Colorado Sundown (1952)

Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Colorado Sundown finds Rex Allen accompanying his sidekick Slim Pickens to the reading of a will where Slim will inherit a third of a ranch along with fellow heirs Mary Louise Kay and June Vincent and Fred Graham. The last two were expecting the whole ranch and these other heirs two the two thirds they don't have throw a crimp into their plans.Which are to denude a forest area which provides a natural flood barrier for the ranchers. These two want to open an old mill and to get permission to cut the trees have spread word of a plague of beetles in the area who would eat the trees until they rotted. They even get another idiot brother of their's to pose as a forest ranger giving them permission. They also kill the real forest ranger.June Vincent played a lot of evil women in many a film. She's at her worst in Colorado Sundown.Slim Pickens has some good moments himself, fighting a few losing battles with a goat that nails him every time he bends over. There's also a gag borrowed from the Road To Morocco where Pickens plays himself and his own mother. It worked well here as it did for Bob Hope.This is a good Rex Allen feature and I'm convinced more than ever that Rex was doing a lot of material meant originally for Roy Rogers. He does it well though.

As if to underscore my summary line above, this film features some wild and fast paced action scenes via stagecoach, buckboard and horse chase. One in particular, Rex Allen's ride into town with black maid Mattie (Louise Beavers) is so over the top, you could almost accuse him of reckless endangerment. But you could tell they were both having a good time; when Mattie shoves Rex's hat down on his head, he has all he can do from cracking up in a fit of laughter. Check it out the split second he uncovers his face.The film offers another unique sequence not typical of your average 'B' oater. When lost brother Dusty Hurley (John Daheim) confronts Mattie at the Reynolds ranch house, they get into an altercation and he SHOOTS her! Then, with pet dog Manhattan giving chase to the villain, Dusty turns and fires on the pup! He has got to be one of the meanest low down skunks in Western history!The story itself pits the dastardly Hurley clan against Jackie Reynolds (Mary Ellen Kay) and Slim Pickens, who find themselves as co-heirs of a huge ranch and timber land from Uncle Ezekiah. It's ranchers versus timber interests with the U.S. Forestry Department caught in the middle of a bark beetle scam that the Hurley's claim to be destroying the forest. If ruled in their favor, the Hurley's stand to make a fortune with their reopened mill operation.There's just about an emergency at every turn, with Rex using a variety of running mounts to ride Koko to the rescue. He uses a hitching post and a tree stump along with a few other maneuvers to swing into action. Conversely, it was kind of unusual to see Slim Pickens actually fall down trying to dismount his still moving horse during Allen's stage coach save early in the picture.Say, keep an eye on the scene when Rex and the sheriff ride into town to inspect the Hurley Mill office. When they get off their horses, the animals are left to move along on their own in the street. However when both men leave the office after finding the letter addressed to Allen, the horses are tied to a hitching post. You know, maybe the town WAS haunted!With all the shifting action between heroes and villains, the story even finds enough time to throw in a raging thunder storm to further highlight the ranchers plight. I thought it a bit surreal though for Rex and his pals, the Republic Rhythm Riders, to burst into a version of 'Down by the Riverside' as they throw down their sand bags to fight a break in the town levee. No more surreal though, then 'Ma' Pickens giving advice to her son via his pocket watch heirloom!

One of director William Witney's later works, the film features much of the above average action scenes Witney is noted for. Rex Allen and Slim Pickens provide their usual journeymen performances. Stuntman/heavy Fred Graham is featured in this film - giving him probably more lines than in any other film he appeared in. Rear screen special effects are used throughout - and they reflect the low budget that was given to action, westerns during the early 50s. Additionally, the script is one of the weaker ones of the Rex Allen films. The story turns on the results of what would be a "very sophisticated medical autopsy" in this day and time "performed by a country doctor in his office" in a matter of hours.

The last and certainly one of the better singing cowboys, Rex Allen, stars here in this fast-moving Republic "B" western, accompanying his pal Slim Pickens, in their initial matchup, to be on hand at Slim's home in Colorado where he expects to benefit from the bequest of the estate of a deceased relative, Zeke Reynolds, consisting of substantial timber holdings. To Slim's surprise, there are other claimants who think they will be heirs to the estate: Jacqueline Reynolds (Mary Ellen Kay), a distant cousin, and a brother/sister duo, Dan and Carrie Hurley (Fred Graham/June Vincent), owners of the Hurley Lumber Mill, whose business practices include overharvesting of trees, bringing about flash flooding while destroying cattle grazing land in Pine Valley. The Hurleys are guilty of crimes more serious than unsavoury commercial methods, and Rex and his employees, including Slim and the vocalising "Republic Rhythm Riders", find themselves in a range war between timbermen and ranchers who are avidly seeking to catch the Hurleys in the midst of committing their misdeeds. Typical of Republic productions in this genre, COLORADO SUNDOWN provides a great deal of furious fight footage, a runaway stagecoach corralled by trick riding and several musical numbers which appear at incongruous moments, including the traditional folk song "Down by the Riverside" (during a flood!) with performances from Allen, Kay, Pickens and the "Rhythm Boys". Director William Witney downcranks his camera during fight scenes, as is his wont, for by marginally slowing filming speed, action appears to be extraordinarily violent, and with the physically capable Allen and veteran stunt coordinator Graham on hand, these passages leave an indelible impression during the course of this interesting low-budget work.