Ten Wanted Men

Plot synopsis:
Adam Stewart (Lester Matthews), a lawyer heading west with grown son Howie (Skip Homeier), is persuaded by brother John Stewart (Randolph Scott) to settle down near him in Ocatilla, Arizona, where he has a ranch and romantic interest in a widow, Corinne Michaels (Jocelyn Brando).
The menacing rancher Wick Campbell (Richard Boone) has an attractive ward, Maria Segura (Donna Martell), and also lusts for her, but she wants no part of that. Her interest in Howie strikes a jealous chord in Campbell, who hires gunfighters led by Frank Scavo (Leo Gordon) to rid the region of the meddlesome Stewarts once and for all.
Campbell's thugs kill a rancher and stampede cattle. One picks a fight with Howie, who surprisingly beats him to the draw in self-defense, only to be locked up by Sheriff Gibbons (Dennis Weaver), falsely accused of murder. Howie busts out and flees with Maria.
Adam is killed in cold blood by Campbell, for which Howie blames himself while promising to get even. During a gun battle, the cowardly Campbell uses the sheriff's wife as a hostage. Scavo kills him, intending to take over the territory himself.
With assistance from the sheriff, John and Howie take on Scavo's men and prevail. The town has law and order at last, while the Stewarts celebrate a double wedding.

Tags: revenge, murder, sadist, prank

Review:
Ten Wanted Men (the title hints at something far more dramatic than is actually in the picture) is a serviceable, but instantly forgettable Western from the Scott-Brown production company.
Bruce Humberstone, with a screenplay by Kenneth Gamet (from a story by Irving Ravetch) and filmed in Technicolor out in Old Tuscon, it feels (and is) lifeless and poor on structure and execution.With some misplaced humour and a cobbled together plot, this ultimately ends up as a time filler for Randy Scott completists only.
There's some enjoyment to be had from watching our Randy lob dynamite around, and Leo Gordon steals the movie as menacing villain Frank Scavo, but sadly it never comes together to make a worthy mark.
Which when you have cast list that contains Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Lee Van Cleef, Skip Homeier and Dennis Weaver!
The rancher John Stewart (Randolph Scott) welcomes his brother and lawyer Adam (Lester Matthews) and his nephew Howie (Skip Homeier) that have just arrived in the pacific Ocatilla to implement law with a party in his ranch.
Howie flirts with the Mexican Maria Segura (Donna Martell) and the greedy Wick Campbell (Richard Boone) that has raised the girl since she was orphan tries to force her to live with him; however John Stewart protects Maria and she moves to his ranch.
Campbell hires ten gunmen to work for him; he first kills John's neighbor that was going to pay a debt with him to have his lands; then he rustles John's cattle with the gunmen; frames Howie in a duel in the bar and he is arrested in jail; and kills Adam Stewart in a lonely road.
The fifty-seven year-old Randolph Scott is still convincing in the role of an old cowboy that became a successful rancher and needs to use weapons again to protect his family, his friends and the town he helped to build.
Lee Van Cleef in the beginning of his career has a minor role as an outlaw and Richard Boone and Leo Gordon perform the typical villain.
It has some big stars, including the most fun Western actor of all time, Randoph Scott.
"Ten Wanted Men" probably would not make a list of must see films, for the simple reason that it was released during the 50's as a movie bound for the Saturday afternoon double feature bill at the local movie house.
The viewer will recognize a lot of Grade-B western movie actors, and this does give a bit of nostalgia to the film.Scott plays the rancher in the valley with most of the power and influence, while Richard Boone plays an up-and-comer who has designs to crowd in on Scott's area.
Assisting Boone in this plan are veteran western heavies Leo Gordon and Lee Van Cleef and Dennis Weaver playing the sheriff before his "Gunsmoke" days.
A great looking movie with unusual touches that set it apart from most other westerns of the period and put on a par or beyond some of the later Bud Boetticher films.The reality is so heightened and the sexual obsession so strong throughout that I was reminded of Nicholas Ray's classic Johnny Guitar.
The men (good and bad) are as pretty as the girls and the violence is in places grueling with a twist in the final shootout (they don't use guns) that was surprisingly effective.For these reasons the film scored an unexpected 10 from me.
Ten Wanted Men starts off with one big thing in its favor - it is a beautiful movie to watch.
