The Capture (1950)

Expected more

An Exercise In Nonsense

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Copyright 21 April 1950 by Showtime Properties, Inc. Filmed on locations in Mexico and at Republic Studios, Hollywood. Released through RKO Radio Pictures. New York opening at the Rivoli: 21 May 1950. U.S. release: 8 April 1950. U.K. release: 26 June 1950. Australian release: 21 July 1950. 8,173 feet. 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Oil company employee mistakes innocent man for a bandit.COMMENT: Niven Busch (Duel in the Sun, Pursued) made this movie with his own money. Generally it's an interesting and creditable effort, though it does have a few odd shortcomings. That normally reliable player Victor Jory gives a mechanical and unconvincing performance, and there are moments in the script when the circumlocutions of the dialogue become too repetitious and predictable to sustain interest. Fortunately these moments are few and Mr Jory's part is small. Perhaps it could also be argued that Mr Busch has attempted to crowd too many elements into his script. On the credit side, however, he has plotted some intriguing and original twists into this Mexican western. And he and director John Sturges, assisted by cinematographer Edward Cronjager, have filmed the story against appropriately atmospheric, striking backgrounds.Lew Ayres does plausibly by the part of the tortured hero, whilst Miss Wright is likewise convincing in an equally difficult role. Jacqueline White, the unforgettable heroine of the later The Narrow Margin, has a rather different role here. After an elaborate introduction, she drops out to make room for the Teresa Wright character. Barry Kelley is perfectly cast as the heavy, whilst Milton Parsons makes the most of his two limited opportunities.All in all, The Capture emerges as a compelling thriller with strikingly film noirish location production assets.

Eleven years into his lengthy career (1938/9-1976) the great western director (Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock) John Sturges was releasing four films per year. The Capture was one of his better 1950 products. Sturges was still searching for his niche, but he would find it later in the decade as the popularity of noir and other genres of the World War II era faded. Although far from a straightforward western, The Capture is set in early 20th century Mexico and is a nice example of solid western storytelling by Niven Busch (The Postman Always Rings Twice). The lead character, a middle-management everyman (Lin Vanner) played by Lew Ayres, is a man running from his own self-doubt and an inexplicable guilt complex. Early in the film, he pursues and captures a man with an injured left arm who everybody believes to have been involved in a payroll robbery which resulted in the death of several security men. When the law comes to take this man into custody, he can not raise his left arm in surrender and is shot. Vanner escapes to a remote Mexican village to resurrect his life, and finds himself investigating the incident that set him at odds with himself after falling in love with the alleged culprit's widow. Going any further with the narrative of this plot-heavy, thoughtful, film would be a spoiler, so I will stop here. I will only say that the film's rather abrupt ending is worth the wait. Although The Capture's morality is rather heavy-handed for a western, this relatively dark film successfully explores psychological reality, conscience and the unpredictability of life in a way that would do most of the noir directors of the 40s and early 50s proud. Ayres and the female lead, Theresa Wright, do solid work in what must have been a tough, low-budget production schedule. And Sturges' direction and cinematography, though not particularly innovative, are entirely mature. Sturges shows what a good director can do with quality material and the right cast. And as his career developed, he eventually found his niche in films which are often seen today as landmarks of the western genre. The Capture foreshadows Sturges' classics nicely.

