Product: Westbound (1959)
Rating: 2.0
Randolph Scott Saves The Gold And Gets The Girl
WESTBOUND(1959)---(directed by Budd Boetticher)---Randolph Scott, Virginia Mayo, Karen Steele, Andrew Duggan, Michael Dante, Michael Pate.One of the seven westerns director Boetticher made with Scott("7 Men From Now"; "The Tall T"; "Ride Lonesome"; "Buchanan Rides Alone"; "Decision At Sundown"; and "Comanche Station"). Although all seven are high grade, "B" westerns, this one is, IMO, the weakest of the bunch. Scott plays a Union officer ordered to return to his civilian job of running a stagecoach line that will be carrying regular shipments of California gold that is desperately needed to conduct the war against the Confederacy. The stage line is based in a town run by a man(Duggan) who is sympathetic to the South and is determined to stop the gold from getting into Union hands and divert it to the Confederate war effort. Mayo plays Duggan's wife, who once had "a thing going on" with Scott. Steele plays the widow of a disabled Union soldier who was murdered by a member of Duggan's gang. She agrees to help Scott run the stage line. Given the poor quality of her acting ability, her only apparent reason for being in the film is her ample bosom and to provide a "wholesome" love interest for Scott, who no longer has any feeling for Mayo. This is an "okay" film, but suffers when compared to the other "Boetticher/Scott" films in the cycle(IMO, the best of the lot is, "7 Men From Now", which features Lee Marvin in an early role as a terrific "bad guy").