When his ward seeks protection with rival cattleman John Stewart, embittered, jealous rancher Wick Campbell hires ten outlaws to help him seize power in the territory.
"The life and death of a reign of terror!"
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John Chard
1/10/2019
4 / 10
Range war fails to ignite.
Ten Wanted Men (the title hints at something far more dramatic than is actually in the picture) is a serviceable, but instantly forgettable Western from the Scott-Brown production company. Directed by jobber H. Bruce Humberstone, with a screenplay by Kenneth Gamet (from a story by Irving Ravetch) and filmed in Technicolor out in Old Tuscon, it feels (and is) lifeless and poor on structure and execution.
With some misplaced humour and a cobbled together plot, this ultimately ends up as a time filler for Randy Scott completists only. There's some enjoyment to be had from watching our Randy lob dynamite around, and Leo Gordon steals the movie as menacing villain Frank Scavo, but sadly it never comes together to make a worthy mark. Which when you have cast list that contains Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Lee Van Cleef, Skip Homeier and Dennis Weaver! then that's a crime as much as it is a shame. 4/10
**_Has its points of interest, but not one of Scott’s better Westerns_**
When the lovely ward of a menacing rancher in Arizona (Richard Boone) flees to the spread of a rival cattle baron (Randolph Scott) he hires ten shady gunmen to set things a’right. Leo Gordon and Lee Van Cleef are on hand as the latter while a youthful Dennis Weaver plays the Sheriff.
"Ten Wanted Men" (1955) is a weak but watchable Western by Scott, who co-produced. It’s a loose take on the Billy the Kid story with different names and switching from New Mexico to Arizona. Skip Homeier plays the Kid, although he’s not an outlaw. Scott takes the John Chisum role while Lester Matthews fills the John Henry Tunstall part as the father of Homeier’s character. Meanwhile Boone plays the Lawrence Murphy part as the key villain with Leo Gordon basically taking the role of James Dolan.
On the female front Jocelyn Brando plays Scott’s potential love interest while Donna Martell is on hand as the fetching Latino and point of contention between Boone and Homeier.
Despite the quality cast, the parallel to the Lincoln County War and plenty of action, including lots of dynamite throwing in the last act, the story is curiously boring, although not completely. So the flick is worthwhile for fans of Scott Westerns, just don’t expect the expertise of "Ride the High Country" (1962), "The Tall T" (1956) or “Hangman's Knot” (1952). I’d even watch “The Stranger Wore a Gun” (1953) over this.
The film runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot in Old Tucson & wilderness parts of Arizona (e.g. Sonoran Desert & Sierrita Mountains), as well as Lone Pine, California.
GRADE: C+
Try as he might, Randolph Scott never really could play a tough character convincingly. To me, he just always looked like too much of decent, honourable man. This film, though, is one of his better efforts as the rancher ("Stewart") who steps in to protect "Corrine" (Jocelyn Brando) from the clutches of her nasty guardian "Campbell" (Richard Boone). Irked by her defection, he hires "Scavo" (Leo Gordon) and a band of outlaws to terrorise the town - a plan not without it's own risks as he soon discovers to his cost. Director Bruce Humberstone keeps the pace of this action adventure moving along quite well, it has plenty of double crosses, shoot 'em ups; even some house demolition - dynamite style - and Gordon actually makes for quite a decent baddie. Snags? Well the love triangle thing gets a bit dull after a few minutes, and the script is all over the place - it even tries it's hand at some very feeble jokes! It's still quite a watchable western but I'm afraid that it won't leave much of an impression on you - it certainly didn't with me.
