Better Late Then Never

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

In a storyline similar to later Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher/Burt Kennedy collaborations such as Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station, stoic Scott seeks to avenge the death of his wife at the hands of bandits, while at the same time sheltering innocent Gail Russel and contending with shifty wise-guys Lee Marvin and Donald "Red" Barry.Having recently watched a handful of Boetticher directed movies, he's quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. His understanding of the widescreen image is unparalleled. Even shots with a single actor in frame finds that person in an angle to make full use of the rectangular shape of the screen!Scott and Lee Marvin are great fun to watch. Their contrasting personalities make their on-screen interaction superb. Marvin and Donald Barry steal every scene they're in even though Barry hardly has any lines.The script by Burt Kennedy is no-nonsense, to the point, and full of action, but not without artistic flourishes.Highly recommended.

Although this, the first of the Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher westerns, wasn't produced by Harry Joe Brown, (Andrew V McLaglen is credited as co-producer), it was written, superbly, by Burt Kennedy and it did set a benchmark for those that followed. Indeed, the collaboration between Boetticer, Scott and Kennedy must rank amongst the finest and most fruitful in all of cinema and the westerns they made together are among the finest we've seen.The plots stuck to a simple formula. Scott was usually the taciturn, lone stranger, as here, more often than not, out to avenge the death of his wife. The villains were usually a gang of outlaws and there was always a woman involved but she remained somewhat on the periphery and although there was a romantic attraction between the woman and Scott it seldom amounted to anything. The principal relationship in these films, verging at times on the homo-erotic, was between Scott and the villain.In "Seven Men from Now" Scott is after the seven men who held up the Wells Fargo office and killed his wife in the process. On route, the teams up with mild-mannered rancher Walter Reed and his wife Gail Russell as well as 'villians' Lee Marvin and Donald Barry out to take the money for themselves. Nothing is cut-and-dried; the rancher isn't as pure or as weak as he first appears while Scott and Marvin's relationship verges, at times, on the affectionate, heightening the tension between them particularly in the film's superbly staged final showdown. Likewise, the relationship between Russell and Scott is far from conventional; they obviously love each other but we are are never sure if anything will ever happen between them.This is a complex, riveting picture magnificently photographed by William H Clothier and beautifully acted by Scott, (it is arguably his best performance), Russell and Marvin. Like the other Boetticher/Scott westerns that followed it it clocks in at an economical 80 minutes or so and is simply not to be missed.

I thought that I had already seen this western, so I wasn't expecting much when I tuned in to it recently. Maybe I had already seen it, but it must have been so long ago that the UK was transmitting television in black-and-white only, for I am sure that I would have remembered the dazzling colour photography if nothing else.But there is so much else: a taut script, piling irony upon irony; fine character acting, not only from Randolph Scott but also from Lee Marvin, Walter Reed and Gail Russell. The ambivalence of Lee Marvin's character Bill Masters is a tour-de-force, especially the scene in which he takes a light for his cigarette from the smouldering remains of one resting on the lips of the man he has just killed.A film that packs so much action and human interest into less than 80 minutes.A classic.

I might have seen this as a teenager, but if so I don't remember it. Reading others' reviews gave me high hopes when a chance to tape it came up. So, well, it's certainly not bad: it starts and ends with tremendous scenes and has good stuff along the way. But for my taste there are entirely too much shots of them travelling through the scenery, and Randolph Scott does seem to be playing more on a single note than in other films like the Tall T, also shown recently. Lee Marvin's character is interesting and well portrayed. But some of the scenes seem to fall a little flat; the tensions within the group travelling together are unevenly portrayed, and the robbers whose action sets Stride on their trail are barely brought to life at all. The shooting of the husband of Gail Russell's character also seems a rather transparent way of getting him out of the way, which will put the robber leader in just as much trouble as the husband's revelations would have done.Overall, then, I mark this lower than most have done, at 6.