Vengeance Valley *** (1951, Burt Lancaster, Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John Ireland, Hugh O’Brian, Ray Collins) – Classic Movie Review 9361

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1951 MGM movie Vengeance Valley is a capable, compact and substantial psychological Western, starring Burt Lancaster (as Owen Daybright) and Robert Walker (Lee Strobie) as rancher foster stepbrothers, one of whom (wicked Walker) has got a waitress, Lily Fasken (Sally Forrest), into trouble with an illegitimate child.

Walker puts the blame on Lancaster when Forrest has the baby and her brothers Hub and Dick (John Ireland and Hugh O’Brian) come out shooting.

The movie benefits from the expert turns of this first-rate quartet of male star players, who give exceptional value, filling in the film’s empty areas. Walker, who is particularly gutsy, died a year later on August 28, 1951, aged 32 of alcohol abuse and an acute adverse allergic reaction to prescription drugs. Before that he made Strangers on a Train (1951) and had begun filming My Son John (1952).

Irving Ravetch’s intelligent but unspectacular screenplay is based on Luke Short’s novel. George J Folsey’s fine Technicolor images are a big asset. Running just 83 minutes, it is brisk and brief for a major movie. It is Lancaster’s first appearance in a Western.

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Also in the cast are Ray Collins, Joanne Dru, Carleton Carpenter, Ted de Corsia, Will Wright, Glenn Strange, James Hayward, Grayce Mills, Jim Hayward, James H Harrison, Stanley Andrews, Paul E Burns, Tom Fadden, Al Ferguson, Norman Leavitt, Robert J Wilke, Dan White, Harvey B Dunn, Monte Montague, Louis Nicoletti, John McKee, Robert Griffin and Roy Butler. Margaret Bert as Mrs. Calhoun (scenes deleted).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9361

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