Ten Wanted Men

Range war fails to ignite.

Ten Wanted Men (the title hints at something far more dramatic than is actually in the picture) is a serviceable, but instantly forgettable Western from the Scott-Brown production company. Directed by jobber H. Bruce Humberstone, with a screenplay by Kenneth Gamet (from a story by Irving Ravetch) and filmed in Technicolor out in Old Tuscon, it feels (and is) lifeless and poor on structure and execution.

With some misplaced humour and a cobbled together plot, this ultimately ends up as a time filler for Randy Scott completists only. There's some enjoyment to be had from watching our Randy lob dynamite around, and Leo Gordon steals the movie as menacing villain Frank Scavo, but sadly it never comes together t...

Has its points of interest, but not one of Scotts better Westerns

When the lovely ward of a menacing rancher in Arizona (Richard Boone) flees to the spread of a rival cattle baron (Randolph Scott) he hires ten shady gunmen to set things aright. Leo Gordon and Lee Van Cleef are on hand as the latter while a youthful Dennis Weaver plays the Sheriff.

"Ten Wanted Men" (1955) is a weak but watchable Western by Scott, who co-produced. Its a loose take on the Billy the Kid story with different names and switching from New Mexico to Arizona. Skip Homeier plays the Kid, although hes not an outlaw. Scott takes the John Chisum role while Lester Matthews fills the John Henry Tunstall part as the father of Homeiers character. Meanwhile Boone...

Try as he might, Randolph Scott never really could play a tough character convincingly. To me, he just always looked like too much of decent, honourable man. This film, though, is one of his better efforts as the rancher ("Stewart") who steps in to protect "Corrine" (Jocelyn Brando) from the clutches of her nasty guardian "Campbell" (Richard Boone). Irked by her defection, he hires "Scavo" (Leo Gordon) and a band of outlaws to terrorise the town - a plan not without it's own risks as he soon discovers to his cost. Director Bruce Humberstone keeps the pace of this action adventure moving along quite well, it has plenty of double crosses, shoot 'em ups; even some house demolition - dynamite style - and Gordon actually makes for quite a decent...