I found a nice 2 movie set and watched that. The first movie was The Man From Laramie, it's a 1955 movie with James Stewart. It's directed by Anthony Mann, who usually turns in a good product, and it's the fifth film he made with James Stewart, The screenplay is by Philip Yordan and Frank Burt, it's based on a Saturday Evening Post serial by Thomas T Flynn. It's one of the first Westerns to be shot in CinemaScope. There's plenty of nice scenery in Arizona and New Mexico.
James is trying to make a living hauling freight. He gets to a small town and winds up running into trouble with the local rich man's spoilt son. The Rich man is going blind and the son is too stupid and ignorant to run the ranch. The foreman can hardly keep him in check. James has another reason for being in the town, vengeance, he's looking for the man who sold rifles to the Apaches, rifles that the Apaches used to killed his younger brother.
There's a whole other subplot about the rich man's foreman who thinks he should be getting something more than a wage. He's a bit a piece of work, that one. He's set to marry the local store keeper. James gets befriended by a local woman, she's one of the few ranchers left in the area, the others were bought up by the rich guy. James gets framed for killing a local scumbag but we know he didn't do it. Don't worry he'll get out of that. Of course, more bad stuff is coming before the end of the movie.
I liked it quite a bit. Worth seeing and adding to the Western collection.
The second movie in the set, which also came on it's own disc, is The Desperadoes. It came out in 1943 and it's based on a Max Brand story. The screenplay is by Robert Carson and Charles Vidor is the director. Budd Boetticher was the assistant director.
Randolph Scott is the sheriff in town. There's been a bank robbery and some men are dead. The local banker is the head of the operation. He didn't want any killing but that's a silly wish when you've hired murderous scum to do your dirty work.
Edgar Buchanan is the livery station owner and mail man, he's wrapped up with the banker and the crooks. His daughter falls for Glenn Ford when he shows up. Glenn was supposed to lead the bank robbers but he got held up by his explosive guy Nitro, who's played by Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. Glenn turns out to be Randolph's old pal.
There's plenty of stuff going on. I had a good time watching and was glad to have picked up the set. I'd watch them again.
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