THE OUTRIDERS (1950)

After a year in prison, three Confederate soldiers (Barry Sullivan, James Whitmore and Joel McCrea) escape.  It doesn't take too long for them to get captured, but it's not by the Yankees but some former Confederate soldiers that have now turned bandits.  Bloodthirsty and out to kill just for the sake of killing, the bandits persuade McCrea and company into a plan to get employed by a Yankee wagon train out of Santa Fe and lead it 800 miles east into a trap.  Along the way, McCrea begins to fall for the lone female on the trip (Arlene Dahl) and starts to have second thoughts.  Finally, right as they're about to be lead into the slaughter McCrea confesses the truth, but by now it's too late.  Brilliant.

THE OUTRIDERS is too average for it's own good.  The action, the acting, the direction, the photography...all of it is just "Meh."  The story was especially predictable.  I wanted to like the film, but within 20 minutes I was already daydreaming.  Only worth a watch for hardcore Western fans.

RAMROD (1947)

Made at pretty much the height of Hollywood's classic film noir period, RAMROD shares a lot of similarities with film noir: stark B&W photography filled with deep shadows, a sexy femme fatale, brutal violence and a grim story.

Veronica Lake is the daughter of a rancher (Charles Ruggles) who himself is under the thumb of an even more powerful cattleman, Preston Foster.  Her father wants her to marry Foster but she wants nothing of it.  When the film opens yet another rancher (and the man Veronica loves) is being ran out of town with his tail between his legs.  Before he leaves he signs his ranch over to Lake since he believes that she has a better chance of making it work than she does.  The first thing she does is hire local ranch hand Joel McCrea to be ranch foreman.  He knows this is the beginning of a violent range war so he only agrees if Veronica swears to play on the side of the law and make the other sides out to be the bad guys.  She agrees, but soon tires at McCreas slow pace. She starts using her feminine ways ("From now on I'm gonna make a life of my own.  And being a woman I won't have to use guns.") to speed up the process, but it only ends up creating more bloodshed.

RAMROD is a interesting western.  The story is complex.  In fact, when the film starts there's so much stuff going on it almost feels like you just walked in on the middle of the picture.  The casting is brilliant.  I especially liked the casting of the normally comedic Charles Ruggles as Lake's serious father.  The direction by Andre De Toth (who was Lake's real life husband at the time) is confident and the camerawork by Russell Harlen is very impressive and a joy to watch.  Recommended for western fans. 

My only reservation is Veronica Lake herself.  She does a fine job, but I think somebody like Barbara Stanwyck would have brought much more depth to the character.

Boom mic shadow.

Blink and you'll miss Jeff Corey as a hotel employee.