source: Walk Tall

Walk Tall

Walk Tall, shot on a shoestring budget, but nevertheless has its moments might have been a classic had some major studio done it. It certainly has a C list cast. Willard Parker formerly in Tales Of The Texas Rangers on television has a mission to bring in deserter Kent Taylor who since leaving the army quite unofficially has a nice little business trading with the Shoshone guns and whiskey. He gets him, but also coming as part of the package widow Joyce Meadows. The plot bears some little resemblance to the Jimmy Stewart classic western The Naked Spur. Parker has to contend with Holden's sympathy for Taylor not seeing him for the rat he is, Taylor's outlaw confederates on their trail and the Shoshone. Nothing spectacular, but nicely plotted and one ironic ending.

I spent nearly an hour in a very enjoyable manner. A superb little western I found after digging up in my collection. And, once again, in LBX. That was the second big surprise for the day. The topic is not boring at all. It gives us the scheme of white renegades who slaughter an Indian village, killing some squaws, spoiling this way the peace treaties made between Indian and white people. And a white sheriff is ordered to capture the outlaws. The film was filmed on locations, in superb settings of Rocky Mountains - I suppose. But maybe I am wrong. The photography is signed Floyd Crosby, the one who was on Corman's films, in the 60's, the Edgard Poe's adaptations. For AIP, and not API, the latest producing this little western directed by the prolific Maury Dexter. Don't miss this picture if you have the opportunity to catch it.