The Nevadan

Plot synopsis:
United States Marshal Andrew Barclay (Randolph Scott) arranges the escape of outlaw Tom Tanner (Forrest Tucker) in order to locate the $250,000 in gold stolen by Tanner in stagecoach robbery. Tanner notices he's being followed by Barclay, whose appearance suggests he is a greenhorn. Tanner ambushes Barclay and forces him to trade clothes and accompany him to a bank, where Tanner retrieves an envelope containing a map from a safe deposit box showing the location of the stolen gold.
On the road, Tanner and Barclay are stopped by two brothers, Jeff and Bart, who pull their guns and demand the map. To Tanner's surprise, Barclay disarms the brothers and takes their horses. Later he explains that he is a fugitive just like Tanner and proposes that they work together as a team. That night, while Barclay is asleep, Tanner rides on without him.
The next day, Barclay stops at a ranch owned by beautiful Karen Galt (Dorothy Malone) and trades his lame horse for a fresh one. He continues on to the nearby town of Twin Forks, which is run by Karen's father, Edward Galt (George Macready). At the local saloon, Barclay sees Tanner who pretends not to know him. Galt watches their exchange and later questions Barclay about Tanner's stolen gold, which was never discovered following the robbery. When Barclay denies knowing Tanner, Galt orders his henchmen to beat him up.
Later that night, Tanner kills an intruder in his room. In an effort to force Tanner to reveal the location of the gold, Galt sets him up, making it look like cold-blooded murder rather than self defense. After being taken to jail, Tanner escapes with the help of Barclay after agreeing to share the gold. The two men ride out to the old Galt ranch, now used as a pasture for sick horses. When Karen discovers them hiding there, Barclay takes her aside and reveals that he is in fact a U.S. Marshal.
Meanwhile, Galt recognizes the escape horses used by Tanner and Barclay as belonging to his ranch. Later he questions his daughter about them, and she reveals Barclay's secret, unaware that her father is after the gold himself. When Karen overhears Galt plotting with his henchmen, however, she realizes that Barclay's life is in danger and rides to the hideout to warn him. One of Galt's men follows her, however, and summons the others to the old Galt ranch. When they arrive, Karen meets them with gunfire, which gives Barclay and Tanner a head start on their escape.
Galt catches up with his daughter and has her put in custody while he and the others track Barclay and Tanner to an old mine shaft where Tanner has hidden the stolen gold. During the ensuing gunfight, Galt and his men are killed. Barclay reveals that Tanner was allowed to escape so that the gold could be retrieved. When the mine shaft caves in, Barclay overcomes Tanner and takes his prisoner back to jail. Karen knows he will return to her because he has left his horse in her care.

Tags: murder

Review:
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.
Jock Mahoney has a small role, and doubles for Scott in the fight scene at the end.
The Nevadan finds Randolph Scott in a three cornered battle for some stolen gold that escaped outlaw Forrest Tucker has hidden away.
After Tucker has made good an escape from authorities, Scott turns up on his trail and proves quite useful.
Still Tucker can't figure out why he's turning up all the time and being so helpful.The other part of this mystery is George MacReady who was doing several Randolph Scott westerns at this time.
He's a seemingly respectable rancher, but he's got some thugs on the payroll who include Jock Mahoney and bickering brothers Frank Faylen and Jeff Corey ready to do his bidding and he's cutting himself in on Tucker's hidden treasure.Complicating all this is Dorothy Malone, MacReady's daughter, a lovely thing who is totally clueless about her old man.
She takes a fancy to Scott and he to her which causes problems for everyone involved.The Nevadan is a good Randolph Scott western that tries for a bit of mystery.
This movie just begins the transition from the old, cartoonish Scott Westerns and the more adult Boetticher films...they were getting there, but just not there yet.
This movie is still very heavy on the one-dimensional characters and you won't find any Method acting, but Randolph Scott had aged just perfectly by this point...the lines in his face providing a mature ruggedness...no more matinée idol good looks...just a weather-beaten cowboy.
His acting isn't very good in this one, but he always looked the part of the hero (except for the hat he wears in the beginning of the film...impossible to take him seriously in that ridiculous thing).The IMDb critics, as well as many legitimate critics, pile on top of poor George Macready, complaining that he didn't belong in Westerns.
He's a fine actor and I always enjoy watching him.Although Forrest Tucker does a fairly good job throughout, the bulk of the supporting cast all give performances that never ring true.
