Sun 28 Jul 2019
A Western Movie Review: REBEL IN TOWN (1956).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[6] Comments
REBEL IN TOWN. Bel-Air Productions / United Artists, 1956. John Payne, Ruth Roman, J. Carrol Naish, Ben Cooper, John Smith, Ben Johnson, James Griffith. Writer: Danny Arnold. Director: Alfred L. Werker.
I have a small confession to make. I find myself more and more liking the small budget black and white films of the late 1950s more than I do the large scale Technicolor epics of the same era. There’s often a grittiness, for lack of a better word, to them than the westerns meant for large audiences don’t seem to have.
Here’s an example. Rebel in Town takes place after the Civil War is over, but not too soon afterward for all of the bitter hatreds and other emotions to have faded away. When a rebel-hater’s young son is killed in a tragic shooting at the hands of a family of former Confederate soldiers on the run, what comes instinctively to mind? Revenge, of course.
As the young boy’s grieving parents, both John Payne and Ruth Roman make as much of their roles as they possibly can, and J. Carroll Naish as the Bible-quoting patriarch of the outlaw family is equally impressive. Admittedly this is a one-note story, but when it comes time for turning points to occur, neither the scriptwriter nor the director takes the easy way out.
July 28th, 2019 at 7:57 am
This is one of a number of above-average Westerns directed by Alfred Werker in the 1950s,including THE LAST POSSE and THREE HOURS TO KILL.
Werkers’s credits also include HE WALKED BY NIGHT, REPEAT PERFORMANCE,and THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939.)
July 29th, 2019 at 5:30 pm
Payne made several good Westerns in this era just before he moved to television with THE RESTLESS GUN.
July 29th, 2019 at 6:25 pm
THE RESTLESS GUN was my second favorite western on TV when I was young, the first being HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
Before getting so heavily into westerns, Payne also did a few noir films. The one most recently reviewed here was THE CROOKED WAY:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=62561
July 30th, 2019 at 5:52 pm
Ben Johnson, John Smith, Ben Cooper and Sterling Franck play the four sons of J. Carroll Naish, as odd a mixing of the gene pool as there ever was.
July 30th, 2019 at 6:20 pm
I was going to suggest that they each had a different mother, but then I remembered that that was the case for the sons of Dan Duryea in the second episode of CIMARRON CITY. Lightning like that doesn’t strike twice, I guess, even in fictional worlds.
July 30th, 2019 at 6:36 pm
Steve,
Vint Bonner fans to the end. Remember his Colt with a stock that turned into a rifle.