BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

weezeralfalfa I don't believe this short western is officially regarded as a remake of the equally short 1939 "Frontier Marshal". But, after checking my notes on F.M., I found it amazing how many details they have in common, so many that I clearly would label it as a remake. Of course, there are plenty of differences, as well, one being that this was shot in color vs. the B&W of F.M.. Another is that the supposed location for F.M. is Tombstone A.Z., vs. Powder River, for the present film. Well, it turns out there are two famous Powder Rivers in the NW quadrant of the US. One is famous today as having the richest, cheapest, coal mines in the US, and is located in NE Wyoming and SE Montana. The other is located in the Blue Mountains of NE Oregon, and is well known since the Civil War for it's placer gold. In contrast, I'm not aware of any important gold deposits in the Wyoming Powder River area, although the Black Hills are not far to the east. Thus, I would favor Oregon, although it's mentioned that the Homestead Mine is nearby. Well, THE Homestead mine is located in the Black Hills. Typical Hollywood confusion of that era! At least parts of the action were filmed in Glacier National Park, in NW Montana. Instead of Wyatt Earp and Doc Halliday of F.M., we have facsimiles in Chino Bull(Wyatt-like)and Mitch(Doc Holliday-like). In this film, they have trouble deciding whether they want to be friends or enemies. We see some of each throughout the film, like reluctant buddies. Both films have the Doc-like character suffering from a chronic health problem: TB in F.M. and a brain tumor, causing periodic blackouts, in the present film. In both films, the Doc-like character is scripted as a gunslinger/medical doctor combo, whereas the real Doc was a doctor of dentistry. In both films, the Doc-like character uses his medical knowledge to save a life.Roy Calhoun plays Chino, while a flamboyant Cameron Mitchell plays Mitch. An equally flamboyant Corinne Calvet plays Frenchie: the sometimes owner of one of the saloons. Penny Edwards plays the prim blond "good" girl arriving from the East, come to take Mitch back East. However, she appears to end up with Chino. Gold is mostly what the fighting is all about: both Chino's stolen gleanings and a $300,000.gold shipment on the stage. Chino's mining buddy, Johnny, is killed(by whom?) and the gold stolen while Chino is away. This murder and robbery induced Chino to give up mining to become the new town marshal.One gripe I have is that the stage gold shipment segment is underplayed. When the stage is on a flatboat ferry, crossing a river, the bad guys cut the towline attached to a horse that pulls the boat across. They also shoot the horse driver. The stage then is swept downstream toward a rapids. Chino finds a spare rope and swims to shore attaching it to a flimsy-looking long dead small tree. Even supposing it held the raft against the current, it's unclear how they got it to shore, unless they found the horse and attached the rope to it. One horse hardly seemed enough. Also, why did the bad guys decide to abandon their very lucrative quest when the rope was attached to that tree??I regard this film as even more interesting than "Frontier Marshal" In fact, it's one of my favorite westerns, despite its clear B status. I won't give away the unusual climactic ending.Available at YouTube and an expensive DVD.

zardoz-13 Rory Calhoun plays a seasoned lawman fed up with gunplay in "Green Grass of Wyoming" director Louis King's "Powder River," a sturdy but derivative little horse opera loosely based on Wyatt Earp biographer Stuart N. Lake's book. Cameron Mitchell co-stars as a swift-shooting hellion who wears his gun slung low on his right knee in this Technicolor oater from Twentieth Century Fox. Basically, Calhoun is cast as Chino Bullock, a Wyatt Earp type, while Mitchell plays a variation on Doc Holliday named Mitch Hardin. Instead of being ravaged by tuberculosis, Hardin suffers from a brain tumor. He has left the East to roam the West. Mitch has a suicidal streak running through his psyche as a result of his tragic affliction. He romances the hell cat saloon owner Frenchie Dumont (Corinne Calvet of "Apache Uprising")who smokes cigarettes in public while Mitch's good girl from back East, Debbie Allen (Penny Edwards of "Pony Soldier"), struggles without success to convince him to return home with her. The catch here is that Calhoun prefers to shun a six-gun while carrying out his duties as the marshal of Powder River. Except for the marred ending, western fans won't be disappointed with this shoot'em up horse opera. Six time Oscar winning lenser Edward Cronjager's full frame cinematography looks dazzling with vivid colors and scenic settings. The cast is solid, and the production design is terrific. There is a cool showdown between a hardcase who thrusts a six-shooter into Bullock's belly at one point in a saloon and is surprised to see the marshal clench the cylinder of his six-gun so that he cannot cock the gun. Calhoun and Cameron make a charismatic pair, but their relationship is a combustible one.

