FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Janae Milner
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Michael Morrison
Recently (November 2017) a friend told me his favorite Western novelist is Luke Short. Strictly on his recommendation, I got a Luke Short novel, titled "Donovan's Gun," and I am very impressed. Short is now my own second favorite Western novelist, right after Elmer Kelton."Albuquerque," my favorite city in these United States, is the setting for this movie although reportedly it was shot in Chatsworth, California, now very urbanized, and Sedona, Arizona.Perhaps the story is rather slight, maybe even predictable, but the dialogue and the number of important characters raises it 'way above the average.Well, heck, Randolph Scott is the star (and in one of his most likable roles) so I was predisposed to like it. But Lon Chaney Jr. gives another of his excellent performances. He became an even better actor than his father, without the make-up.Oh, yes, as the Wolfman he used both his acting talent and make-up, but later roles, such as this and in "High Noon" and "Of Mice and Men," he proved to any doubters he was indeed an actor.Russell Hayden was a busy man, having 80 credits here at IMDb, but in "Albuquerque" he doesn't have to do a lot.But his "sister," played by Catherine Craig does. What a beautiful and talented woman. She should have had many more than 38 credits.Barbara Britton is billed higher and had a longer career, and is also lovely and talented.Usually playing a grandpa or uncle, and usually a likable codger, George Cleveland, in a Lionel Barrymore-reminiscent wheelchair, is a really horrible villain. Anyone wondering about his acting talent needs to see him in this. Remarkable performance!Nearly stealing the whole movie, as he usually did, was George "Gabby" Hayes, who had some of the best lines, and whose character owned two mules named, grandly, "Damon" and "Pythias."His character, "Juke," also got to make Bible references, even if he did sometimes rather garble them, but it was this kind of dialogue that made "Albuquerque" such an excellent movie, even more than the action.Unfortunately, sometimes the action was made less than exciting because of too many rear-screen projection shots. That is my only carp about the movie.My other carp is about some of the reviews. It is not really a "review" if the would-be reviewer merely recounts the plot, and especially when not warning readers of spoilers.One reviewer, in addition, sneered at the fact a stage-coach driver and his supposed "co-driver," who was actually a passenger, not a "co- driver," were unarmed when the bandits held them up.Juke told the bandits there was no cash box aboard, so nothing to steal -- he not knowing passengers might have valuables -- and he told the hold-up men that's why he was unarmed. So some reviewers really ought to watch the movie before commenting.I do have one other complaint: There are, at this writing, three versions of "Albuquerque" at YouTube -- and every one is pretty bad to terrible.The one I finally decided upon was out of focus and about half-way through even out of synch! Why people upload such junk is beyond me.Another has a picture of John Wayne, which seems a fairly common bit of fraud on the YouTube audience, and the YouTube owners -- Amazon? -- really ought to be ashamed to allow such dishonesty.One of the others has the movie cut off at top and bottom."Albuquerque" is a good movie, one I highly recommend, but if you try to watch at YouTube, choose carefully.
FightingWesterner
Former Texas Ranger Randolph Scott travels to Albuquerque to work for his uncle's transport service, only to find the old man a swindler and a murderer. Before long, he joins forces with upstart competitor Barbara Britton, in order to show up the old man and protect her and her brother from his uncle's sabotage. A fairly good Technicolor western, this features another sturdy performance by Scott and some nasty villainy by George Cleveland, Lon Chaney Jr., as a vicious hired hand, and Bernard J. Nedel as the crooked sheriff in Cleveland's back pocket. George "Gabby" Hayes is here too, doing what he does best, as Scott's crusty sidekick.Some nice twists and a decent amount of action and gun-play moves things along quite nicely.
