dark and violent.
A verbal plot revelation, involving a well, is certainly hard-hitting and quite shocking and from then on there is an air of genuine menace here as the (ever marvelous) Richard Boone's gang (including a young Henry Silva in full psycho mode) take Scott, a purposely dowdy Maureen O'Sullivan and her husband captive.
The lean running time helps the fact the plot is thin and the top performances from all concerned also help to push the film higher than it's basic set-up (based on a story by Elmore Leonard) and the odd moment of violence (especially a scene involving a shotgun and a face and the finale) add punch to the movie.