The Long Rope

Sheriff Alan Hale Jr. stops Robert Wilke's men from lynching his prisoner, John Alonzo. They say Alonzo murdered their boss's brother for carrying on an affair with Alonzo's wife, Lisa Montell. Hale says a circuit judge is coming, and they back down. When judge Hugh Marlowe shows up, they almost shoot him down for interfering with their lynching David Renard, but aspiring gun man Chris Robinson sends them running. Marlowe begins to investigate.

It's one of the dire-looking black and white B westerns of the early 1960s, but it's got William Witney directing, so there are interesting things brought up in the script. It's written as one of those times-a-changing movies, with Wilkes representing the cattle barons who took over the west to run things as they saw fit, with Marlowe standing in for law and the coming, fairer order. There are the remnants of the old Spanish land lords in the person of Miss Montell, and her mother, Madeleine Taylor Holmes, embittered at theimmense land grant being reduced to a single house, while Wilkes owns everything else, secure in his power.... but there are stirrings of discontent. Hale won't break with the current order just yet, but he did call in a judge, and Robinson saved Marlowe on a whim... but if Wilke pays him, he'll pocket the money and shoot Marlowe.

So it seems, but with the conflict between the old, current and future rulership, there's a lot of possibility for change. Or none. For a cheap movie, this carries a lot of subtextual baggage, but Witney treats it just right by ignoring it, and telling the stor as written. That's where the strength of the ritualized B western has always been: tell the story, and let the audience fill in the meaning.