Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

zardoz-13 "Ride Clear of the Diablo" was the first of six films director Jesse Hibbs helmed with Audie Murphy as star during the 1950s. The second film that the director and star collaborated on was Murphy's autobiographical exploits in World War II. The third outing, "World in My Corner," was a boxing movie. The fourth picture, "Walk the Proud Land," was an off-beat oater with Murphy cast as a sympathetic Indian agent looking after the welfare of Native Americans. "Joe Butterfly," a military service comedy set in occupied Tokyo after World War II, marked their fifth film together as director and star. The last of their six movies, "Ride the Crooked Trail," was another Universal Studios' western. A simple, but entertaining tale of treachery and revenge, "Ride Clear of Diablo" finds Audie searching for those responsible for the dastardly murders of his father Patrick O'Mara (Tim Graham of "High Noon") and brother Andrew O'Mara (Hamilton Camp of "Dick Tracy") and the theft of their cattle. Mind you, railway surveyor Clay O'Mara (Audie Murphy) was working in another state when he learned about the tragic news of his father and brother. Clay drops everything and heads back home to Santiago. The obstacle that the villains experience with Clay is that they consistently miscalculate what he can accomplish based on his deceptively slight stature and his young school boy looks. Santiago Sheriff Fred Kenyon (Paul Birch of "Gunman's Walk") and Attorney Tom Meredith (William Pullen of "The Lawless Breed") greet our hero when he arrives in Santiago. Meredith killed both father and brother with a Winchester from the back of his horse during a stampede. Another dirty, low-down sidewinder who rode when them on that fateful day, Jed Ringer (Russell Johnson of TV's "Gilligan's Island") is on hand during the mischief. He is a double-crossing skunk if there ever was one who has deceived a saloon singer Kate (Abby Lane of "Caesar Against the Pirates") into being his girlfriend. As it turns out, Abby is privy to all the bad things that go on in Santiago. Predictably, Clay wants to know more about the desperadoes who rustled his father's cattle. Shrewdly, Kenyon and Meredith confide in Clay that the notorious gunslinger Whitey Kincade (Dan Duryea of "Six Black Horses") may have been responsible for the deaths of his father and brother. Whitey enjoys quite a reputation as a fast hand with a gun, and Meredith and Sheriff Kenyon believe Whitey will dispose of Clay with no problems. Meredith is one of those charming villains who steps forth to defend the very people that they want killed. Initially, Sheriff Kenyon is against deputizing Clay, but Meredith convinces him that Clay deserves to get answers to the questions involving his family. Neither think Clay will learn anything from Whitey. Moreover, they have no doubts Whitey will drop Clay in his tracks, and they will be relieved of any anxiety involving Clay's inquisitiveness. Dan Duryea was a durable presence in the countless westerns that he made, and he enjoyed playing villains. His performance as Whitey Kincade overshadows everybody else in "Ride Clear of Diablo." Initially, when he meets Clay in a saloon at Diablo, Whitey thinks that he won't have any difficulty killing Clay. However, fast on the draw Clay surprises not only Whitey but also the spectators watching their showdown. Among those spectators is Tim Lowerie (Jack Elam of "Support Your Local Sheriff"), who is an outlaw. Imagine their surprise when Clay escorts Whitey back to Santiago. After Sheriff Kenyon locks Whitey up in his calaboose, Whitey informs the lawman that if his trial goes the wrong way, he will tell everybody about the corruption in Santiago. Kenyon confides in Meredith, and they convince Jed to take the stand as a defense witness on behalf of Whitey to clear him of any criminal wrongdoing. Jed is tired to playing second fiddle and demands more money from Meredith. Meredith reveals that Wells Fargo will be shipping a bundle in silver, and Kenyon and he want Jed to rob it. Little do they know that Jed plans to double-cross them. No sooner is Whitey turned loose than he tells Clay about the corrupt sheriff and duplicitous lawyer. Naturally, Clay is dubious about Whitey's information. Duryea plays the vainglorious Whitey with a maniacal laugh and grows to like Clay. In a sense, these two become friendly enemies. When Clay rides off to retrieve a stolen white horse that the Lowerie's have taken, Whitey shows up to help him. Clay takes the horse, but he has a rough time escaping the wrath of the Loweries who pursue him, slinging lead futilely from horseback as they chase him. Earlier, when the owner told Clay about the theft of his prized stallion, he assured our hero that his stolen horse could outrun anything in the territory. Clay has to abandon his own mount and ride the white stallion to escape from the trigger-happy Loweries.Throughout "Ride Clear of Diablo," Sheriff Kenyon's daughter, Laurie Kenyon (Susan Cabot of "The Wasp Woman") hovers in the background and foreground. Initially, she is Meredith's girlfriend, even though she knows nothing about the criminal activities of both Meredith and her father. She takes a liking to Clay, and they become close friends. Meantime, Jet kills the three men riding guard on the Wells Fargo silver wagon, and he stashes the precious metal in an abandoned mine. Eventually, Clay tracks him down with the help of Whitey, and they kill Jed and find the loot. During the gunfight, Jed wounds Whitey, and Clay takes him back to Santiago. Back in town, Meredith and Kenyon are waiting in ambush for Clay, and Whitey helps him survive a shootout. While Whitey guns down Kenyon, Clay kills Lowerie. "Ride Clear of Diablo" qualifies as an above-average western, largely owing to Duryea's charismatic performance.

