Moviecut—Domino Kid

source: Domino Kid

Veteran cowboy director Ray Nazarro came up with a winner with this fast-moving little oater. Just goes to show what a good script can do with a less than sterling budget. Rory Calhoun plays the title role, a war veteran returning west to avenge his murdered father (there were five of 'em, but who was the *fifth* man?). A series of successful shoot-outs bring Rory to the final showdown, not only with adversaries Andrew Duggan and Peter Witney, but with his own sense of justice and revenge. Helping him along are Kristine Miller and Robert Burton (who, like in just about every other minor western of the 1950's, plays the honest sheriff). A good performance by Eugene Inglesias as Domino's boyhood friend adds to the just-north-of-the-border ambiance of this comptetent film. An all-around enjoyable treat!

If you're a die-hard Westerns fan (which I am), you'll manage to get through this one -- but you'll hate yourself in the morning. Rory Calhoun spends a few weeks tracking down his father's killers, taking a bullet in the shoulder during one shoot out, until he finally goes back to his old homestead to settle down with his gorgeous former sweetheart. And he never changes clothes once through the whole film. The bullet hole in his favorite shirt heals up as fast as his chest wound. Nice trick, huh? Hokey dialog flies thicker than the bullets, and Calhoun is as wooden as a hitching post. If you make it to the final shoot out, you'll get to watch the worst shots in the West manage to miss each other so often they run out of bullets. Calhoun finally takes a few slugs, but he still manages to crawl -- yes, crawl -- across an open street, straight toward the bad guy, who misses him repeatedly with a RIFLE from twenty feet away! When Calhoun's sweetheart and the town doc (sci-fi veteran Thomas Brown Henry in his smallest role), examines the wounded Calhoun, he says, "He'll be alright as soon as I get all those holes plugged up." What a man! What a movie . . .

The Domino Kid is directed by Ray Nazarro and written by Kenneth Gammet and Hal Biller. It stars Rory Calhoun, Kristine Miller, Andrew Duggan, Yvette Dugay, Peter Whitney and Eugene Iglesias. Music is by Mischa Bakaleinikoff and cinematography by Irving Lipman. Rory Calhoun is The Domino Kid (AKA: Cort Garand), who upon returning from his service in the Civil War sets out for vengeance against the five renegades who murdered his father. He quickly locates four of them, but the fifth man is proving illusive. The script is a bit hoary, the formula unchallenging, and the very grand final shoot-out is as full of implausibilities as can be, but there's a good suspense quotient to this Oater that is most engaging. It also looks gorgeous, with the crisp black and white photography putting a tonally correct moody vibe on the story. Calhoun is a bastion of cool and hardness, quick on the draw and lobbing dominoes around to announce to his prey that they are up against a bad mutha. The requisite entanglements with cattle baron villain Wade Harrington (Duggan) and affairs of the heart are driven straight and simple, and the "twist" isn't really all that, yet this is well worth a look for Calhoun and B Western supporters. 7/10

Well this one was a bit anti-climactic when all was said and done, wasn't it? After all, the first four of the five guys The Domino Kid set out to kill to avenge the murder of his father were dispatched within the first twenty minutes. That left almost a whole hour to get to the final showdown with bad guy Lafe Prentiss (Peter Whitney). But say, weren't you sidetracked by that ending just a bit? After all, in your typical oater, the fifth man should have been well dressed town boss Wade Harrington (Andrew Duggan), who had an eye on Domino's old girlfriend (Kristine Miller). All signs pointed to him and then, nothing. And I thought I knew every Western convention there was to know. Anyway, if I didn't know better, this looked like Rory Calhoun's warm-up for his TV Western series that came out the following year - "The Texan". In fact, he didn't even have to change his outfit. His character Bill Longley rode into town wearing the same vest and intimidating potential outlaws with the same fast gun reputation. It comes as no surprise then that Calhoun and his partner Victor Orsatti produced that series just as they did the movie here. The series had cooler music over the end credits though. Well if you're a Rory Calhoun fan, this one is OK, but the gunfights are somewhat awkward. He takes an unnecessary bullet to the shoulder against Number #4 Sam Beal, and the gunfight finale against Lafe defies all semblance of credibility, as this villain couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if he walked into it. A couple other reviewers on this board question the accuracy of Domino getting his fifth man, so a quick recap goes like this: #1 Haines in the opening scene; #2 Trancas in a showdown; #3 Ed Sandlin who sent Dragger (Denver Pyle) to bring him in; #4 Sam Beal; and #5 Lafe Prentiss. I thought Harrington would be a bonus.

