Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Am I Missing Something?

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

1956's "Tension at Table Rock" was one of the last gasps for ailing studio RKO, soon to become Desilu under the new ownership of Lucy and Desi. Truly enhanced by its color photography, telling a Frank Gerber story that seemed mighty familiar to 50s audiences, but done so well by such an expert cast that the many episodic pieces just seem to effortlessly fall into place. Richard Egan is well cast as laconic gunman Wes Tancred, whose troubles begin when he rebuffs the advances of the wife (Angie Dickinson) of his best friend and former boss (Paul Richards), who tries to shoot Wes in the back, but is slower on the draw (a clear act of self defense, pardoned by the Governor). The woman scorned makes out that her husband was shot in the back and didn't have a chance, with the stain following Wes from town to town, even to a song depicting the lurid, and phony, details, so he must take up a new name by the time he enters the lives of Sheriff Fred Miller (Cameron Mitchell), his wife Lorna (Dorothy Malone), and adoring nephew Jody (Billy Chapin), echoes of "Shane" that need not have been present. Among the townspeople are smooth villain Edward Andrews and crusading newspaperman Royal Dano, who fears the upcoming cattle drive, and the vicious trail herders that come with it (led by John Dehner). No one knows the newcomer's true identity of Wes Tancred, and the final showdown with hired killer DeForest Kelley finds him already friends with Wes, and one of the few who know the truth about what really happened (as if their dead boss was supposed to be 'Santa Claus'). Cameron Mitchell probably has the toughest role, playing a sheriff who commands little respect because he seeks an easy way out instead of a real solution, due to a beating he once took that left him full of fear (reuniting with Royal Dano just two years later in "Face of Fire"). Richard Egan, from Presley's forthcoming debut "Love Me Tender," never reached true stardom but here enjoys his finest showcase.

This is a movie with a solid script, really a very good cast, and a decent script. It is a later RKO production completed a short time before Lucy & Desi bought the studio. It is one of a handful of films of this type shot in color during the 1950's.Any fan of the Wild Wild West TV series will recognize John Dehner and some of the set sued in this movie. Angie Dickinson has a small role. When you add up Richard Egan, Cameron Mitchell, Edward Andrews, Billy Chapin, Dorothy Malone, and DeForest Kelly, the cast is a who's who of 1960's and 70's television actors.It is a good solid western outing that only suffers slightly from the fact that RKO did not have the resources of the other studios by now. Still, some of these folks went on to stay at Desilu later and help make that a great television studio.

I was surprised how good this movie turned out to be. Talk about a Western for Western-lovers - there's the guy (Wes Tancred played by Richard Egan) who's good with a gun, a cattle drive where the cowboys are going to overrun and terrorize a town, the sheriff is weak and his wife falls for Tancred. There are a lot of smaller stories that influence the action. Billy Chapin plays a boy named Jody whose father is killed by outlaws; Tancred kills the outlaws and takes the boy to live with his uncle and aunt (the sheriff and his wife). The local newspaper's editor is at odds with the sheriff, knowing he is weak and is afraid to stand up to bad guys.The basic plot is of someone, Tancred, who is trying to escape his past and start over, but things keep making it hard for him to do that. A popular folk song claims that he killed his best friend by shooting him in the back, so under his actual name he is a reviled man. He changes his name and ends up taking part in the town's struggles against the bad guy cowboys.This movie has plenty of action; it doesn't just sit there and talk you to death. Between the guns and horses and fights and shooting and saloon and all, it's got to be called a classic Western, no doubt.The casting is good though I was surprised at how many people I hadn't really seen in many Westerns; meanwhile there was not a Lee Van Cleef or a Denver Pyle or a Jack Elam or a Paul Fix to be seen. Doesn't matter much though, the cast did a very good job. The movie is in color though the quality of the color is uneven from scene to scene.I enjoyed this movie more than I expected to, and it's surely worth the watching for anyone who likes Westerns.

Frank Gruber's novel "Bitter Sage" becomes highly-engrossing western from R.K.O. Richard Egan (amusingly expressionless, and cutting a mighty figure in his cowboy garb) plays a gunslinger whose best friend turns on him, ending with the friend shot dead; hoping to escape his reputation as a coward, Egan's Wes Tancred first goes to stay with a lonesome rancher and his son (ending in a rather unfair violent episode), later winding up in a town under the fear-grip of a nasty bunch of rowdies who invade the territory every so often during their cattle drive. Combining several familiar scenarios (such as those for "High Noon" and "Shane"), the movie nevertheless gets quite a bit of sagebrush excitement pumping, with the viewer completely on Egan's side (if this film didn't break handsome Egan as a big Hollywood name, it should have). Billy Chapin (from "The Night of the Hunter") is excellent as the lad who takes a shine to Tancred, and Dorothy Malone is also good as a lonely sheriff's wife. Eddy Arnold hauntingly sings the theme song, which plays a major part in the proceedings. Predictable, perhaps, but it's a formula that works when it is done right, and here it is done right. *** from ****