Here's something I never thought about before - Randolph Scott and James Garner appearing in the same picture. Appropriately it was a Western, with the pair, along with Gordon Jones, comprising a trio of cavalry men resigning their posts to investigate the killing of Captain Buck Devlin's (Scott) brother due to faulty ammunition he purchased via a trading post in Medicine Bend. Along the way, the boys are hijacked of their clothes and horses while taking a swim, and manage to reinvent themselves due to a chance encounter with a band of Quakers who have been similarly robbed by the same bunch. Interestingly, by the time the story was over, it was never established who those robbers were, but all signs point to Ep Clark (James Craig) and his bunch at Medicine Bend.
If I hadn't seen Angie Dickinson's name in the opening credits, I wouldn't have been on the lookout for her, and probably would have missed her presence as Priscilla King, niece of a shopkeeper in competition with the entire Clark enterprise. She manages to figure out Buck Devlin's connection to recovered stolen money and goods suffered by local homesteaders, becoming a willing ally and nominal romantic interest for Scott's character. Garner and Jones have to tough it out under wraps as Quakers for the entire picture, swigging buttermilk at the local saloon instead of whiskey. Except for that unfortunate incident when Private Klegg (Jones) spills his guts to Ep Clark's saloon singer Nell (Dani Crayne) when he drops his guard and starts knocking 'em down. It all worked out OK though; about that time Nell had a change of heart and opted out of the murder racket.
Whenever I see Randolph Scott pop up in a picture, I'm always on the lookout for a fair share of outfit changes, and in this one, they were built into the story. His character is in and out of the Quaker duds more than once, exchanging them for an all black outfit in which he lays waste to Clark's henchmen while recovering money and jewelry for the homesteaders. As I think about it now, Devlin shouldn't have been able to get out of that scrape of falling through the trap door in the floor of Clark's business office, but then the story would have ended right there. After all, the good guys have to come out on top.
Here's the thing I couldn't figure out - in the early going, Devlin managed to filch a couple hundred bucks from Clark and his goon Walters without their knowledge. Clark got so incensed that he had Mayor Sam (Don Beddoe) set a reward of a thousand dollars for the capture of the perpetrator. You don't need a whole lot of math experience to know that that was a bad deal.
If I hadn't seen Angie Dickinson's name in the opening credits, I wouldn't have been on the lookout for her, and probably would have missed her presence as Priscilla King, niece of a shopkeeper in competition with the entire Clark enterprise. She manages to figure out Buck Devlin's connection to recovered stolen money and goods suffered by local homesteaders, becoming a willing ally and nominal romantic interest for Scott's character. Garner and Jones have to tough it out under wraps as Quakers for the entire picture, swigging buttermilk at the local saloon instead of whiskey. Except for that unfortunate incident when Private Klegg (Jones) spills his guts to Ep Clark's saloon singer Nell (Dani Crayne) when he drops his guard and starts knocking 'em down. It all worked out OK though; about that time Nell had a change of heart and opted out of the murder racket.
Whenever I see Randolph Scott pop up in a picture, I'm always on the lookout for a fair share of outfit changes, and in this one, they were built into the story. His character is in and out of the Quaker duds more than once, exchanging them for an all black outfit in which he lays waste to Clark's henchmen while recovering money and jewelry for the homesteaders. As I think about it now, Devlin shouldn't have been able to get out of that scrape of falling through the trap door in the floor of Clark's business office, but then the story would have ended right there. After all, the good guys have to come out on top.
Here's the thing I couldn't figure out - in the early going, Devlin managed to filch a couple hundred bucks from Clark and his goon Walters without their knowledge. Clark got so incensed that he had Mayor Sam (Don Beddoe) set a reward of a thousand dollars for the capture of the perpetrator. You don't need a whole lot of math experience to know that that was a bad deal.