She looked absolutely beautiful, and gave a uniformly good and honest performance.I'm a guy who likes my action films undiluted with dopey love stories, but I must say that the scenes between Scott and Malone were excellent...they had some real chemistry...and I think because Ms. Malone was such a good actress, she raised Scott's performance up to where it should have been throughout.
That was a big let-down.Unless you're a die-hard Randolph Scott fan, or want to get an eyeful of an adorable Dorothy Malone, I would suggest letting this film go by.
The best of the Scott films are: The Tall T, Ride Lonesome, Seven Men From Now, and Comanche Station...those are guaranteed to entertain..
Randolph Scott who was to begin an era of a-b grade westerns and make some so-called classic westerns with Budd Boetticher shows his interpretation of the gun-man with few words that he would use effectively later on to good effect.
The plot has something to do with Scott being an Undercover marshall, gold and yes, bad guys who need to be gunned down.
Good Scott western that makes excellent use of the neolithic Alabama Hills with the snow- capped southern Sierras in the background.
And just who is Barclay (Scott) anyway, and why does he befriend outlaw Tanner (Tucker) in his quest to recover stolen gold.
Is Barclay a good guy or not since he doesn't act like one.
But first, they've got to beat out Galt's (MacReady) gang who also, surprise, surprise, wants to get the same gold.
But what I most want to know is how ugly old Galt could father a delicious looking dame like Karen (Malone) who's clearly on her way up the Hollywood ladder.There're a number of nice touches (e.g. the unexpected bucking bronco), and I can't help noticing Harry Joe Brown as co-producer along with Scott.
They collaborated a few years later with Bud Boetticher on that great Ranown series of westerns that looks a lot like this one.
The stranger is Randolph Scott dressed up like a greenhorn.
For no good reason, Tucker decides he needs a partner and Scott fits the bill.
Still, it's a Randolph Scott western.
Randolph Scott is, as always perfectly cast in the role he plays in the movie.
Dorothy Malone plays the heroine and it was refreshing to see her play the type of girl that would definitely interest any man of good character.
Those who would see the Randolph Scott westerns in the fifties when originally released, would be rewarded with nice colors, more violence than in usual westerns (which would make it more dramatic) and a more mature, rugged faced Scott who combined perfectly with the other elements in the film.
Forrest Tucker is Tom Tanner who leaves jail and goes straight for the gold he kept.
George Macready is the rancher, and Dorothy Malone is his daughter.
Jeff Corey and Frank Faylen are the two brothers who are so good they are even mentioned on the New York Times original review as the best of the film.
Good entertainment, and even though the film was made in 1950, it is up to the standards of today..
There was little in the way of character development and motivations were usually simple, as Galt's is here -- "gold fever", someone calls it.
They were usually shot at a studio ranch or at Lone Pine or, as in this case, in both.Later in the 1950s ambitious directors like Anthony Mann introduced some life into the increasingly tired comic-book stories by giving us heroes who were neurotic and subsidiary characters with complicated motives.
Budd Boetticher was a director who gave up and reveled in the primitivism of the form.That's when Randolph Scott made the Westerns he's best known for, like "Ride Lonesome."  Great title there.
"The Nevadan" had the same producers as the later Boetticher films but Scott's character hadn't quite hardened into the inflexible clunk yet.
But the woman, Dorothy Malone, has never looked better, fresh faced, young, and innocent, as MacReady's daughter.
The Nevadan is a good entertaining, dependable Randolph Scott western, as he plays a mysterious loner, encountering a cast of interesting characters.
I hate to give away the storyline, but imagine Forrest Tucker as the bad guy, the alluring and nice to look at Dorothy Malone, her nasty father's henchmen, including Jock Mahoney, a stolen shipment of gold, and some well placed shootouts.
I can only add, if you are a fan of Randolph Scott and western genre from the 1950s, The Nevadan will not disappoint..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
I love Randolph Scott westerns.
Now I am NOT saying it's a bad film--it's just that there are way too many familiar plot points--to the point where they seem more like clichés than anything else.The film begins with prisoner Forrest Tucker escaping while on his way to another prison.
When he met up with "ordinary guy" Scott, I knew that it would turn out in the end that Scott was a lawman--rarely did Scott ever play the villain and there have been quite a few other films where a lawman makes friends with a robber to find out where he stashed the missing loot.
