Universal-International Lends Offbeat Touch To Another Comfort Western

Rory Calhoun Riding Into Red Sundown (1956)

It's sometimes a flag when your gunhawk promises in a first reel to lay down arms; usually that means you'll wait till a last for them to be taken up again. Rory Calhoun makes the peace pledge in Red Sundown and forebears killing after benign-for-once James Millican buries him alive to avoid capture by Leo Gordon's bad gang. Interested yet? Plenty more here is likeably offbeat. Prior to siege, Rory and Jim enjoy bread with strawberry jam from Calhoun's saddlebag --- now there's a first for me after years watching westerns. A support cast is great after Universal-International habit. Robert Middleton is principal heavy and does his own brawl and falls with Rory, while Grant Williams of future shrinkage acquits well as a smiling killer. It's easy to ignore U-I westerns because there were so many, plus fact few get shown beyond high-profile Jim Stewarts and a few Audie Murphys. Red Sundown is a good one and worth setting radar for. It shows up on Retroplex from time to time in HD.