Albuquerque

Movie-wise, there are few experiences more pleasurable than kicking back with a Randolph Scott western.

Scott knew his audiences, understood what they wanted, and gave it to them. I have recollections of reading that Scott was among the most consistent moneymakers throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. While none of his films were blockbusters, they didn’t lose money either. I would think that an executive who green lighted a new Scott western did so with no trepidation.

Critics sing hosannas over the seven films he made towards the end of his career with director Budd Boetticher and you’ll get no argument from me. They’re jewels, filled with interesting, flawed, if not slightly eccentric characters who happen to play their dramas against the beautiful panoramas of the west.

The Scott westerns of the post-war era leading up to the Boetticher years are more traditional, but still very entertaining. While some may be better than others, I can’t think of any out and out clunkers. Indeed, I can’t think of a moment’s regret spent watching a Randolph Scott western.

“Albuquerque” (1948) is a case in point. I stayed engrossed and entertained over the course of its 89-minute running time. It was directed by Ray Enright (who coincidentally also directed Scott seven times, including a real winner, “Coroner Creek”, also from 1948), and Enright sure moves things along. There’s hardly a wasted scene.

At one point, Enright superimposes iris-like shots of townspeople placing bets on the success of a freight expedition leaving town, which we see in the background. That’s an effective way of showing two different images without cutting back and forth between them.

Randolph Scott plays Cole Armin, who comes to the town of Albuquerque to work for his uncle John Armin (George Cleveland). Fans of the Lassie TV series may be surprised to see Cleveland not playing a kindly Uncle John, but a martinet who rules the town and surrounding territory with ruthless efficiency.

Cole had come to Albuquerque on a stagecoach with fellow passengers Ted Wallace (Russell Hayden) and his sister Celia (Catherine Craig), along with a little girl played by Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu of Zuzu’s Petals fame).

The Wallaces traveled to Albuquerque to start a freight transportation operation but have their money stolen in a stagecoach robbery. Cole finds out that his uncle was behind the robbery. He retrieves the money, and throws in with the Wallaces to help them start their company in opposition to his uncle.

John Armin has the town sheriff in his back pocket, and a group of thugs headed by Lon Chaney to keep everyone in check. Enright must have liked Chaney’s features, because he gets more close-ups than anyone else in the movie, including Randolph Scott and leading lady Barbara Britton.

Scott and Chaney have a pretty good fisticuffs sequence. I was amused to see Chaney’s cigarette stay lodged in the corner of his mouth even after Scott delivers some pretty vicious punches. Finally, at the end Scott delivers a couple of terrific wallops which finally dislodge the cigarette.

Britton plays Letty Tyler, a spy planted in the Wallace operation by John Armin. She begins relaying information to Armin about the Wallace’s plans but soon changes her mind when she finds herself falling in love with Ted.

“Albuquerque” was shot on location in Sedona, Arizona in the two-tone Cinecolor process, which was one of the more acceptable Technicolor substitutes. It looks fine to me on the DVD transfer.

On loan from Republic Studios is George “Gabby” Hayes as Juke, who becomes a teamster driver for the Wallaces and participates in the film’s big action sequence towards the end, when Cole and Juke have to traverse wagons full of supplies down a narrow mountain ridge with the ledge only a step or two away. One of Armin’s men has sabotaged Cole’s brake, and the horses get skittish and erupt into a run. Cole desperately tries to control the horses and yell warnings at Juke as they both speed down the mountain. It’s a good action scene marred only by some obvious process screen work in the close-ups.

But the medium and far shots of the horses speeding down the mountain with the wagon wheels brushing against the drop off are very well done and satisfying in a way modern-day CGI can’t be. These are actual horses and stunt drivers accomplishing these stunts.

Also supporting the action is a first-rate score by Darrell Calker, a composer I’m not very familiar with. His opening title theme is a real winner, and I look forward to seeing what else of his is out there.

Margaret Mitchell wanted Scott to play Ashley Wilkes but he lost the role to Leslie Howard. A native of Virginia, I always felt Scott would have made a splendid Ashley.

Randolph Scott ended his screen career in 1962 with Sam Peckinpah’s “Ride the High Country”, one of the finest westerns ever. He had grown rich from real estate investments and didn’t need to work any further. Along with John Wayne, Randolph Scott can lay claim to ending his career with one of his very best films and performances. More distinguished and well-revered names cannot make that claim.

Family Lore: In the mid 1930s, my uncle was a young boy and sold newspapers at Chicago’s LaSalle Street station. In those days when air travel was far less common, travel by train was the way to go from coast to coast. Many a celebrity was spotted at LaSalle Street station waiting to transfer on a train to the West Coast, but my uncle only remembered seeing one celebrity. He heard a voice ask, “Son, can I get a paper” and he looked up and saw it was Randolph Scott. He sold him the paper and even got an autograph from him.

My dad remembered my uncle racing home to tell everyone he met Randolph Scott and showed them the autograph. Over the years the autograph got lost but even later in life my uncle always said Randolph Scot was the most handsome man he ever saw.