Crown City is a played-out mining town. Just a few yards away across the river there are vast reserves of gold but it lies in Ute Indian territory and it will take a brave man to incur the wrath of the tribe’s chief Ouray.
This very average Audie Murphy western is somewhat redeemed by nice 1950s Technicolor and a very short running time (74 minutes, including titles).
The plot – about how deceitful whites stole gold from native Americans – deserves a better treatment, but the baby-faced Murphy, a former war hero, makes a sympathetic leading man.
There’s good work, too, from snarling villain Lyle Bettger, grizzled Walter Brennan as Audie’s dad, and especially Hugh O’Brian, here beginning to show signs of star quality (He later played Wyatt Earp on television.)
Elsewhere, Lisa Gaye and Mara Corday are splendid period wenches.
Gary Brannon
Audie Murphy Jennie Marlowe
Lisa Gaye Frank Walker
Lyle Bettger Sam Brannon
Walter Brennan Sue
Mara Corday Morgan
Hugh O’Brian Taos
Jay Silverheels Sheriff Beal
Regis Toomey Ouray
Morris Ankrum Jed Walker
James Anderson Les Walker
George D Wallace Billy Costa
Bob Steele Ralph Costa
Lane Bradford Marlowe
Emile Meyer Red Knife
Ken Terrell
Director
Nathan Juran
You May Also Like
White Christmas (1954) In this tinselled Technicolor spectacular, old WWII army buddies Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis…
Long John Silver (1954) Long John Silver - filmed in Australia four years after Walt Disney's version of Treasure Island…
Dark Star (1974) Eighteen parsecs from Earth in Sector EB-90, the spaceship Dark Star continues its apparently unending mission:…
Colditz Story, The (1954) One of seemingly dozens of PoW dramas made in the early to mid-1950s (The Wooden Horse,…
Danny the Dragon (1966) This ten-part black-and-white weekly serial from the Children's Film Foundation (CFF) aired in British cinemas on…
Darktown Strutters (1975) A fun blaxploitation-comedy-musical about the fortunes of a motorcycling black female vocal group as their leader, …
Dial M For Murder (1954) Alfred Hitchcock only took on this version of Frederick Knott's play to fulfil his Warner Brothers…
Sheriff Beal