In addition, there must be a clichéd "big bad boss" (George Macready) who also wants to get the gold and, as usual, he'll stop at nothing to get it.I can't tell you how many other films reminded me of THE NEVADAN, but because it had all been seen before, there were absolutely no surprises.
However, given Scott's likable persona, at least the journey to the all-too-predictable finale was pleasant.Oh, and did I mention...there also was a love interest for Scott--and it was Macready's daughter!
The Nevadan is too short and formulaic to work through all its possibilities, but if plots are the hardest parts of writing, this film had some story features that were interesting at least.First, Randolph Scott's role as an undercover marshal is carefully set up to be convincing to the characters on screen but also to tip the audience off--Tom escapes from his lawman escort and the lawman acts chastened till everyone is out of sight, then smiles.
Forrest Tucker's bad-boy Tom is off for hidden gold, but Scott shows up to hang close with him, advising yet protecting Tom--if something happens to Tom, the gold's lost forever.
Later, Scott strategically shares his identity with his love-interest, who blurts it to her villainous dad; then when bad dad comes after Scott and Tom, Scott informs Tom and keeps the young outlaw on his side.
That had to be tough dialogue to write!Another interesting plot-feature is that all the honest characters seem to like bad-boy Tom.
(I too am automatically on Forrest Tucker's side if only b/c he would later carry F Troop with Larry Storch for, what, 3 seasons?) By the end of the story, Scott has helped him survive and sent him back to a few more years of prison, but everyone acts like the busted bad boy has a future.
Compared to most westerns, there's something seriously moral going on here between the hero and villain, and I don't mean the usual hero-turning-villain that later 50s westerns develop--in this case, the hero's virtue and competence somewhat redeem the villain.Third place in the story's redeeming features is the relationship between brother henchmen well played by Frank Faylen (Dobie's dad!) and Jeff Corey.
The screenplay can't resolve the complicated relationships between the brothers and others, but families are like that, and both actors remain convincing.As long as the subject is acting, though, I agree with other contributors who found Dorothy Malone a radiant young actress.
The film's only (inadvertently) funny moment occurs when another character addresses her love interest, the 50-something Scott, as "young man.".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
Scott's overall reputation today seems fair; he never made it to the hallmark of the greatest western players.
Complicated reluctant buddy western, with evil father-good daughter included.
Each screenplay included two distinct villains or groups of villains, one of whom spent most of the film as Scott's traveling partner, while the other villain(s) was external.
However, each film included a young villain as Scott's traveling companion who, at the film's conclusion, is treated as reformed or potentially reformable, hence does not die.
Actually, Forest Tucker, at age 30, was a bit long in the tooth for his character(Tom Tanner), who probably should have been in his early 20s.Of the 3 young men in these 3 films, Tanner clearly is the most risky bet for a successful reform, and ends the film with Scott's character, Marshal Andrew Barclay, taking him back to prison for a few more years for his crime of stealing $250,000.
Actually, it's difficult to understand why Barclay turns friendly with him in the parting scene, after Tanner repeatedly tried to ditch him as a partner when he thought Barclay was no longer useful to him and threatened to kill him after learning that he was an undercover federal marshal.
Tanner later clearly doesn't need it to find the gold, although it may have earlier refreshed his memory about some details.
The finale scene in the film hints at a possible marriage with Barclay: a typical ending for westerns of this era.
Scott, at 52, still looked young enough to be a plausible suitor for the young women in his films.
in contrast, in his films as he approached or exceeded 60, he usually served as more of a father figure.Jock Mahoney, who played Galt's henchman Sandy, sometimes starred in Hollywood and TV films.
He was also a good stunt double, and probably doubled for Scott in the bucking bronco episode and in parts of the mine tunnel fight...Charles Kemper made a memorable town sheriff.I found this film as enjoyable as some of Scott's later higher rated films.
One Of Four Scott/Macready Westerns.
Agree with Ashew,Macready unfairly discounted in Westerns.He was definitely equal to a star like Randy Scott,and he was convincing as a Western heavy.Who else could direct a bunch of dopes to do his bidding?That he had good manners,dressed well,spoke with a commanding voice only made him more convincing as a brilliant man gone bad,perfect for any Western.This is his third movie opposite Scott,Coroner Creek when he's nastier to his wife than here,Doolins Of Oklahoma as a good lawman and the narrator,and The Stranger Wore A Gun.There's plenty of action and Dorothy Malone as Galt's daughter (pre Peyton Place for Malone and Macready)comedy with Faylen and Corey,additional menace from Tucker.I liked it!