Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend (1957)

A lot of fun.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Starting off with an Indian raid on a rural farmhouse, this quickly turns into a story of corruption in the nearby town. It's a convoluted trip from the countryside to the town square, with veteran Randolph Scott joining up with rising star James Garner, tossing in saloon singer Dani Crayne and respectful Angie Dickinson with a story that really isn't interesting or well structured. James Craig, leading B actor of the 1940's, is the ruthless town boss who was responsible for inferior ammunition which lead to Scott's brother's death on the opening scene. This is a late example of one of the major studio's attempt to draw in TV viewers (when westerns were everywhere during the late 1950's) and color was taking over the movies. This suffers from being in black and white and wide- screen, as well as overly long. There isn't even a comic sidekick to add humor, leaving this colorless in more ways than one.

"Prisoners of the Casbah" director Richard L. Bare's "Shoot Out at Medicine Bend" qualifies as an entertaining, lightweight, black & white western with Randolph Scott and James Garner. This fish-out-of-water oater looks like it might have been inspired by the Gary Cooper's Quaker Civil War movie "Friendly Persuasion." Our rough-riding heroes impersonate Quakers after the dastardly villains rob them of everything. This western has the flavor of a vintage Warner Brothers' with Errol Flynn.This western gets off to an exciting start with Captain Buck Devlin (Randolph Scott), Sergeant John Maitland (James Garner), and Pvt. Wilbur 'Will' Clegg (Gordon Jones), freshly mustered out of the cavalry, showing up at Buck's brother's house as Indians are shooting the place up. It seems that Buck's brother Dan Devlin (Ed Hinton) has been sold defective cartridges for his repeating rifle. The Indians kill Dan because he cannot get his long gun to fire. Buck and company run the Indians off. Dan's neighbors explain how they came to get the faulty ammunition. Buck and his friends decide to ride to Medicine Bend to clear up the skulduggery. Before our heroes reach town, they bathe in a pond, and several stealthy owl hoots steal not only their horses but also their guns, uniforms, and the money that they had taken up from the community. Left with little to wear, the destitute threesome wander into a congregation of Quakers camped out on the prairie. The Brethren explain that they, too, have been robbed by three ruffians in cavalry uniforms. They furnish our heroes with Quaker garments and horses, and Buck and company head off to Medicine Bend. No sooner do they ride into Medicine Bend than they discover the chief culprit is shady entrepreneur Ep Clark (James Craig of "Drums in the Deep South"). Clark stole Buck's horse, and he owns a crooked mercantile store where he sells shoddy goods. He has the town sheriff, the mayor, and most of the townspeople under his thumb, and he acts like a gangster when anybody threatens his business. Our heroes masquerade as Quakers after they enter Medicine Bend. Buck watches as Clark's henchmen, Rafe Sanders (Myron Healey of "African Manhunt") and Clyde Walters (John Alderson of "Cleopatra"), vandalize King's General Store. They smash eggs, sabotage a canister, and smear black grease on white muslin. Intervening on behalf of the storekeeper, Buck makes his interference appear like a blundering buffoon who gets in the way of Rafe and Clyde, while he picks Rafe's pocket and steals the amount sufficient to replace the damaged goods. Meantime, Buck persuades Maitland and Clegg to go undercover and work at Clark's Pioneer Emporium. Buck approaches Mr. Elam King (Harry Harvey) about helping him contend with Clark and his hooligans. Buck, Maitland, and Clegg undermine Clark's business, and Buck becomes romantically involved with King's pretty daughter Priscilla King (Angie Dickinson of "Rio Bravo") after she catches him trying to clean up his wounds. Rafe tried to set a trap to catch Maitland and Clegg, but Buck warned them off. He falls into the trap, but he manages to escape before Clark and company can catch him red-handed in the act. Instead, Clyde winds up plunging into the deep well hidden beneath the floor of Clark's office. Later, the pioneers that were robbed are privately reimbursed.Clark discovers the masquerade after saloon songbird Nell Garrison (Dani Janssen of "Written on the Wind") exposes Clegg as an impostor. Sheriff Bob Massey (Trevor Bardette) arrests Maitland and Clegg, but Buck gets away. Clark has Massey stage a kangaroo trial that sentences the sergeant and the private to swing on the gallows. When Nell convinces Massey to release them, Rafe surprises the lawman and kills him. Meanwhile, Clark and his henchmen ambush the wagon train bound for King's General Store. Although Clark waylays the wagon train, Buck manages to save his companions from swinging. Inevitably, Clark and Buck shoot it out in Clark's general store and then swap blows in a rugged fistfight. Clark has Buck subdued and is poised to shoot him down in cold blood when he gets a taste of his own medicine. The cartridges in the rifle don't work, and Buck kills him with a scythe. This tongue-in-cheek western features a solid cast headed by the ever dependable Randolph Scott. James Garner plays second banana and former Green Hornet star Gordon Jones provides the comic relief. Craig makes a stern villain in city slicker's regalia. Harry Lauter and Myron Healey are well cast as Clark's accomplices. Warner Brothers' stock players proliferate in this amusing dust raiser.