oldblackandwhite
Albuquerque will be somewhat of a disappointment for fans of Randolph Scott as well as aficionados of 1940's Technicolor westerns. One of the reasons for watching one of these post-World War II horse operas would be to enjoy outdoor cinematography in the gorgeous three-strip Technicolor process you expect from color movies of this era. Unfortunately Albuquerque was filmed in Cinecolor, an economical 2-strip substitute, which tends to emphasize garish red orange and murky greens while rendering other colors rather pastel. But it was tolerable here. I can remember seeing Cinecolor westerns new, or nearly so, in movie houses when I was a kid in the 1950's, and it seems that the color was considerably more unattractive compared to Technicolor than it shows on the nicely restored Universal DVD of Albuquerque.The main problem with this picture was that the acting was lifeless and the story unexciting in spite of some pretty good action sequences. The cast was good enough, topped by Scott and gorgeous Barbara Britton with support from colorful Gabby Hayes, menacing Lon Chaney Jr. and pretty Catherine Craig, the lifelong wife of actor Robert Preston. Wholesome Ms. Craig was a good choice as Scott's love interest. Age 33 at the time, she didn't look like Randolph's daughter as some of his leading ladies of the time would! Don't blame the cast, blame Ray Enright's flabby direction and the uninspired Gene Lewis/Clarence Upson Young screenplay.Particularly wasted in this lackluster oat-burner was the strikingly beautiful and talented Barbara Britton. I admit to having a crush on Barbara since I watched her as a kid in the light-hearted early television mystery series Mr. And Mrs. North. I still think of her one of the great unappreciated beauties and talents of the classic movie era. She promisingly starts out as a bad babe in Albuquerque, but disappointingly, she too soon turns into a good girl, weakening whatever dramatic potential her character had. She usually played classy good girls, but she displayed a sexy, naughty look at times. It would have been interesting if the boring script had let her be bad to the end.Albuquerque had its moments, especially in the action department. The runaway ore-loaded mule wagons careening down a winding mountain road was an exciting moment. Scott's fist fight with the brutish Chaney was likewise well staged. This was one of the last times Scott was capable of doing one of these physically stressful encounters without the stunt double who didn't look like him. It must have be hard on him, as he was about 50 at the time. Though he was still claiming to have been born in 1903, which would have made him only 45. Since it was known that Scott was a World War I veteran, it went about that he was one of the youngest men to have served in the American Expeditionary force on the Western Front. He supposedly lied about his age to volunteer at 14. But when the 1900 census became available to the public in 1970, it revealed that he was actually born in 1898, meaning he was the more ordinary service age of 19. It was not the Army he lied to about his age, but everyone else!Never mind, Scott was still up to what he needed to do in Albuquerque. Unfortunately the production was not up to his standard. Not a terrible western, but not nothing to shoot your six-gun into the air about.
Claudio Carvalho
While traveling from Texas to Albuquerque in a stagecoach, Cole Armin (Randolph Scott) and the other passengers are robbed by criminals on the road. There is a shootout and the horses dart with a little girl inside the stagecoach, but Cole rescues her. Cole, who comes to the town to work for his powerful uncle John Armin (George Cleveland), discovers that he is a hated man that operates the local freight company and is trying to destroy the competition of Ted Wallace (Russell Hayden) and his sister Celia (Catherine Craig) that was robbed in US$ 10,000.00 in the stagecoach. Further, Cole learns that John Armin is responsible for the heist and he forces his uncle to return the robbed amount to the Wallace siblings. Cole proposes a partnership with Ted and Celia and they form the Wallace & Armin Freighting Company. The new company gets profitable contracts with the local mines and John Armin hires the outsider Letty Tyler (Barbara Britton) to work for Ted, Celia and Cole and spy their business. Further, he uses his henchman Steve Murkill (Lon Chaney Jr.) to frame Cole and put him out of business. "Albuquerque" is another great western from Randolph Scott that performs his usual role of a fair lonely man that helps people from a city. The story is highly entertaining with action, humor and romance very well balanced with predictable twists. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Romântico Defensor" ("Romantic Defender")