The story itself is reasonably good - I found myself engaged in it fairly early when Campbell gets into it with Howie Stewart.
(This is the second movie of Homeier's where he played someone named Howie.) I like Randolph Scott a lot but I'm also a Homeier fan, and he had a good part in this movie.
As far as the story goes, I would have liked to see Scott use the dynamite to greater advantage against the bad guys; they had it coming.So, this is not the greatest movie ever made, but I think it rates a seven at least.
In contrast to his usual roles as a loner or "stranger in town", Randolph Scott plays a very successful rancher, but doesn't really fit the patriarch mould, though he does get to wear a fancy waistcoat.Like other commentators, I thought that his practical joke at the beginning was foolish, and that the way the chip on bad guy Wick Campbell's shoulder grew was a bit unbelievable.
And it was way into the film that I started to wonder about the "Ten Wanted Men" of the title.
The relationship between Maria and Howie seemed to happen instantaneously, and the "ten wanted men" turned up in town almost spontaneously.It was good to see Skip Homeier acting against type; he's nearly always a bad guy who gets killed; here he's even slow to rise to provocation from one of Campbell's heavies.
I was half-expecting him to turn out bad but...Leo Gordon stole quite a few scenes from Richard Boone, who didn't perform that well.
"High Noon" apart, his filmography up to now had been unimpressive, but his day was coming.Quite apart from his misplaced sense of humour at the beginning, Scott took a foolish risk by walking into the bad guy's saloon by himself, and where were all his ranch-hands in the final confrontation?
Ten Wanted Men is one of the best of Scott's films.
The beginning, when they play a bad taste joke on the two Stewarts sets the violent tone which will prevail throughout the film.
Richard Boone is the bad guy which became obsessed with love for Maria (Donna Martell).
Leo Gordon and Lee Van Cleef are the bad, bad guys and they are quite good at it.
If you enjoy a good action western, do not miss Ten Wanted Men..
Exceptionally fine cast from top to bottom, from Boone and Gordon at the top to Pyle and Louis-Jean Heydt in support, and of course in the starring role, the great Randolph Scott.
And the fact that Harry Joe Brown produced suggests that this is a 1955 warm-up for the classic Boetticher-Ranown Western cycle that was soon to follow.So, with these kinds of ingredients, why isn't the movie better than I think it is.
I have been a fan of Randolph Scott westerns since childhood and enjoy most of his work, but this movie plods along so slowly that you wish that everyone would shoot each other early and end the misery.The good guys & gals are too noble and self-righteous and the villains are obviously rotten, evil and stupid.The best thing about the film is the color scenery.1 * out of 5..
Those of us who went to see the feature (as opposed to the kids just out to raise heck in the audience, were usually pretty pleased when the name Randolph Scott appeared on the opening credits.
It was cowboy day, and just about any oater would do but a Scott flick was usually considerably better fare than most of the films made for the 50s kiddie market.I first saw Ten Wanted Men at the State Theater in downtown Schenectady New York.
I don't remember if I got a soda or a Hershey bar on the way in, but those were my go-to matinée snacks at that time.Scott made some pretty impressive "B" westerns but Ten Wanted Men had absolutely nothing going for it, other than Scott.
Time has not dulled my disdain for this remarkably poor excuse for a Randolph Scott western - but it has dulled my memory for titles.
It was in my house, and I was left with no choice but to either watch the movie or send in back.My sense of thrift just about compels me to be a good lad and sit in my seat paying strict attention to a movie I really would have rather avoided forever.Unless you are an absolute completest for Scott westerns I suggest you do your best to avoid my horrible mistake.Pay no mind to the extensive list of reliable western bad men in the cast - even Richard Boone was a completely lackluster villain in this film.
Considering the Cast and Production Value (including Technicolor) This One Turned Out to be Quite Clunky, Uneven, and Worth a Watch Only for a Few Interesting Elements.The Sometimes Gritty Violence is Softened Routinely with Awkward Dialog About "Violence" and the Occasionally Rousing Scenes of Cattle Rustling and a Stand Off are So Pedestrian as to be Laughable at Times (the dynamite scenes).In the Randolph Scott Legacy of Over 60 Westerns this Barely Makes Average, Helped by the Few Things that Elevate it to Acceptable.
