The Desperadoes

1943

Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance / Western

8
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 50% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 50% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 1820 1.8K

banker friendship sheriff prison escape mailman

Plot summary

Popular mailcoach driver Uncle Willie is in fact in league with the town's crooked banker. They plan to have the bank robbed after emptying it, and when Willie's choice for this doesn't show in time, he gets some local boys to do it. When his man does turn up he decides to stick around, as he is pals with the sheriff and also takes a shine to Willie's daughter Allison. This gives the bad men several new problems.

Director

Charles Vidor Photo
Charles Vidor

Top cast

Irving Bacon Photo
Irving Bacon as Dan Walters
Edgar Buchanan Photo
Edgar Buchanan as Uncle Willie McLeod
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams Photo
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as Nitro Rankin
Claire Trevor Photo
Claire Trevor as The Countess
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
798.42 MB
968*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 3
1.45 GB
1440*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 6 / 10

Another 1943 film that was not about the war...

... and that's a rarity during this particular year, but perhaps more likely in a western such as this.Although Randolph Scott and Claire Trevor get top billing, they are actually second leads. Top leads go to the second-billed couple, a young and startlingly luxuriously-pated Glenn Ford along with Evelyne Keyes in leather pants. Ford is not quite as noxious as he would later become on-screen; he makes an effective "good bad man", as Keyes refers to him.Randolph Scott basically grins his way through the story of a sheriff, Ford, and Keyes busting the corrupt banker who has arranged for his own bank to be robbed. Trevor doesn't get much to do as the local madam. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams provides good comic relief as Ford's loyal sidekick, and Edgar Buchanan is wonderful as the morally wavering "town uncle" whose own corruption is incomplete because of his paternal worrying over daughter Keyes.The story may be rote, but the script is excellent, the direction is efficient, and there are some scenery shots that are actually "new", such as from-above shots of a very narrow path cut through a rocky hill. This is a good film, not just a good Western.
Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

What a Fellow Does For a Friend

Randolph Scott and Glenn Ford were once outlaw pals together, but now Scott's a sheriff and young Ford is still hiring his gun out. He gets hired to pull a bank job, but is delayed getting to town and those that hired him get someone else. That leads to all kinds of complications, a lot for a film that's not even 90 minutes long.Randy and Glenn both got girls here. Claire Trevor plays her usual good time gal with a heart of gold. And Evelyn Keyes is the daughter of Edgar Buchanan who falls for Ford big time without realizing who he is or why he came to the town that Scott is the sheriff in.It's B western, but unusual for the time and for Columbia Pictures it was given the full technicolor treatment. The Desperadoes marked Glenn Ford's first film in technicolor, a process reserved only for some of the more expensive films from bigger studios. Harry Cohn was certainly not one to shell out for it. And definitely not during war time.The plot gets a bit convoluted as both Ford and Scott are put to the test of friendship versus expediency/duty. The plot also involves some high class hypocritical skunks in Randy's town who are the real outlaws as far as the film is concerned.The four leads do a fine job and the best supporting performance is Guinn Williams as Ford's lovable explosive lunkhead of a sidekick. The climax involves a cattle stampede and a shootout in the town saloon and is one of the best ever done in a western film.Fans of the four leads and westerns in general will enjoy this one.
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