Domino (Rory Calhoun) returns from the Civil War to find his ranch in ruins and his father murdered. Five men were responsible and four were identified. One by one Domino outdraws the four that were known, all being outlaws. There is only one left now. Domino does not know his identity but that man probably knows of Domino and his mission. Why they call him Domino I am not sure, but after each kill he throws down a domino - he's out for revenge, and after killing for men he's hunting for the fifth man. That angle lends a sense of mystery, something, unfortunately, isn't in many westerns. Here, it lingers in the air. The stark black and white photography adds some tension and sullenness. Calhoun dominates as the determined man to find the fifth man. This is an efficient western with plenty of gunplay, and only its routine nature can play against it. As for the reviewer who mentioned how could a bullet hole in his shirt disappear, the simple answer that he has a spare identical shirt.

Ray Navarro ain't exactly my idea of an average director, let alone a great one, but he does a decent job of making DOMINO KID interesting. The screenplay keeps suggesting Duggan is the fifth man but the latter is someone we hadn't seen before and I ain't spoiling the suspense for anybody else. Calhoun retains his B Western solidity, Duggan credibly plays the bad fellow in hiding but when the moment comes, his heart is in the right place. How I wish all the baddies were this good-hearted. Miller is a sweetie pie, great to look at. Good photography for a B flick. I liked it! 7/10

I really wanted to like this Western. It had a promising start. I expected good results from Rory Calhoun who starred in and co-produced the movie along with an experienced director of Westerns and a good cast of actors. But the movie became laughable due to (1) the script and direction which was loaded with incredible coincidences and lucky encounters, everything is telegraphed in the previous scene; and (2) poorly filmed shoot-outs where the hero should have been killed many times over. It had a good ending, though. ***Spoilers***. The story: while Calhoun is fighting in the Civil War, five bad guys kill his family. Calhoun knows who four of them are, but not the 5th. He kills the four one-by-one in a man-to-man duel instead of just shooting them on sight. It is also unbelievable that he can't get the name of the 5th man from any of the four. After killing the 4th man, Calhoun heads home. By coincidence his girl visits his deserted home with her oily new "boyfriend" who is intent on acquiring the home. He tells her that Calhoun likely was recently killed (because left wounded in bad terrain!), and then he departs. The girl mopes inside Calhoun's neat deserted home, and mops, but lo and behold, Calhoun is inside. She tells Calhoun that most of the town is against him since he became a gunfighter tracking down those who had killed his family. Lo and behold, in the next scene Calhoun is in town getting the cold shoulder from most of the townsfolk (why?). Calhoun needs a loan from the local banker, who lo and behold, is the one pursuing his girl and who wants his land. Calhoun knocks out a boorish saloon masher and has his Mexican friend drag the masher outside. The masher and his friends start to torture the Mexican in the mistaken belief that the Mexican (not Calhoun) knocked out the masher, but incredibly the Mexican doesn't say that he only dragged the guy out to the street! Then --most incredible of all-- the masher turns out to be the 5th man Calhoun was looking for, and for no good reason he starts a shoot-out with Calhoun! Why? Calhoun would have no idea who was the 5th man! The masher did not know that the Mexican would tell Calhoun.

Usually B westerns don't require much depth, but thanks to an above-average screenplay, well-developed characters and a very interesting story, this one ends up being actually really good. Rory Calhoun is a Civil War veteran who comes home and find out that his father has been murdered and his farm stolen from under him, so he sets out to get revenge and is a one-man posse of settling a vendetta. His old girlfriend (Kristine Miller) pleads with him to settle the score legally, but in the old west, there's no such thing, especially when you're dealing with people in power such as the character played by Andrew Duggan. There are genuinely shocking moments of violence from some very shady villains, and bar girl Yvette Duguay finds herself victimized by one of those characters. But she's able to stand up for herself with feistiness and spitfire, and it's not the usual stereotypical kind. In fact, the script presents the Mexican Americans in a fair light rather than the excessively cheerful or downright ugly. The depth is much more realistic. It's the desperate men (all white) whom Calhoun is after who get one dimensional treatment, although Duggan as the main villain isn't presented in black or white terms as his desperation grows. Definitely one of the best B westerns of the 1950's.