SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Gary R. Peterson A fun and exciting Western that entertains as much today as it did in wintry early 1950 when it was first released.After enjoying the film on a Saturday morning, which is the best time to enjoy films like THE NEVADAN, I read all 15 reviews posted here. Many are eager to point out how this humble film pales in comparison to the Westerns of Boetticher, Mann, and Peckinpah, lacking as it does deep psychological themes and Method actors wringing their hands and contorting their faces in painful introspection. There's an unwillingness or perhaps an inability to consider THE NEVADAN on its own merits. It's only aspiration was to entertain--and it succeeded.Now I'm not casting stones or even aspersions. I count myself among the guilty, admitting I too am unable to see this film wholly on its own. Each of us brings to the movie-going experience all we've already seen, and most people watching a 1950 Western are aging cinephiles bringing a LOT to the experience. For me, Forrest Tucker will always stir up fond memories of Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke. And when Jeff's dimwitted brother Bart pulled another boner, I was just waiting for Frank Faylen to look into the camera and mutter, "I gotta kill that boy; I just gotta" like he would a decade later on DOBIE GILLIS. Those associations added to my enjoyment.Speaking of Faylen and Jeff Corey as brothers Jeff and Bart, I suspect they were loosely based on brothers George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's 1937 novella Of Mice and Men. The script and the actors elevated Jeff and Bart far above the expendable and disposable "red shirt" henchmen of lesser Westerns. I can also see in them a foreshadowing of the memorable and scene-stealing Sam and Whit, the duo played by Pernell Roberts and James Coburn in RIDE LONESOME.The closing gunfight with Andy and Tom against Galt, Jeff, and Bart was a highlight, topped only by Andy and Tom's brawl to end it all in the collapsing mine. Karen's appearance added to the excitement, even as it allowed Tom to remind us he's the bad guy when he shoots Galt in the back. Jeff's ruthlessly shooting the mules and canteens showed the depth of his depravity, and lessened the regret I felt when he took a bullet to the brain (a surprisingly graphic scene for 1950, I thought).The grimness is balanced by lighthearted moments. An uncredited Nacho Galindo is funny as an apoplectic stagecoach driver. Also unbilled are Olin Howard and Lewis Mason as Rusty and Wilbur, two cowpokes straight out of a 1930's programmer who look for a laugh from supposed greenhorn Andy and get egg on their faces. It's a funny scene, but also serves as good character development as the audience is made aware that Andy is not the dapper tenderfoot he initially appeared to be.I saw THE NEVADAN as one of six films on Mill Creek's second Randolph Scott Round-Up DVD collection. The print is beautiful, the colors rich, and the price right--only about ten bucks! Slip it in on a Saturday morning and "forget about life for awhile," as Billy "the Kid" Joel once sang.PS: The gold fever that drove Galt to greed-driven madness and violence is a recurring theme in Westerns. No film captures it as well as A MAN CALLED SLEDGE, an under-appreciated 1970 film directed by Vic Morrow and starring James Garner, Dennis Weaver, and Claude Akins among others familiar faces to film and TV fans.