The Good Bad Buys, Featuring Richard Boone (not at his best playing a smitten lover), a Couple of Violent Outbreaks (with Boone and Leo Gordon) of Sadistic Murders, and the Sprawling Locations.The Good Good Guys are Inconsistently Used for a Balance to the Brutality.
Overall, Only Recommended for Undiscerning Western Movie Fans and Randolph Scott Completest..
This is one of 61 Western movies Scott made and no better than his average, perhaps a bit below average.
If it sounds familiar it's because a similar scene shows up in Howard Hawks' "Rio Brave", among dozens of others, and I was wondering if Hawks might have seen "Ten Wanted Men", released a few years before "Rio Bravo," and decided to turn the dynamiting into a gag..
Saloon owner Richard Boone and cattle rancher Randolph Scott have had an uneasy rivalry for years.
But the final straw comes when Scott's nephew starts sparking Donna Martell who Boone had considered his private preserve.
Of course she never saw it that way and when she goes to Scott for protection, Boone starts a range war over it.Richard Boone is presented to us as having a chip on his shoulder to begin with.
Boone rustles Scott's cattle of course, he shoots Scott's lawyer brother, he imports several hired guns like Leo Gordon, Lee Van Cleef, and Denver Pyle.
Pyle in fact tries to rawhide Scott's nephew, played by Skip Homeier, into a fight.
But he does think Boone's motives a bit nuts and lets him know a few times in the film.It's not one of the best of Randolph Scott's westerns and it does seem a mighty silly reason to start a range war..
Actor-Producer Randolph Scott and writer-producer Harry Joe Brown collaborated on a number of good westerns.
Richard Boone has a number of gunmen working for him, but it's never apparent any of them are wanted for anything, though they should be.WARNING:  POSSIBLE SPOILERSThe movie opens with Scott having engineered a bogus stagecoach robbery, intended as a practical joke.
Skip Homier and Scott's ranch foreman see Boone's men rustling Scott's cattle.
Yet, when Boone says Scott has no witnesses, Scott doesn't challenge him.Homier kills Denver Pyle in self defense, using Leo Gordon's gun.
Even though Gordon and Boone's other men are clearly unreliable witnesses and Homier is known not to carry a gun, the sheriff arrests Homier.The editing in TEN WANTED MEN is frequently choppy, never more so than the climactic fight between Scott and Leo Gordon.
From the trajectory of the hole in the glass, Weaver should have been hit in the neck, but Weaver's character is given the old, reliable shoulder wound.Two stunt men drop their horses BEFORE Scott's dynamite explodes.The acting ranges from indifferent to terrible.
Even the usually reliable Richard Boone is off his game.Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Lee Van Cleef, Leo Gordon, Denver Pyle.
I like Randolph Scott Westerns, but I am the first to admit they all were not gems.
While I give this one 4 of 10, this is mostly because I like Scott and his acting--no matter how clichéd and sloppy the movie was.First let's talk about sloppiness.
In one scene, Scott's brother is sitting in his wagon and shot three separate times when being cross-examined by the Baddie (Richard Boone).
Looks like it was filmed in the same Arizona cactus town as Scott's later BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE was filmed in, only it's not as good as that film, unfortunately.Randolph Scott plays John Stewart, a powerful rancher who gets caught up in a dispute with Wick Campbell (Richard Boone) over a Mexican girl (Donna Martell) that Stewart's been sheltering.
Caught up in all this is Stewart's newly arrived brother Adam (Lester Matthews) and his nephew Howie (Skip Homeier) who falls in love with the Mexican girl.Wick gets all jealous over this and calls in the big guns (played ably enough by Leo Gordon & Lee Van Cleef) to wipe Stewart out.
They stampede and rustle his cattle and kill some of his ranch hands,  trying to force Stewart to play his hand.During a bar scene, Howie is forced to shoot one of Wick's men and is locked up for it, but later escapes because he doesn't understand why he's being punished for acting in self-defense.
They think he's the one who's sheltering Howie, so now John Stewart is now out for blood, regardless of the consequences to himself.There's the inevitable standoff in town between Wick & his men vs.
He blows some of them up with dynamite (looks clumsy) and then has an unconvincing dusty brawl with heavy Leo Gordon in the dynamite damaged saloon before having to shoot him.It's competent enough, although by no means a classic the way the later Boetticher/Scott westerns were.
