Sun 6 Feb 2011
A Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ (1954).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[9] Comments
THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ. 20th Century Fox, 1954. Dale Robertson, Debra Paget, Thomas Gomez, Kevin McCarthy, Lisa Douglas, Douglas Dick, Jay Novello, Woody Strode, John Wengraf, Donald Randolph, Henry Leontal, Parley Baer, Peter Mamakos. Screenplay by Gerald Drayson Adams & Irving Wallace, based on a story by the former. Director: Henry Levin.
A Southern swashbuckler rather than a Western, this entertaining outing is a canny variation on The Count of Monte Cristo.
Robertson is Captain Vance Colby, of the Louisiana Volunteers, returning in the early 1840’s to New Orleans after four years serving under Sam Houston in Texas. The son of a well known gambler, he returns to encounter social prejudice from dilettante Andre Rivage (Kevin McCarthy) after aiding Rivage’s beautiful sister Yvette (Lisa Douglas) with her carriage.
As Colby rides to meet his father after leaving his cold reception at Rivage’s plantation Araby, he is wounded when ambushed by Rivage’s man Etienne (Peter Mamakos), but escapes to the river where he is rescued by Melanie Barbee (Debra Paget) and her riverboat captain father (Thomas Gomez) whom he met earlier, and their man Josh (Woody Strode).
Recovering from his wound he returns to New Orleans to find his father murdered by Rivage, accused of cheating, with three witnesses; Claud St. Germaine (Douglas Dick), the weak fiancee of Yvette; Nicholas Cadiz (John Wengraf), the owner of the casino the Saint Cyr where his father was killed; and Jay Novello, the waiter serving that night.
With the police (in the person of the Commissioner played by Henry Leontal) on the side of the city’s Creole elite and the wealthy Cadiz, Colby must discover why his father was set up and murdered and avenge himself on the three men who committed the crime after having lost their new riverboat to Colby’s father in a game of 21, but in such a way the police can’t touch him.
The day he came home from Texas Colby pocketed a playing card, the three of spades, now he has written the names of his father’s murders on it and sets out to destroy them one by one.
The film is handsomely shot, with fine sets and costumes, and Robertson makes a dashing hero — even doing his own blade work in the final sword fight with McCarthy and handling it quite well.
The theme of the three of spades runs throughout the film, with the neat touch that in the final confrontation with McCarthy in a game of 21, it is the three of spades that puts McCarthy over 21 and loses the game for him, taking both the riverboat, and Araby, his family estate.
A well handled plot well written by Adams and Wallace, capable direction, and a handsome cast all combine to insure this one delivers everything it promises and more. Robertson is steadfast and dashing, Paget gorgeous, Gomez up to his usual scene stealing, and McCarthy a fine villain, by turns arrogant, snide, scheming, cowardly, and ruthless.
There are no surprises here, save perhaps for how well it all plays, and how good this little film really is. Dumas himself would have been proud to have inspired it.
February 7th, 2011 at 6:54 am
Thanks, Dave, I’ll look this one up. Robertson was a better actor than most folks think; I particularly liked him in CITY OF BAD MEN, (a part-remake of VIGILANTES OF BOOMTOWN) and OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT.
But I also smiled at one comic’s comment, “Clark Gable died and Dale Robertson got his voice.”
February 7th, 2011 at 7:22 am
Dan
I agree about Robertson — and CITY OF BAD MEN He did a number of good westerns including playing a memorable villain opposite Jock Mahoney in one, DAY OF FURY, where he plays a silver tongued almost satanic figure who tames then corrupts a town and Mahoney has to stand up to him.
There was another good one — sorry the title has eluded me — with Virgina Mayo and Stephen McNally based loosely on the true story of an escape from Yuma Prison engineered by a prisoner who then distinguished himself by stopping the breakout when it turned deadly — earning a pardon for it.
CITY also featured Richard Boone and Jeanne Crain and does a good recreation of the Gentlemen Jim Corbett/Bob Fitzsimmons fight whose proceeds the outlaws are after in the film. It’s almost (not quite) a noir western, and a stand out all around.
He had a slightly different role opposite Mitzi Gaynor in THE GOLDEN GIRL where she played Lotta Crabtree.
And though the film is pretty bad he isn’t awful (though awfully miscast) in SON OF SINBAD as the title character (though it is a bit hard to reconcile that Oklahoma drawl) with Vincent Price his side kick — Omar Khayaam — not to mention stripper Lily St. Cyr.
February 7th, 2011 at 7:26 am
Dan
Almost forgot you did a great review of SON OF SINBAD here some time ago.
February 7th, 2011 at 8:59 am
Re comment #3: SINDBAD, that should be; or in the Arabic: السندباد البØري as-SindibÄd al-Baḥri.
Here’s the link to Dan’s review: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1265
And a tip of the hat to Wikipedia. Credit where credit’s due!
February 7th, 2011 at 8:56 am
In comment #2, the movie that David is thinking about is DEVIL’S CANYON (1953), starring Virgina Mayo, Dale Robertson, and Stephen McNally. I remember this western well for two reasons: Virginia Mayo in her prime, and the fact that it is one of the few films about Yuma Prison in the 1800’s.
Loving western like I do, I wish there were more movies with this prison background. From what I’ve read, Yuma was a real hellhole. Which makes the whole thing about Virginia Mayo being the only woman in the prison so funny. I’m sure there was a prison for women somewhere because she would be nothing but trouble in a prison for men, not only with the male prisoners but also with the male guards.
February 7th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Walker
Yes, DEVIL’S CANYON Good little film, and not only for prime Mayo viewing.
About the only other western prison film I can think of is THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN with Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda. There are a few films with Union of Confederate prison settings and Ford’s PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND, but in general it’s an underexplored theme.
February 8th, 2011 at 6:32 am
Walker
Forgot to mention that THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN is also set in Yuma, and based on the same incident that inspired THE DEVIL’S CANYON, though neither film really tells the true story — which is stranger still.
Also Delmer Daves BADLANDERS, the western version of ASPHALT JUNGLE with Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine, at least starts out in prison.
February 8th, 2011 at 7:39 am
What surprised me in CITY OF BAD MEN (and the original VIGILANTES OF BOOMTOWN) is that toward the end they both feature fist-fights between the hero and heavy, and they both overlook the (to me) obvious angle of cross-ctting between this and the prize-fight going on at the same time!
February 8th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
There’s a western prison movie called HELLGATE with Sterling Hayden and Ward Bond that shows up on the Western Channel every so often. A Dale Robertson western also with Ward Bond that used to play a lot on the old Movie 4 in New york City was called DAKOTA INCIDENT and was somewhat of a western version of THE LOST PATROL only it was passengers on stagecoach pinned down by Indians.