3:10 to Yuma (1957)
directed by
screenplay by
So here we come to our first non-keeper. My memory of this was "I like it." Ah, memories, so often they let us down. The core of the story is Van Heflin, a farmer in need of money takes on the risk of keeping Glenn Ford, a bandit, under guard until he can be gotten on the titular train and on to incarceration. It's taken from a good Elmore Leonard story, and if that's all there was it might be as great as I remembered it being. Unfortunately, it's swaddled in opening and closing scenes with a terrible song called "3:10 to Yuma" sung by Frankie Laine. Then there's Leora Dana as Van Heflin's wife. It's not her, but the part's written badly, one minute ragging on her husband for being a coward and then again when he's being brave with no exploration of how she gets from one reaction to the other. Ford's instant romance with a bartender/ex-dancehall floozie played by Felicia Farr is cheesy by any era's standards.
Glenn Ford is very good playing against type as the bandit, Ben Wade. Van Heflin is excellent as farmer Dan Evans. There's a sort of damaged reserve to Heflin (also on display in Shane), that I find really intriguing. He was a star in his day, but he's not one of the ones people still rave about. I just heard some good words about Act of Violence (with Robert Ryan), so I need to track that down and see more of his work. There are some good, gripping moments on hand, and Henry Jones as the town rummy is very good. Still, the crappy and cheesy outweigh the good and away it must go.
Ah, well, the whole point of this was to cull out the unworthy, and the rest of my Western collection is damn impressive, even without this.
Verdict: to the thrift store, posthaste
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| Glenn Ford and Van Heflin |
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