Station West

Station West

Moviecut—Station West

First time I have watched a Dick Powell film. He has excellent delivery skills. The beautiful Jane Greer a perfect foil for his smart and concise character. Must honour the presence of the singing hotel clerk, the irrepressible Burl Ives. What a delightful character he is and smooth as silk. A 33rd degree mason in real life only adds to his charm and mystery.

Sidney Lanfield was one of those very competent, but unsung directors who knew what they were about and could make a good western. The plot gets a bit tangled here and there; its an oater with a Raymond Chandler style wisecracking detective, but with boots on. And who better than Dick Powell to out-sass the bad guys. The young Jane Greer somehow pulls off a world-weary saloon owner named "Charlie". She was always astonishing and for 1947 runs circles around all the male characters including Powell. There's a good, well-staged fist fight between Powell and Guinn Williams, some Arizona landscapes worthy of John Ford and the uncredited Burl Ives as a sort of chorus to the action and philosophical hotel keeper. Olin Howland shows up as a cook with attitude. Raymond Burr as a craven lawyer and Regis Toomey makes his required appearance. Also, Agnes Moorhead as a nice lady for a change. A western with a twist. You almost expect the dudes in the saloon to be drinking martini's.

Another entertaining Dick Powell adventure, this time a Western from 1948. Powell is on the trail of some missing gold so he infiltrates the local gang, run by the beautiful but ruthless Jane Greer, whose hands are in just about everything. Powell offers to run the local transport concern & a shipment of gold, mined from Agnes Moorehead's property, is the first trial which sure enough is hit w/the co-driver being killed in the process. Powell tracks down the thieves & confirming Greer's outfit is behind the crimes. W/the criminals on his heels (even Moorehead suspects he's turned sides & stolen the goods for himself), Powell has to move & shake to bring the criminals to justice. Featuring signature rat-a-tat dialogue & a welcome smug demeanor, Powell is in full command of the action w/Raymond Burr (as a sleazy lawyer) & Burl Ives (who croons a couple of ditties) rounding out the cast.

Underrated western with Dick Powell playing an undercover government agent investigating the murders of two soldiers. Beautiful saloon singer Jane Greer catches his eye but it turns out there's more to her than at first appears. Plays out more like a detective movie than a western. Powell and Greer are great. The supporting cast includes Raymond Burr, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Powers, Regis Toomey, and Burl Ives as a singing bartender. Pretty good lineup. The script is nice with some punchy dialogue that helps an otherwise routine western plot. There's a pretty good fight scene between Powell and Guinn Williams. All in all, it's a briskly paced western with a lot going for it. Worth seeking out.

That's the only western Sidney Landfield made for the big screen; He was after all a comedy, musical specialist. Even if he brought us a terrific Sherlock Holmes film with HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES; the best adaptation so far, better than the Terry Fisher's one. The other reviewers are right, that's a detective story made in a western set. And no one seems to have noticed that the music score looks like the awesome Dimitri Tiomkin's one: remember HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. Not entirely of course, but I am sure that Tiomkin was inspired by this score.

Despite this movie featuring Dick Powell, I still managed to enjoy it. Dont get me wrong, Powell is a pretty decent actor, but his character is always rather two dimensional and predictable to me. I suppose this would be a personal opinion of mine. But anyway, the rest of the cast seem to pick up the slack. Jane Greer is especially pleasant, an underrated female actress. Highly attractive but also likeable. I suppose nobody considers what type of audience which Greer would captivate. Both her and this movie are entirely underrated.