A Masterpiece!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Randolph Scott and his partner Sam, played by Noah Berry Jr., ride into the town of Sundown, on a special day. Tate Kimbrough is getting married. The problem is that Scott is seeking out Kimbrough to avenge the death of his wife. Sam knows the real truth but Scott is so full of hate that he refuses to listen. He seeks Kimbrough out for a final showdown.. John Carrol is excellent as Kimbrough,along with Berry as Sam . An excellent supporting cast headed by John Archer and Karen Steele tell a tale of revenge and retribution. A surprise off beat ending brings closure to another excellent Scott western. Four star rating.

A far more interesting and morally complex film than I expected after the first 15 minutes. Randolph Scott stars as a cowboy come to take revenge on a man who wronged him, a man who is now the kingpin of the town of Sundown. But all the characters reveal more layers than our first introductions lead us to expect, and issues of right and wrong end up as more subjective and complex than we think of in most westerns. Not quite a great movie – there are flaws; weak supporting performances, a misogynistic attitude, some unsuccessful comic relief, some stretching of credulity, etc. But a movie that was much more striking than I had any expectation of.

Here is a Western that is far above the majority made in the 1950's, and man there were quite a number, that has as much to do about character, motivation, morality, and other deep concerns, not found in a typical trip to the nineteenth century with cowboys and outlaws.In fact, this is one of those that forsakes the usual focus on the landscape and moves the action to indoors because we are going inside the minds of all the characters and there is nothing open about their thought process, until they make a decision to see themselves as they really were, slaves in Sundown.There are many players and they all have a part in the drama and sometimes it is amazing that so much could be done in less than 90 minutes. There is much sermonizing and this tale of revenge and soul searching is, nonetheless, another in the highly entertaining and thought provoking films in the Boetticher-Scott stable. Although it seems smaller in comparison to some of the others, it is just as big, and it is just as expansive, only this time it opens the mind and sheds sunlight on the soul.

I've always liked Randolph Scott westerns. It's hard not to if a person likes Scott's style, manner, authority and, in his movies with Budd Boetticher, his approach to being an aging, moralistic grim reaper in showdowns with bad guys like Lee Marvin and Richard Boone. I'll make an exception for Decision at Sundown. What put me off was a drama without, for 50 minutes of the 77-minute running time, any gripping motivation for Bart Allison's (Randolph Scott) hatred. We know something, probably nasty, happened to Mary and that the slick Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) had something to do with it. But what? Allison's sick obsession with killing Kimbrough ("For three years I've hunted Kimbrough, but he didn't know it. Before I settle with him I want him to know he's being hunted."), even on Kimbrough's wedding day when Allison arrives at Sundown, seems more like a plot device than a major justification for violence. With Kimbrough running the town, with a sly and cowardly sheriff in his pocket and his bride's wealthy father somehow beholden, it's everybody against Allison and his sidekick, Sam (played by that good-natured actor, Noah Beery, Jr.). While we learn that Mary had some qualities other than saintly goodness, for most of the movie Scott winds up sounding like a man choking back tears and irrationally unwilling to hear a bad -- or even balanced -- word against his dead wife. It's an odd performance. By the time we really get to know the people of Sundown -- not just Tate Kimbrough, but his fiancé (Karen Steele), who doesn't love Tate, his girl friend (Valerie French), who does, and leering barbers, avuncular barkeeps, a noble doctor, a vicious deputy sheriff and assorted nervous and cowed onlookers -- the fact that there might be two sides to what Allison believes becomes more of a righteous afterthought. There are too many clichés in the screenplay ("You just stood up there in church and told Kimbrough you wuz gonna kill him? Bart, you must be plumb crazy!"), an uninvolving plot and an unsatisfactory character for Scott. The movie's not all that bad, but not very good. I'll say this: The conclusion, bitter and drunken, almost makes up for the rest. Some think this movie holds up well, including Taylor Hackford, who provides an analysis of the movie. This is one to watch and then make up your own mind. Scott commands the screen, even when a couple of times he sounds like he's about to cry when he thinks of Mary. He was 59 when he made this movie. He made two more before retiring in 1962 with a great finish as Gil Westrum in Ride the High Country. Here he's starting to show his years but it doesn't matter. Whether he was lucky with his metabolism or just dieted rigorously, he doesn't carry an ounce of fat on his frame. He's lean, muscular, moves well and looks believable in a show down. If, like me, you weren't impressed with the Boetticher/Scott combo in Decision at Sundown, just take a look at The Tall T. This Boetticher/Scott movie was made two years earlier. It benefits enormously from a story by Elmore Leonard and a taut, suspenseful screenplay by Burt Kennedy. The Tall T, together with Seven Men from Now and Ride the High County are Randolph Scott in his later years at his best.