Robert J. Maxwell In this rather routine-plotted Western, the men keep referring to Audie Murphy as "the boy" or "the kid." It seemed to fit. He was almost thirty but didn't look it. He wasn't big, like John Wayne, or deep of voice. He was self effacing. His acting talents were modest. He gave one memorable performance in "The Red Badge of Courage," a flawed movie, but not flawed because of him. And all his life suffered from what we would now call PTSD. It practically wrecked him. He slept with a pistol under his pillow and had recurring dreams of being attacked by Germans while his M-1 fell apart, piece by piece, in his hands. He really earned those decorations.In "Ride Clear of Diablo," a mid-career movie, he's the good guy whose father and younger brother have been killed while trying to prevent their cattle from being rustled. He comes to town from Denver, where he's been working as a railroad dispatcher or something equally clerical. The local sheriff and lawyer, being particeps criminis themselves, send him after Whitey Kinkaid, the gunslinger in a nearby town, played by Dan Duryea, thinking that the kid will draw on Whitey and get his head shot off. Murphy outdraws Whitey, shoots the gun out of his hand, and takes him captive. It's the kind of movie where no one bothers to explain how a railroad bureaucrat has learned to shoot so well.It gets kind of interesting because a bond of wary friendship develops between Duryea, who happens to be innocent of this particular crime, and Murphy. Not that they hug each other and take showers together, but Duryea shows his respect for Murphy by doing him little favors, such as not shooting him in the back when he has the chance to do it.Duryea is his usual wisecracking self, all smiles. He laughs a lot. He laughs so much that sometimes he seems like a maniac and the director should have reined him in. But, okay. He's one of those likable rogues. It's a familiar enough figure in movies. The relationship is complex enough to keep the viewer interested. Without it, you're just watching another Audie Murphy Western.Susan Cabot is the good girl. She's as innocent and well behaved as Audie Murphy. Murphy has one drink in the movie, except for a lot of water and milk and coffee. Cabot may have been mentally unbalanced and met a bad death. Abbe Lane is the naughty girl. She has hair the color of a tangerine and sings in a saloon, so we know she's bad. But, though she may have slept with her boyfriend or something, she's not evil. Both women are made up like mannequins and sport false eyelashes the size of tarpaulins.I won't give the ending away except to reveal what the experienced viewer must already know -- Murphy and Cabot live happily ever after.

bsmith5552 "Ride Clear of Diablo" was another of the Audie Murphy series of "B-Plus" westerns released by Universal during the 50s and early 60s. Universal always populated the casts with their contract players and other familiar faces. They were well mounted little films usually running about 80 minutes and mostly shot in color. The story in this film involves Clay O'Meara (Murphy) returning to town following the murder of his father and brother by unscrupulous lawyer Tom Meredith (William Pullen), crooked Sheriff Fred Kenyon (Paul Birch) and henchman Jed Ringer (Russell Johnson). To throw him off the trail, the unholy three blame the crime on known bad man Whitey Kincaid (Dan Duryea) and send O'Meara off to Diablo to bring him in knowing full well that he'll probably be killed by the gunman. Kincaid meanwhile takes a liking to O'Meara and against his better judgment, lends O'Meara a hand. The sheriff's niece is engaged to Meredith but of course, falls in love with O'Meara. Ringer meantime, is planning a double-cross of the other two and then running off with saloon girl Kate (Abbe Lane). Murphy essentially played the same one dimensional character in his series but was always aided by superior supporting casts. Duryea, playing his signature likeable villain role, is allowed to go way over the top by director Jesse Hibbs in this one (it's about that laugh). He was always better on the wrong side of the law and was always an asset to any movie that he appeared in. The beautiful Susan Cabot plays the standard helpless heroine role and Abbe Lane gets to sing a couple of forgettable songs. Also in the cast are veteran western performers Jack Elam, Denver Pyle, Lane Bradford and Holly Bane. Here's a little trivia with which to end my comments: - Audie Murphy was the most decorated American soldier in WWII; - Susan Cabot died tragically at the hands of her son, actor Christopher Jones, in 1986; - Dan Duryea wound up on the TV soap "Peyton Place" just prior to his death in 1968; - Russell Johnson became famous as "The Professor" in TV's "Gilligan's Island"; - Abbe Lane was married to band leader Xavier Cugat at the time of this film.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Murphy is the guy looking for revenge,people tend to underestimate him, until he shows himself fast in the draw. One of the best things here is the relationship between Murphy and Dan Duryea. This film is very unpretentious and entertaining, and it´s a pity they don´t make westerns like this anymore.