Review of Vengeance Valley (1951) by Jim M — 19 Jan 2008

A decent Western about the rivalry between an elderly cattle rancher's no-good son, and his honourable adopted son (a plot I'm sure I've seen elsewhere).

It's given a little more oomph by the two leads. Burt Lancaster is the almost-too-perfect adopted son Owen Daybright, running the gamut from charming to kickass to conflicted and brooding (and amusingly keeping his broad NY accent right through). Robert Walker, in one of his last roles, is the cheating, lying, double-crossing biological son Lee Strobie - allegedly the role that got him his legendary part in Hitch's "Strangers on a Train", and beginning to show that same captivating menace. Genre standby John Ireland delivers his usual charismatic bad-boy performance, too.

The film's view of its female characters is actually pretty progressive, which is good to see. However, the love story with Joanne Dru doesn't exactly take off, especially as the boys leave for the hills halfway through the film - allowing for some quite beautiful classic Western scenes, including one striking shot of a long string of cattle under the line of a cliff. The showdown at the end, and the resolution after, seems somewhat truncated however. All-in-all, an entertaining if not outstanding Western.