Albuquerque (1948)

ALBUQUERQUE (1948)

By Ralph Santini - ***

Albuquerque is another of the various independent productions that Randolph Scott was concentrating on at the time and this one is his second western filmed in Cinecolor. For more information of the minor cinematic process see my review for The Cariboo Trail.

Again I must discuss my own methods for criticisms in for this kind of production; story rather than process related. Cinecolor may not please every movie lover but that still doesn’t prevent me from recommending this movie since I also see effective writing here. This could well be another of the better Cinecolor westerns that come to my mind because of the storyline. This time Scott plays Cole Armin, the nephew of a corrupt businessman named John Armin (veteran character actor, George Cleveland) , who ordered an organized gang of cutthroats to assault a stage hold up in which Cole himself was present in. This resulted in the robbery of $10,000 a woman, Celia Wallace (the beautiful Catherine Craig) was carrying and even the murder of a bystander which shocks the driver Juke (the ever lovable Gabby Hayes) whom he befriends with Cole and has an obsession with not wanting to cut out his whiskers that his fiancée barber (I’m not kidding) Pearl doesn’t want to have. Worse yet, this crime has been reported to Albuquerque’s equally corrupt Sherriff Linton (Bernard Nedell, always despicable in westerns as far as I’ve seen). After the emergency arrival, Cole is at first rejected by Celia’s brother Ted Wallace (B-movie Icon Russell Hayden) because he suspects that he is too loyal to his evil uncle, until Cole finds out from one of the John’s henchmen that he now understands his elder’s wrongdoings and decides to give the Wallace’s money back and form a partnership against wicked Uncle John.

Yes I know, this film is yet far from another masterpiece but I think still contains a satisfying story. I really like how brave Randolph Scott’s character of Cole Armin is as he is willing to defy a greedy and treacherous uncle who will stop at nothing to get the Wallace siblings out of business even if he hires a seductive henchwoman, Letty Tyler (The stunning and demure blonde Barbara Britton) by tricking Ted into falling in love with her. Also Britton demonstrates that she is not only of the most underrated beauties of Hollywood’s golden age but also a very underrated talent by an actress standards. Her Letty Tyler role is simply irresistible and whenever she appears in this film, I’d say Britton does steals the show. I also a have soft spot for the underappreciated talent of Russell Hayden. Granted I have not seen a number of western featurettes he has made for independent film producer Robert L. Lippert, but in this film he seems to know how to act too because his character is often tortured by his fear of failure of battling against John Armin’s somewhat near-successful attempts of acquiring a monopoly in the freight mining business. But Mr. Wallace is thankfully helped by the bravery and confidence he has with the Randolph Scott hero of Cole Armin, who can be a minor but effective variation of Hamlet anytime. Sure there are some occasional formula scenes like when Scott is actually imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit and even another long fight scene he has with Lon Chaney, Jr. who plays John Armin’s bullying henchman as if he would nearly kill Cole before it’s conclusion. I also don’t mind the silly nature of a young girl named Myrtle, sure she is a little kid with very little adulteration but, still I think she’s a rather cute kid who would help Cole anytime with support by her likeable father (the always good-natured character actor Irving Bacon).

“Albuquerque” is another good example of those Cinecolor westerns that does contain a decent storyline, despite it’s flaws. As I mentioned in my review for “The Cariboo Trail” other westerns may not match good premises with decent executions like neither that one nor this western. Again, even if you don’t care about this kind of film, you should also give this one a second look. But still this also another film for die-hard Randolph Scott fans and Cinecolor historians alike to enjoy passionately.