Cristi_Ciopron A western drama with Scott as a federal agent, Tucker, Dorothy Malone, Macready as the insatiable rich man, wounded and obtuse (who has an otherwise austere life), Faylen and Corey as the henchmen, and Kemper in a supporting part as the dentist; all of it was shot in … California. The younger actors provide refreshing roles, Dorothy Malone has a glow of romance; one feels that the young woman is a great person.The movie has a delicious brio, the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the script make up an exciting yarn, each player's performance stands the expectation; the plot works with relatively few characters, no townspeople, no barroom fistfights …. It's a stylish action drama, unsentimental, with a strong psychological core, mostly delving into familial relations, and each role is nicely crafted; Tucker reminded me of Stewart more than of McQueen. Some of the things which made the quirk of the adult westerns of the '50s are already here, including the scenes of violence (done to the marshal by the henchmen, or to a henchman by the ruler) or the undertones of mischief (the precocious girl).These are plasticine characters.Kemper was a dependable character actor, deft, experienced. Tucker's role is intriguing, being simultaneously more and less likable than it could of been, as the player was indeed very likable, but despite his style here (his idea of the character seems to have been mediocre, or maybe even lacking, given that the role he got was a leading one); like he underplays the outlaw. Physically, Tucker aged quickly; like Chaney the 2nd, he also got ugly, of an expressive ugliness. Here, he was 30, he's effective, but doesn't care much about crafting his performance.There is a possibility he has been inhibited by the fact that he co-starred with a western lead, he was overwhelmed by the chance he got, he may have been taken aback, perplexed, so here he is perhaps a reluctant 2nd lead …. Scott's overall reputation today seems fair; he never made it to the hallmark of the greatest western players. Scott plays a quiet and self-controlled marshal; he cheats his partner, and has no prior life to be mentioned. The actor was unglamorous and workmanlike.Think of the westerns as of an exciting almanac.Also, think of this movie thus: its release year means to us now what 1884 could of meant then; today, its birthday is what then, by the year of its release, was 1884.

classicsoncall I've seen quite a few Randolph Scott movies, and the thing I notice about him as a Western star is the frequent number of outfit changes he goes through in a picture. It's more noticeable in color of course, but it occurs in his black and white films as well. The interesting thing about "The Nevadan" is that the story actually builds in reasons for those changes, as in the switcheroo with outlaw Tanner (Forrest Tucker) in an early scene. I've never really heard anyone mention it before, but the next time you watch a Scott picture, keep it in mind and you'll usually catch him in three or four different shirts at least.As for the story, Scott's character Andrew Barclay keeps his identity under wraps as a federal marshal, as he tries to find out where Tanner has stashed a quarter million in gold from a prior robbery. He finds himself competing with Red Sand town boss Ed Galt (George Macready) who also has his eyes on the prize as it were. Galt already has a hand in every business enterprise going in town, but as is usual in such cases, more is not enough.I always enjoy seeing Jock Mahoney in a Western, and in the ones where he doesn't have a lead role, he usually turns up as a villain. Same story here, he's Galt's main henchman Sandy, but with only a single viewing on Encore Westerns yesterday, it seemed that his face wasn't always clearly visible. Galt was always having him do some dirty work, so it probably doesn't matter much, but if you didn't know he was listed in the credits, it would be pretty easy to miss him. Mahoney started in pictures as a stunt man, and his riding skill is apparent in that scene when Karen Galt (Dorothy Malone) kicks his horse away. To really appreciate his skill on a horse though, try to catch a few episodes of his Range Rider series where he really gets to show his stuff. The only thing that bothered me about his role here was when he gave chase to another rider and wound up hitting a tree branch knocking him off his horse; that looked just dumb.As for Dorothy Malone, I've seen her in back to back Westerns now, the other being 1955's "Five Guns West". Competent in both, I'm still waiting to catch her in a role more like the one of the bookstore clerk she portrayed opposite Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep". It was only a minor role, but the scene crackled with double entendres that made it a hit of the picture.With all said and done, "The Nevadan" is merely an average flick, I really didn't detect much of a spark in any of the performances. Much of the supporting cast is composed of lesser known character actors, and the running gag between a pair of brothers (Frank Faylen and Jeff Corey) about a local saloon girl never amounted to anything. Encore Western fanatics like myself should be satisfied with a single viewing.

clore-2 For Randolph Scott, the 1950s started with the Columbia film The Nevadan, co-starring Forrest Tucker, George Macready and Dorothy Malone. Scott and Tucker have a marvelous give-and-take relationship that anticipates the rivalries to come in the Boetticher films. Frank Faylen and Jeff Corey give colorful performances as henchmen who are brothers, and have a rivalry of their own. Jock Mahoney has a small role, and doubles for Scott in the fight scene at the end. Only the cheap Cinecolor process betrays the slight budget, excellent direction by the unsung Gordon Douglas.