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The Western to Fritz Lang means a scientific eye on American folklore, the opening (bovine herds under a cobalt sky) triggers a concentrated display of abstract colors. New technology for old Nebraska, grids and codes imposed onto the desert, "that's the telegraph business for you." The former rustler (Randolph Scott) gets a second chance from the Western Union surveyor (Dean Jagger), the project has the blessing of Lincoln himself (cf. Ford's The Iron Horse). The fancy-pants from the East (Robert Young) wears white hat and fringed buckskin, still he can tame a mean bronco—a friendly rival for the attention of the boss' sister (Virginia Gilmore). Confederate guerrillas, outlaws disguised as braves, their leader (Barton MacLane) has a history with the hero. "Mistakes can be corrected." "Not always." Zane Grey plot, Technicolor expanses cooled by Germanic rigors. The camera tilts up to find Chill Wills skewered by an arrow atop a telegraph pole, a shot later reworked to tilt down from severed lines at the top of the pole and pan left to reveal a Sioux tribe in full war paint. (Not even the comic relief is safe from violence: A gag has Slim Summerville as the nervous cook peeling potatoes while the wagon rides over a bumpy trail, his fingers are adorned with bloody bandages.) "The best place to be alone sometimes is in a crowd," the gunslinger's existence. Bound wrists near the bonfire give the distinctive Lang viscera, the pained look on Scott's visage gives way to the sagebrush inferno of a burning settlement. The music of clicking keys rings triumphantly at the close, "just don't get your wires crossed." Tourneur picks up the inquiry, starting with Canyon Passage. With John Carradine, Russell Hicks, Victor Kilian, Minor Watson, George Chandler, and Chief John Big Tree.
--- Fernando F. Croce |