Sat 25 Nov 2017
A Western Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: FURY AT FURNACE CREEK (1948).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[5] Comments
FURY AT FURNACE CREEK Fox, 1948. Victor Mature, Coleen Gray, Glen Langan, Albert Dekker, Reginald Gardiner. Written by Charles G. Booth, Winston Miller and David Garth. Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone.
An unexpected delight from a team of generally undistinguished writers and a director best known for his work on Charlie Chan and Tarzan movies.
FaFC starts out with both barrels blazing, as a mysterious order from General Blackwell reroutes a cavalry patrol, leading to the destruction of a nearby fort by hostile Indians in a well-staged melee. Fast-forward a few months, there is now a boom town near the site of the massacre, General Blackwell has died in disgrace, and his wastrel son (Mature) hits town, out to prove his dad never gave the disastrous order.
What follows is more than an hour of fast-paced action, mystery, and noirish cat-and-mouse as Mature maneuvers with and against the ruthless town boss (Albert Dekker), plots with a nervous witness marked for a quick back-shooting (Reginald Gardiner, very effective in an off-beat part for him), and faces down Dekker’s hired nasties (Roy Roberts, Fred Clark, Charles Stevens) — and then there’s Jay Silverheels as a murderous renegade circling around the scene……
I don’t want to over-praise this thing, so let me hasten to add that Furnace Creek has none of the emotional resonance of a John Ford movie. Visually however, it’s right up there with Stagecoach and My Darling Clementine, particularly in a nighttime chase through the dark back alleys of a seamy mining town, a horseback pursuit across the plains, and a fine shoot-out in the ruins of the fort where it all started, as the wounded Mature crawls after the bad guys like a limping dog looking for the man that shot his paw.
Two other things I want to mention: Coleen Gray, an actress who went from Red River to The Leech Woman, with stops along the way for Kiss of Death and The Killing, does remarkable work as the feisty heroine, and Charles Kemper (Uncle Clegg in Wagonmaster) contributes enjoyable comic relief as a guy who carries a tree trunk around with him.
And finally, I just love the way gunshots always sounded in the old Fox Westerns; they had a flat, authoritative bang that was somehow evocative of danger and sudden death. Listen for them.
November 25th, 2017 at 11:22 pm
Dan, Fury at Furnace Creek actually does have a relationship to a John Ford film — Four Men and a Prayer — because this thing is a reworking of that fine adventure film.
November 26th, 2017 at 9:08 am
I’ll have to catch that one. Thanks, Barry.
November 26th, 2017 at 10:16 pm
David Garth, listed in the writing credits, was the author of FOUR MEN AND A PRAYER, and many other thrillers. This is a remake in the same sense as COLORADO TERRITORY remade HIGH SIERRA or BADLANDERS, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE.
November 27th, 2017 at 5:45 pm
Dan,
A decent print of FOUR MEN AND A PRAYER can be watched for free on YouTube.
The book is well worth finding too. Garth was an American writer in a somewhat Buchan vein who had some success. At least one post war novel, WATCH ON THE BRIDGE, was a minor bestseller, a spy novel, but usually packaged as a War novel.
How and why he slipped from the public conscious is hard to fathom, but it may be because he had no series characters and only the one film. His books are worth reading though.
November 29th, 2017 at 7:43 pm
Sounds like good one. Would have liked to hear more about Jay Silverheels, though.