Following service in the US Army, western soldier Randolph Scott (as Buck Devlin) heads for his brother's home in Nebraska. Unfortunately, some boisterous Native American Indians are shooting up the place when Mr. Scott arrives. His brother is one of the casualties. After speaking with townspeople, Scott blames the death on bad ammunition. Scott decides to investigate the matter in "Medicine Bend". The pioneer town is controlled by dastardly James Craig (as Ep Clark), who sells shoddy merchandise at exorbitant prices. Responsible for the bad ammunition that killed Scott's brother, Mr. Craig also attempts to put pretty Angie Dickinson (as Priscilla King) and her shop-owner father out of business...On the way to "Medicine Bend", Scott and his traveling buddies James Garner (as Johnny Maitland) and Gordon Jones (as Wilbur Clegg) stop for a cleansing skinny-dip. While they are carousing around in the water, their clothes are stolen. The three men happen upon a religious gathering and are given Quaker-like clothing. The unfortunate event turns out to help them go undercover as missionaries in "Medicine Bend". However, this means refraining from drinking , smoking and sexual pursuits. Tightly-attired women like Ms. Dickinson and saloon singer Dani Crayne (as Nell Garrison) may prove too tempting to resist. This western with a sense of humor could leave you chuckling with the blameless Indians.****** Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (5/4/57) Richard L. Bare ~ Randolph Scott, James Craig, Angie Dickinson, James Garner

If you're interested in a 1957 Randolph Scott Western, this may be what you're looking for. It's reassuringly routine. There are virtually no surprises. This is a fixed point in a changing and disappointing universe.Scott and two friends (Garner and Jones) are just mustered out of the US Army and are jumped and robbed outside of the town of Medicine Bend. They adopt the dun clothing of the members of a local religious cult and pose as members of the sect while they investigate the town and try to find the thieves.They discover that the town is run by one corrupt gang and its leader, Craig, who have stolen everything from migrants passing through on their way to greener pastures. Scott steals it all back, routs the gang, restores the town to a state of probity, and continues on his way West, with Angie Dickinson at his side.It's interesting to see Scott in masquerade, wearing his "Quaker" hat and saying "thee" and "thou", though never without a slight smirk. There are a couple of incidents of interest too. At the climax, in a mano a mano fist fight with the mastermind -- the kind of fight Scott always wins -- he gets knocked unconscious. That's curious in itself. But then the director explicitly shows us a ripped-open bean sack on the balcony spilling its seeds onto the metal tops of a couple of empty cans and the sound is that of a small hailstorm. It has nothing to do with the plot. The director, Richard Bare, probably indulged his whim to film what looked like a cinematically interesting flow of beans onto metal -- and it nicely breaks up the series of easily predicted actions. Good for him.In the same fight, the ritual always requires the bad guy to pick up a piece of furniture or something to use as a weapon and play dirty pool. Craig picks up a rifle but it misfires. Then he pulls from the wall a gigantic SCYTHE suitable for use by the Grim Reaper, Father Time, or Chronus himself, and takes a roundhouse swing at Scott's head. Alas, he misses and perishes by the scythe.