Well I don't know if there were more than three or four of the ten wanted men of the title to challenge Randolph Scott in this mid 1950's Western, which played a lot more like an oater from a decade or two earlier.
The best villain title of the picture goes to Leo Gordon in what could have easily been the second lead in the story to Randolph Scott himself.
Gordon's character even turns on his boss Wick Campbell (Boone), showing that you just can't trust a bad guy when it comes to money.
Lee Van Cleef and Denver Pyle hadn't hit their peak yet as character actors, and it's cool to see them as part of Gordon's bad guy posse, even if they didn't last long.
Skip Homeier makes quick work of Pyle, and Scott unceremoniously wastes Van Cleef's character in a quick gun battle.As for the main protagonists, I would have to say that the showdown between Randolph Scott and Richard Boone takes the prize as the shortest range shootout ever - about three feet across a wooden table!
I would have re-wound to see what I missed but I caught this on Encore Westerns, so there was no way for a do over.Oh yeah, there were a couple of romantic angles going on (Homeier and Donna Martel, Scott and Jocelyn Brando), but the chemistry didn't seem right in either case.
All in all, a rather clumsy effort and not one of Randolph Scott's finest hours, though it might have been for Leo Gordon..
This film, which features a production credit for star Randolph Scott and direction by H.
Jocelyn Brando appears, without much to do, but the film does have some nice bits for Richard Boone, Leo Gordon, and Lee Van Cleef (all of whom would later reappear even more memorably in the Ranown series with Budd Boetticher later in the 50s/early 60s).
early in the film, the focus is more on Scott's family, and later it is more focused on Dennis Weaver's sheriff character.
If they are to survive John will have to pick up his gun belt once again and fight back.The story isn't the most original but there is a lot of action packed into the film's eighty minutes; there are shoot-outs, chases on horseback, a cattle stampede and a final showdown where there is a lot of shooting and plenty of destruction caused by dynamite!
The murder of Tunstall is done, and the Kid was a favorite of the Mexican people, who attempt to warn Homeier away from the battle.) Of course, it's always a pleasure to see Scott out West, and Boone was one of those who could play any part..
A whole lot of people get murdered, one by one, and some of John Stewart's(Randolph Scott) cattle get rustled, all instigated by a dispute over a shy senorita : Maria Segura(Donna Mortell), by cattle and saloon owner Wick Campbell(Richard Boone), and newly arrived from the East , Howie Stewart(Skip Homier):John's nephew.
By the end of the film, all10 of Campbell's hired guns are dead or run out of town, some killed or scared by John's throwing lite dynamite sticks at them.(The long fuses must have burned down mighty quickly to get an instantaneous explosion!).
Somehow, John had gotten ahold of the stash of dynamite the Campbell's men used to damage John's stage line depot, and to throw at the Stewarts as they tried to escape down a river in back of the stage depot.......I agree with Howie and some of the reviewers that the opening fake stagecoach holdup, involving the arrival of Howie and his father Adam, was not particularly funny, and might have turned tragic if Adam or Howie happened to have a pistol on them........In the end, as you no doubt expect, things are looking up for most of the good people who survived the war(Adam Stewart was murdered).
Randolph Scott (John Stewart), Jocelyn Brando (Corinne Michaels), Richard Boone (Wick Campbell), Alfonso Bedoya (Hernando), Donna Martell (Maria Segura), Skip Homeier (Howie Stewart), Clem Bevans (Tod Grinnel), Leo Gordon (Frank Scavo), Minor Watson (Jason Carr), Lester Matthews (Adam Stewart), Tom Powers (Green), Dennis Weave (Sheiff Clyde Gibbons), Lee Van Cleef (Al Drucker), Louis Jean Heydt (Tom Baines), Kathleen Croiwley (Marva Gibbons), Boyd "Red" Morgan (Red Dawes), Denver Pyle (Dave Weed), Francis McDonald (Warner), Pat Collins (bartender), Robert Ivers (John Stewart acolyte), Paul Maxey (cattle buyer), and George Boyce, Franklyn Farnum, Terry Frost, Edna Holland, Reed Howes, Jack Perrin, Carlos Vera, Julian Rivero.Director: BRUCE HUMBERSTONE.