gordonl56 POWDER RIVER – 1953A brisk 20 Century Fox B-western production that is better than one would expect. Rory Calhoun plays the hero lead here while Carl Betz and John Dehner ably handle the villain parts. Also in the mix are Cameron Mitchell, Penny Edwards and the rather stunning looking, Corinne Calvet.The story has Calhoun as an ex-lawman who has hung up the guns. He is now doing some gold prospecting with Frank Ferguson. The two are doing quite well and are building up a good sized stake of gold. They need to be on guard since the woods are full of claim jumpers and the like. Calhoun heads in to the nearby town of Powder River to cash in some gold and pick up supplies. Powder River is more or less run by saloon keeper, Corinne Calvet. Cahoun returns to his camp after the supply run into town. He finds his partner, Ferguson, dead and their gold gone. He returns to town to look for anyone with a bit too much gold dust. No luck there, but he does break up a bunch of yahoos causing trouble. Calhoun finds himself being offered the job of town Sheriff, which he accepts. What better way to discover who killed his partner.Saloon and gambling house owner, Calvet takes a shine to Calhoun. This, he is told might not be all that wise a move on his part. It seems that Calvet has a beau already. The man, Cameron Mitchell, is really handy with a gun and is known for violent mood swings. These are caused by a tumor in his brain. Mitchell is a former doctor from out east. Mitchell had accidentally killed a man during surgery when he suffered one of his attacks.Now popping up is Penny Edwards. Edwards is the former fiancé of Mitchell. She wants Mitchell to come back east and get an operation. This plan is put on hold, as Mitchell ends up helping Calhoun take on the villain types, Carl Betz and John Dehner. There are several shootouts, a jailbreak and several more shootouts.Miss Edwards catches a bullet and Mitchell ends up having to do surgery to save her life. After all this, we discover that it had been Mitchell who had shot Calhoun's partner, Ferguson. Mitchell then drops dead from a brain aneurysm saving Calhoun from shooting him in revenge for Ferguson. As silly as this might sound, it plays out rather well on screen.This rather lively duster is a step above what was normally delivered by veteran b-film helmsman, Louis King. King dwelled for years on westerns with Buck Jones before moving up the ladder a bit with the odd Charlie Chan and Bulldog Drummond feature. The writing of this film is quite good with Sam Hellman, Stuart Lake and Daniel Mainwaring. Lake wrote the stories for several excellent westerns. These include FRONTIER MARSHAL, WELLS FARGO, THE WESTERNER, MY DARLING CLEMINTINE and WINCHESTER 73. Mainwaring, better known as Geoffrey Homes, wrote the story or screenplay for ROUGHSHOD, THE BIG STEAL, THE LAWLESS, THE LAST OUTPOST, ROADBLOCK, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK, THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS and the noir classic, OUT OF THE PAST. Cinematographer Ernest Cronjager supplies some nice Technicolor work on this one.

grybar I'm not really a fan of Rory Calhoun, but I enjoyed his character in this picture. It tells a story with a bit more depth and a few surprises, while still providing action, romance and some terrific western scenery. While Calhoun's character, Chino Bull, is still country-suave and in control, he doesn't convey the snide quality that was an undercurrent in his later television work. The story line carries some standard western baggage, but at the same time it veers away with unexpected plot developments that were a bit more sophisticated than the type of that era, presaging the so-called "adult westerns" that became the standard in the 1950s and '60s. The female characters, unfortunately, are given the usual supportive roles. Still, it's an interesting story against some beautiful backgrounds.