Ride a Crooked Trail

Middle of the Street.

Ride a Crooked Trail is directed by Jesse Hibbs and adapted to screenplay by Borden Chase from a story written by George Bruce. It stars Audie Murphy, Walter Matthau, Gia Scala, Leo Gordon, Henry Silva and Eddie Little. A CinemaScope/Eastman Color production, music is by Joseph Gershenson and cinematography by Harold Lipstein.

A blend of the breezy and the beefy here as Audie saddles up as Joe Maybe, a bank robber who after assuming the identity of the detective who was sent to capture him, winds up as the sheriff of a corrupt town. Ironically its the town he and his dastardly cohorts had planned for their next big robbery. But as Joe insinuates himself into the company of the towns better citizens, he begins to ...

This is quite a good, light-hearted little western featuring Audie Murphy as an escaping bank robber who arrives in a town only to be mistaken by the local judge - a feisty Walter Matthau - for a likely candidate for sheriff. When Gia Scala - Murphy's old flame gets off the river boat she almost lands him it, so to avoid discovery he claims that they are married so as he can carry out his own nefarious plans. When her real beau and his gang arrive in town things all start to get a bit complicated... It's an entertaining hour and a half; with a good rapport between all three principals and Eddie Little as the young "Jimmy". It's got an half decent script and some good action thrown in too. The ending is a bit poor, but I suppose it was inevitable...