Wed 21 Sep 2016
A Western Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: RIDE A CROOKED TRAIL (1958).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[7] Comments
RIDE A CROOKED TRAIL. Universal, 1958. Audie Murphy, Gia Scala, Walter Matthau, Henry Silva. Written by Borden Chase. Directed by Jesse Hibbs.
Someone at Universal figured out how to make a decent Audie Murphy Western: hire a strong character actor (such as Barry Sullivan, Dan Duryea…) a good writer (such as Clair Huffaker, Burt Kennedy…) and build the movie around the character actor, with Audie moving the plot along.
Ride a Crooked Trail offers the formula at its best, with Walter Matthau as a shotgun-totin’ judge and a script by Borden Chase, who penned classics like Red River and Winchester 73. And if this isn’t exactly his best work, it still ain’t bad.
Audie sort of stumbles into the proceedings as an outlaw on the run who picks up a dead sheriff’s horse and is mistaken for the lawman when he rides into Matthau’s town. Forced to adopt the false identity, he finds himself unwillingly adopted by the boozy old judge, but things get complicated when an ex-girlfriend (Gia Scala) comes along and ends up posing as his wife… to be followed in turn by nasty Henry Silva, the current man in her life and head of an outlaw gang with eyes on the local bank.
It’s all very pat, fast-moving and family-oriented. Henry Silva is convincingly nasty, in a Jack Palance kind of way as the bad guy, though there isn’t really much for him to do. But it’s fun watching Matthau ham it up as the old reprobate judge, and the whole thing is done up in that lush Technicolor used by Universal in those days. In short, easy to watch and easy to forget.
September 22nd, 2016 at 10:32 am
Seems not to be available on Netflix, but so many aren’t these days. Not sure how I’d get my hands on it, if I wanted to watch it.
September 22nd, 2016 at 11:30 am
Dan’s review had me looking for a copy, too. I don’t do Netflix, so I didn’t go there, but I found that Amazon has copies on DVD. The price, though, is $20 including postage, which is way too high, even for an Audie Murphy movie.
September 22nd, 2016 at 1:40 pm
I’ve learned that Netflix doesn’t have everything and it has to be something I think I will want to watch more than once for me to pay real money for it.I actually subscribed to Netflix in order to watch all the episodes of Dark Shadows. It took me six years (I couldn’t take a steady diet of it) and now I’m free and can watch something else.
September 22nd, 2016 at 3:50 pm
I caught it last month on Starz Encore Westerns Channel. But I remember seeing it at the local flea pit as a child.
September 23rd, 2016 at 11:07 pm
Murphy had a sincerity that when teamed with a stronger performer led to some damn good little westerns. Put him with James Stewart, or Dan Duryea, or another stronger actor and his limits played out as quiet strength and honesty.
September 24th, 2016 at 1:34 pm
Maybe that is what it was. Quiet strength and sincerity. These are the two qualities that work best on screen.
February 2nd, 2021 at 11:17 pm
I might go so far as to say that ‘Night Passage’ with Audie Murphy and Jimmy Stewart is my favorite Audie Murphy western. It’s a flawed film, and is arguably not even Murphy’s best performance. But it’s my favorite. As nowhere else, (except maybe ‘Red Badge’) does he seem so earnest and …Audie.