Glenn Ford who was associated with some of the best westerns ever made has his last starring role in the genre in Santee. Although he would do more westerns up to almost the end of his career, he would no longer be the leading man/action hero in any of them.
Ford was 57 when he made Santee and even in this one he's transitioning to be a father figure, much the same way John Wayne was in films like Big Jake, Rio Lobo, and The Cowboys.
Unfortunately Santee takes it's plot from a combination of Henry Fonda's The Tin Star and Robert Mitchum's Young Billy Young. Ford is a former lawman, turned bounty hunter who decides that marshaling doesn't give him quite the latitude he needs to deal with bad guys. It also doesn't pay as well. But having his son shot down by John Larch and his gang was enough to turn him bitter.
He's also forced to kill Robert J. Wilkie another outlaw who has a son in Michael Burns. But he takes Burns into his home. Truth be told there wasn't much attachment there anyway, Burns hardly knew him.
Jay Silverheels has the best part in the film as Ford's loquacious ranch foreman. I do believe he had more dialog here than in over 200 episodes of The Lone Ranger. Dana Wynter has a few scenes as Ford's wife and makes them count.
But Santee is just a tired rehash of a pair of better films. Glenn Ford fans will like it though.
