Taggart

[mrsl]

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This movie infuriated me.

It starts out with everyone happy because they just signed for the land they're on, with a little stream running through it, and a large grazing area, and all these other wonderful things. Suddenly, a group of men on horseback come shooting and scaring up the herd causing a stampede in which the Dad is killed, and a young guy rides in by the campfire and point blank shoots the old cook and the Mom. Dad and Mom's son see this and follows the young guy home, but his Dad has also been hurt in the stampede and lays dying. After a few words, the bad guy draws a gun, but is outdrawn by the good guy. Naturally, the dying Dad refuses to believe it was self defense, and sets up a wanted type of order, so the bounty hunter he hires can have no trouble collecting the reward when the rancher is dead. All of this happens in the first 20 minutes and although its pretty much a B western, it is in color and not all that bad.

What infuriates me is the strong silent type hero. Time after time he gets people drawing guns on him, and ready to take him to jail, or whatever, and he never opens his mouth to explain his circumstances. The main reason I can't totally condemn this film is Dan Duryea. With the material he's got, he really pulls out all the plugs to make it work. As creepy as he is in most of the parts he plays, and this is no exception, his presence keeps the story going. He has no qualms about killing people whether they're men or women. At one point, gold is brought in and his single minded determination to get that gold is amazing.

A good one for when the house is quiet and you're bored.
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