Wed 16 Mar 2016
A Western Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE BOUNTY KILLER (1965).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[7] Comments
THE BOUNTY KILLER. Embassy Pictures, 1965. Dan Duryea, Rod Cameron, Audrey Dalton, Richard Arlen, Buster Crabbe, Fuzzy Knight, Johnny Mack Brown. Producer: Alex Gordon. Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet.
A while back, I commented to someone or other that a producer named A. C. Lyles spent the late 60s killing the B Western with Kindness, making incredibly dull, plodding oaters with casts of well-loved veterans of the genre. I also mentioned that at the same time, Alex Gordon was putting out a handful of equally cheap Westerns, with about the same casts, that were, if not exactly classics of the form, at least interesting to look at. I saw one of these again the other night, and while I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly, it deserves at least a passing comment.
The Bounty Killer is ninety minutes of Western Stalwarts going through their well-worn paces at a reasonable clip, for their collective ages, with some surprisingly good acting, in spots, and a decent script for a change. Dan Duryea (in bad need of a face-lift) stars as an unworldly traveller who befriends a Saloon Gal (Audrey Dalton) and the Village Idiot (Fuzzy Knight) and eventually turns to Bounty Hunting, which takes a grim toll on his character.
Along the way, he runs up against the likes of Rod Cameron, Buster Crabbe, Richard Arlen, Bob Steele, “Bronco” Billy Anderson, Johnny Mack Brown, and a host of even lesser-known but familiar faces from the golden age of Cheap Thrills, all of whom seem delighted at getting decent, if small, parts for a change.
In particular, Dalton, Knight and Crabbe add a Little Something Extra to their hackneyed roles as Whore-with-a-Heart, Comical Sidekick and Knife-wielding Nasty, and Richard Arlen, as Dalton’s father, gives a very nicely-judged reading of a line that would have been easy to over-do; Quoth he, disapprovingly to Duryea, “I’m just helping you (milli-pause) out.”
As for Dan Duryea, well, a lot of folks (just about everyone in North America, in fact) disagrees with me about him in this movie; they all think we’re supposed to Like him. Unh-unh. One of the wonderful things about Duryea as a performer was that he never once made a serious bid for Audience Sympathy, and he doesn’t start here. He goes right from Sanctimonious Naivete to snarling, lethal Self-Pity without ever once engaging our affections.
Until the Climax. When, with a few deft Directorial Touches — courtesy of Spencer G. Bennett, himself a veteran of the B-Western and Serials — we suddenly wonder if this guy we never liked really deserved to meet such a sorry end. And when you think about it, that’s a pretty interesting concept to build a Western around. Even a B-Western.
March 16th, 2016 at 8:59 pm
This reminded me a bit of the TWILIGHT ZONE episode Duryea did where he was the town drunk given sudden skill with a gun who turns into a total creep until seeing the light, save here he never does quite see the light once he goes wrong.
It is interesting, not the least being Crabbe who was always a little underrated having eventually done so many movies he finally learned to act. He was a nasty bad guy in a few films including one he did with Johnny Weismuller.
I don’t think I would have been too happy to see this at the time it came out on the big screen, but seeing it now on television I can appreciate it a bit more.
And I agree about Duryea. Even the rare times he played a good guy he never seemed overly concerned with convincing anyone he was all that good.
March 17th, 2016 at 12:31 am
I met Buster in my teens, and he remains in memory as one of the most handsome, pleasant people I have come across. Great voice, presence and an all around pleasure to be with. He always thought that had he started at MGM his career might have developed along the lines of Clark Gable. For that, not a chance, but a Gable clone, James Craig, John Carroll, could be. And not so bad.
March 17th, 2016 at 11:21 am
David Vineyard:
Did we see the same Twilight Zone episode?
In the one I saw, Dan Duryea was in no way a creep once he got the magic gun from Magic Malcolm Atterbury.
Sure, he was nasty with Martin Landau, but Landau was a mega-creep – he deserved what he got from Duryea.
Furthermore, the newly-acquired gun skill scared him spitless (spure as spyootin’); even when Magic Mal gave him the potion, Duryea had no desire to kill again, even as young Doug McClure plainly did.
Thus, the ending was no miracle conversion;
Duryea and his opponent were both saved, and Dan’s performance was one of the most sympathetic of his career.
I say all this despite never having seen Bounty Killer, so I’ll take your word on Duryea’s character herein.
Sidenote: anybody here seen Requiem For A Gunfighter, which was made around the same time by most of the same team that did this one?
Dan Duryea isn’t in this one, but practically everybody else is: Rod Cameron, Stephen McNally, Col. Tim McCoy, Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton, Bob Steele, Mike Mazurki, Frank Lackteen, and any names I couldn’t come up with here, Mike Nevins will surely remember.
Circa 1970, Requiem For A Gunfighter turned up on a local channel on a Sunday afternoon; the whole family watched it, almost by accident or indirection (no Sunady sports fans in the house), and my father was gobsmacked.
Time after time, some oldster would pop up in a bit, and Dad would call out, “Jeezus! He’s in this too?”, since this was obviously a fairly recent movie.
I was just getting into semi-serious buffhood at this point, and I had some newer reference books, showing that many of the oldsters were still alive at that point.
It was a family bonding experience – sort of.
I would guess that had Bounty Killer had been run about the same time, the experience might have been much the same.
March 17th, 2016 at 10:00 pm
Mike,
I said reminded me, and granted his creepy moment was short lived, and it should be pointed out that in the TZ episode he had been good with a gun before becoming a drunk, the point being his temptation and overcoming the chance to return to what had driven him to the bottle in the first place.
Still it relates to the worm turn plot of both which is what I was driving at, not an exact correlation. In one he is a man who lost his nerve and his willingness to kill and in the other he is a man who never had any nerve who abuses it when he gains it, in both there are clear points when he has to choose which path he takes.
Is REQUIEM the one with Howard Keel in the lead? There were three or four of these and I get the titles mixed up.
Barry,
I was about twenty when I met Buster, and we mostly talked about Corky since I asked how he was doing. He was everything you say, and I agree, while he would never have been a Gable, at a better studio he might well have developed into a solid leading man of the second tier. The fact he could play villains convincingly shows he had some potential.
Even when I met him he was trim fit and bronzed, though I grant I was a little shocked I was taller than him — something the screen does not prepare you for when you meet your heroes.
March 18th, 2016 at 2:02 am
Requiem was Alex Gordon/Spencer Bennet, as was Bounty Killer: very low budget indie, Rod Cameron in the lead.
Howard Keel was in the Paramount/A. C. Lyles rep company, with more money, higher-ranking stars, and slightly better bookings.
March 21st, 2016 at 8:48 pm
I read recently that “The Bounty Killer” also holds the distinction of being Broncho Billy Anderson’s last film appearance.
March 21st, 2016 at 10:49 pm
According to IMDb, Anderson appeared in only two films after 1922, this one and one called Life with Henry (1940). He was 85 when he had a short role in this one. I wonder how many moviegoers at the time had any idea who he was.