**SPOILERS** On the run from the Mexican police hungry exhausted and wounded, after getting his right arm entangled in barbwire during his escape, Lin Vanner, Lew Ayres, finds his way to Father Gomez's, Victor Jory, house in the Mexican desert. After having his arm bandaged Lin tells the man of God his tale of woe a tale that goes back over a year ago when Vanner was involved with a posse tracking down Sam Tevlin, Edwin Rand, a wanted payroll robber and murderer.Forced by his fiancée Luana, Jackie White, to join the chase after the fleeing Tevlin Lin having him cornered ends up shooting the wounded man who, like Lin has now, had a wounded right arm. It was the fact that Tevlin couldn't raise his right arm up in the air that Lin , thinking that he was about to take a shot at him, ended up blasting him. It was later when Tevlin died from his wounds that Lin started to get guilty feeling about what he did and after he refused to pick up the $2,000.00 reward that was awarded to him in getting Tevlin that Luana, disgusted with her future husbands feeling sorry for himself, walked out of on him.The movie "The Capture" then takes a different turn with Lin traveling to Tevlin's, who an American, home in Los Santos Mexico meeting his widow Ellen, Teresa Wright, and ten year old son Mike, Jimmy Hunt. Keeping his true identity from Ellen Lin tells her that he's looking for a job at her ranch as a ranch-hand using the phony name of Lindley Brown. It doesn't take that long for Ellen to find out, checking out Brown's room, that Mr. Brown is actually Lin Vanner her husbands killer. Instead of the outraged Ellen letting Lin have it, about killing her husband Sam, she instead works the guy almost into the ground with him having no idea why she's doing that.Finally realizing why Ellen is so down on him by finding that she broke into his room, and found a newspaper clipping about Lin gunning down her husband, that Lin finally let the cat out of the bag. It turns out that Sam was not only a wife beater and drunk, how did Lin know all this?, but that he spent most of his time away from Ellen and Mike hanging out and drinking the night away with the senoritas at the local bars in town.Incredibly Ellen, within minuets after he told her the truth about himself, falls heads over heels in love with Lin and in what seems like the next day get married to him! You would have thought that the movie "The Capture" would end there and then instead it continued with Lin going back to the states to find the real reason for Sam Tevlin being framed in the payroll robbery and murder of those armed guards who were delivering the cash! Lin feels that he was, without his knowledge, set up as the hit-man to do in Tevlin by the person who was****SPOILER ALERT**** the real robber and killer the VP of the company that was held up Big Earl Mahoney, Barry Kelly.You soon got lost in the film when Lin suddenly decides to become a private eye and then does his gumshoe act that was totally unconvincing as well as making the movie look ridiculous. Lin has the surviving guard of the robbery Juan Valdez, Felipe Turich, end up committing suicide by hanging himself on the church bell-tower. This happened after Lin badgered Valdez almost to death, threatening to have the disabled mans pension taken away from him, in trying to get him to open up about who really shot him and his fellow security guards! Lin who should have felt just as guilty, if not more, for his driving the innocent Veldez to kill himself like he felt guilty in shooting Sam Tevlin didn't as much as shed a tear for the poor man!Acting totally out of character Lin then crashes Big Earl's place and after showing Big Earl that he's got the goods on him, in him not Sam being the one who robbed the payroll truck, gets into a fight with Big Earl, who's twice as big as Lin, killing him by smashing a whiskey bottle over his head! It's then that the film gets back to the present with Lin holed up in Fathet Gomez's home with the Mexican police, together with Ellen trying to talk Lin into giving himself up, giving Lin just minutes to either surrender or they'll blast away. The only thing about the ending of "The Capture" is that besides being totally predictable, just by reading the movies title, is that a miracle happened for the wounded and suicidal Linn who was responsible for the death of three persons in the movie! A miracle that for some strange reason didn't happen for Sam Tevlin who didn't kill anyone! Go figure that out!

I purchased this as part of a 50 Movie pack of DVD's called Action Classics. While that is not the genre I'd call it, The Capture is well worth the time.The first part of the movie deals with a US oilfield worker in 1935 Mexico. He hunts down and kills a payroll robber. The film then settles into the main part of the story. It is an introspective, psychological analysis of the consequences for himself, and those who remember the dead man. Its all about a search for meaning and truth. The Capture left me with the feeling I used to get, watching the the short stories that were the staple of anthology drama series of the 1950's -- Twilight Zone, or Zane Grey Theatre -- but of course, this feature film has better production values than a TV series. I loved the innocent thoughtful stories that don't seem to be made any more, and The Capture is a fine example them.