The Secret of Convict Lake *** (1951, Glenn Ford, Gene Tierney, Ethel Barrymore, Zachary Scott, Ann Dvorak) – Classic Movie Review 12,741

The 1951 Western film The Secret of Convict Lake is an interesting, unusual movie in which an isolated community of women find themselves at the mercy of the West’s most dangerous escaped outlaws.

‘6 women at the mercy of the west’s most dangerous outlaws!’

Director Michael Gordon’s 1951 20th Century Fox black and white Western film The Secret of Convict Lake is an odd movie that also boasts the oddest ensemble cast in Glenn Ford, Gene Tierney, Ethel Barrymore, Zachary Scott, Ann Dvorak, Cyril Cusack, Jeanette Nolan, Ruth Donnelly, Barbara Bates, Ray Teal, and Dale Robertson.

In the fictional story, inspired by legends of Convict Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California, an isolated Western community, temporarily consisting solely of women, is overrun by a small band of hardened male criminals who have escaped from a Carson City prison in 1871.

Jim Canfield (Glenn Ford), Greer (Zachary Scott), Cockerell, Anderson and Maxwell make it to Lake Monte Diablo, where eight women live in a settlement while their men are away prospecting. Granny (Ethel Barrymore) is the oldest, watching over Marcia (Gene Tierney), Rachel (Ann Dvorak), Barbara, Susan, Harriet, Mary, and Millie.

An impressive roster of actors squeezes the maximum drama from an interesting, unusual story with a script of only average quality by Oscar Saul, based on a short story by Anna Hunger and Jack Pollexfen (adaptation by Victor Trivas). Rather irritatingly, Jim Canfield is the hero, convicted of a crime he did not commit.

Well cast Ford and Barrymore are particularly striking as the leaders of their respective sexes, and Zachary Scott is his usual good value as Johnny Greer.

The film opens with the narrator (Dale Robertson in an early uncredited role) setting up the story and ends with him claiming that the story is true and revealing that the lake was renamed Convict Lake.

Leo Tover shoots in black and white when we could really do with Technicolor,

It is the final role for Ann Dvorak before her retirement from films.

The cast are Glenn Ford as Jim Canfield, Gene Tierney as Marcia Stoddard, Ethel Barrymore as Granny, Zachary Scott as Johnny Greer, Ann Dvorak as Rachel Shaeffer, Barbara Bates as Barbara Purcell, Cyril Cusack as Edward ‘Limey’ Cockerell, Richard Hylton as Clyde Maxwell, Helen Westcott as Susan Haggerty, Jeanette Nolan as Harriet Purcell, Ruth Donnelly as Mary Fancher, Harry Benjamin Carter as Rudy Schaeffer, and Dale Robertson as narrator.

It is shot at Bishop, California; Durango, Colorado; and 20th Century Fox Studios, 10201 Pico Blvd, Century City, Los Angeles.

Release date: July 29, 1951 (Los Angeles).

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,741

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