It is not clear where Randolph Scott fits in the Western tradition. He's a guy famous for doing some horse tricks -- leaping onto them from behind, etc. Scott is sort of in the heroic, fancy-pants Western tradition of Roy Rogers without the singing and with a little more edge. He is a handsome, strapping fellow always ready for a brawl or gunfight.
I'm not sure if the movie was trying to be near-slapstick or not, but some of the fight scenes were definitely comedic. In one 'fight', Scott wails a guy into a wheelbarrow and rolls him out of camp. The fellow comes back for more w/ the same result!!! The story is about the building of the Santa Fe Railroad. It is a Post-Civil War setting w/ Scott and his brothers looking to get out of the war-torn South and find work. Two different RR lines are competing to get to the Kansas/Colorado line first for federal dollars. Again, one saloon fight features more levity than danger. The movie does have a fine FIDDLING CONTEST...
Interesting, and almost Camp.
--Jed
Cast:
- Randolph Scott.... Britt Canfield
- Janis Carter.... Judith Chandler
- Jerome Courtland.... Terry Canfield
- Peter M. Thompson.... Tom Canfield
- John Archer.... Clint Canfield
- Warner Anderson... Dave Baxter
- Roy Roberts.... Cole Sanders
- Billy House.... Luke Plummer, RR Engineer
- Olin Howlin....Dan Dugan, RR Fireman
- Allene Roberts... Ella Sue Canfield