Synopsis
SIX-GUN SHOWDOWN IN THE SIERRAS
A small rancher is being harassed by his mighty and powerful neighbor. When the neighbor even hires gunmen to intimidate him he has to defend himself and his property by means of violence.
Man in the Saddle
1951 Directed by André de Toth
Cast
Randolph Scott Joan Leslie Ellen Drew Alexander Knox Richard Rober John Russell Alfonso Bedoya Guinn "Big Boy" Williams Clem Bevans Cameron Mitchell Richard Crane Frank Sully Don Beddoe Tennessee Ernie Ford Frank Hagney James Kirkwood George Lloyd Kermit Maynard Dorothy Phillips Ada Adams Bob Burns Roydon Clark James Dime Frank Ellis Joe Garcio Curley Gibson Herman Hack Al Haskell Reed Howes Show All…
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Alternative Titles
Le Cavalier de la mort, Terra do Inferno, Lucha a muerte, Mann im Sattel, Il cavaliere del deserto, Muž v sedle, TERRA DO INFERNO, Człowiek w siodle, Férfi a nyeregben, Eyerdeki Adam, Lluita a mort
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USA
02 Dec 1951
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Director Andre DeToth is another of those guys who did a series of films with Western star Randolph Scott during the early 1950's. I'd heard good things about him, his economical use of the camera, his work as an assistant with Alexander Korda, and his love for Westerns, even as a Hungarian born immigrant to the US. His films seem to be hard to find on Dvd too, I've had trouble finding the films he did with Scott for my collection, although I did manage to track this one down.
Man in the Saddle was the first of the Randolph Scott/ DeToth collaborations, and in truth I was slightly disappointed with it. Maybe I'd set my expectations too high, I'd…
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It was bound to happen, and tonight it did - I finally came across a Randolph Scott movie I didn’t like. Surprisingly it was directed by André De Toth, in glorious Technicolor, but for whatever reason chose to film this in 1.37: 1. And perhaps I should be somewhat grateful for giving me a narrow picture, because the thing that annoyed me the most about this big guy picking on the little guy movie was the art direction. If it’s done well, production design isn’t obvious unless you’re looking at it. When it’s bad it sticks out like a sore thumb. At least to me it does. All the sets here felt like sets. Cold sparse sets. Couple that with some corny western performance cliches and you end up with what felt like a tv show kids would have gone nuts over in the 50’s. Complete with a singing cowboy bit. Oh well.
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One of those good old 1950s psycho-westerns that seems to have all kinds of feverish sexual anxieties and preoccupations bubbling just under the surface. But where it really shines is in the set-pieces, like the incredible fistfight/tumble down a mountainside of snowmelt, absolutely spectacular. Alexander Knox is great as the arrogant but also somewhat pitiful bad guy.
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“You Ain’t Seen Me, Right?” – The Summer Watchlist Trawl
Films I Watched On TCM / Film4 While I Was 'Working'
Another one where the poster has little resemblance to what happens in the actual film.
Man In The Saddle was a complete mess, really. It has a couple of really major things going for it. There's a fantastic brawl about half an hour from the end where Randolph Scott and John Russell literally bring the house down - clattering into the foundations of the hut they're fighting in and completely wrecking it. They then spill dangerously down an icy hillside in a pair of stunts that could not possibly have been controlled. That was great fun.
There's also a…
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A rather generic name for a rather generic Western. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but it had me wondering why it was on The Criterion Channel when so many of Randolph Scott's Westerns are better. This one is directed by André De Toth, unlike most of his famous ones, but De Toth is certainly a capable director. The scenery was beautiful. Everything moved along like it should and the whole thing takes less than 90 minutes.
The movie opens with Scott as Owen Merritt and some others in a bar when a group from a ranch called The Skull come in to celebrate the upcoming wedding of the owner of The Skull, Isham. It seems Isham is going to…
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An okay Randolph Scott western. Good when there was shooting, but a little empty otherwise. Got some decent characters filling the void, so it's an easy old time.
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This one feels a bit like a Randolph Scott clip show. Maybe that’s unfair because I’m watching these out of chronological order but when the stampede happened I had to check if I had logged this already because it felt very familiar.
It’s an overcrowded affair with Randolph having two love triangles and the villain’s henchmen even having a henchman so you don’t know who’s the love interest and who is really the bad guy.
There’s some good, De Toth shoots gunfights with his usual panache and there’s a fistfight that quite literally brings the house down.
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*A FEW SPOILERS*
A disappointing De Toth/Scott Western, the director only occasionally elevating a clapped-out script, which starts well before quickly descending into cliché. Scott plays a rancher being targeted by the rich, wimpy neighbour (Alexander Knox) who stole his girlfriend (Joan Leslie).
The big set pieces are amazingly bad: a deathly boring cattle stampede, a stalking scene where Scott keeps jumping into a water butt, and a fistfight during which De Toth abandons any pretence at proper filmmaking and just allows Scott’s much younger stunt double to get some nice extended screen time. The film also comes weighed down by some of the worst comedy ever put on screen: bafflingly incongruous, offensively unfunny and eye-wateringly racist. (I suppose that…
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Owen Merritt swallows his pride when his love marries for wealth. But when her powerful husband threatens Merritt and his friends, Owen grabs his guns to defend his.
de Toth is a pretty good action director for the period. The gunfight in the dark is good, but the scene with a flaming wagon used to stop a stampede is 👩🍳💋. As is often the case, the secondary female role is the true treasure.
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I’ve said it a dozen times and I’ll say it again: I love these low budget Randolph Scott westerns. Since they can’t afford big spectacle, the effort goes into the writing. I like the stories and the dialogue. I mean, what’s up with the scene where she sends her dad away?! I almost shed a tear!
I kinda like the theme song, too.
This is one of the better Randolph Scott westerns, despite a little too much obvious stunt doubles towards the end. Don’t show their faces for god’s sake!
And I actually really liked the love story(s).“Would you keep loving a man after he was dead?”
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Seriously one of the lushest westerns, and full of flourishes. Reviews talking about this being “unremarkable” and noting De Toth’s “economical” direction are written by people without eyes. Every time a gun is fired it’s a work of art. Contains an image for the ages: framed through the sheriff’s windows during the windswept finale, the men appear in a brightly golden haze; miraged silhouettes, a moment so beautiful it makes as strong a case you’ll find for cinema’s supremacy over the other arts.
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Man in the Saddle is the first Randolph Scott Western I haven't really liked too much. It's okay, nothing special. It reminded me of the old John Wayne Republic Westerns: a lot of action with no significant dramatic impact.
The movie starts with a woman named Laurie Bidwell (Joan Leslie) about to be wed to Will Isham (Alexander Knox). Everyone is surprised that Owen Merritt (Randolph Scott) isn't putting up more of a fuss about the marriage, seeing as how Laurie used to be his girl. But Laurie has made it clear that she has her eye set on bigger and better things, and Owen just isn't very materialistic. Will Isham, on the other hand, sees the world through dollar…