The Desperadoes

One of my biggest pet peeves with westerns is female characters added to the story for the sake of having a female character.  Beyond just being eye candy and something nice to look at (I didn't intend that as sexist as it sounds), the character serves no real purpose. Yes, they might provide a secondary storyline that has them falling for one of the heroes, but generally, they are there to be saved, the damsel in distress.  One of the few actresses to make a positive impression in a western for me is Claire Trevor. She's beautiful but tough and always held her own with the guys.

Unfortunately the timing of me watching 1943's The Desperadoes wasn't that great with Trevor playing a key supporting role. The casting isn't the question, and the western itself isn't that bad.  Basically though, it just has too many similarities with 1941's Texas which I reviewed yesterday.  I felt like I was watching the same movie for a second time.  Similar cast, similar backstory, and overall a feeling of been there, done that. It's not awful by any means, but it's not that good either.

It's 1863 in Red Valley, Utah when the bank is robbed by a gang that murders three people in the process.  The bank owner, Clanton (Porter Hall) and the local mailman, Uncle Willie (Edgar Buchanan), pulled an inside job, netting almost $80,000 in the process.  The plan though was altered because the man originally hired to do it, Cheyenne Rogers (Glenn Ford), couldn't make it in time.  Now, he's arrived in town only to find that an old friend is the town sheriff, Steve Upton (Randolph Scott), is searching for the actual robbers. Worried that they will be exposed for stealing money from the townspeople, Clanton and Willie go about setting up another plan that will pit Cheyenne against Steve in hopes of covering up everything.

It is the rare western I won't be able to find something to recommend.  Some are just harder than others finding that positive aspect.  The Desperadoes is somewhere in between.  Ford and Scott working together is a pleasure to watch even if the script puts them in the stupidest, most implausible situations around.  This was Columbia Pictures' first color feature, and it looks great with the Utah locations really coming to life.  Trevor does what she does best, the somewhat scandalized woman (think a higher class Dallas from Stagecoach) caught in a tricky situation.  Her character isn't essential to the story, but she makes her presence known immediately. Her scenes with Ford and Guinn Williams are a high point, the few scenes that use both drama and comedy effectively.

As I watched this movie, I thought of another pet peeve that isn't exclusive to westerns.  It's just laziness on the part of someone involved in the production whether that be the screenwriter, the producer or the director.  A title card introduces the situation, explaining that 1863 Utah is struggling with little money available in the territory. For some reason, the setting is key, but I can't figure out why. If it's 1863, why is the Union army driving a herd of horses west away from the fighting with the Confederacy? Wouldn't it make sense to go the other way?  Then later, a character says a horse stampede will make this town feel like Custer's Last Stand.  So a throwaway line ends up predicting the future? If it is 1863, why is this town yokel aware that Custer is going to be massacred some 13 years later? Yes, these are little things, but they're all something that easily could have been fixed. Make a movie, and make sure you get the details right. Lazy when it comes to spending millions of dollars is inexcusable.

Maybe I've just been ruined by the cynicism of spaghetti westerns and American westerns from the 1960s, but westerns from the 1930s and 1940s drive me nuts more and more of late.  They walk that middle line that tries to please everyone.  Comedy, drama, and romance are all there.  Ford and Scott vie for the affections of Buchanan's daughter, Allison (Evelyn Keyes), always keeping it fair with an 'Aw, shucks, you take her!' mentality. Williams is painful to watch as dimwitted sidekick Nitro, the attempts at humor falling far short of succeeding. Then there's the story with Ford's Cheyenne wanted with a $10,000 bounty on his head.  We never find out what he did, but he's wanted nonetheless.  Scott's sheriff seems less than interested that his old friend may be a crook so I guess we're supposed to look past it in the end too.

Not much else to say here.  The story winds around a lot without ever getting anyplace interesting.  The talent of Scott, Trevor, and Ford only takes the movie so far.  I've seen much, much worse westerns, but I can't give this a positive review. It's just not good enough.

The Desperadoes (1943): **/****