Dawn at Socorro (1954)

Rory Calhoun plays the dissipated gambler/gunslinger on some kind of a road to redemption with Piper Laurie, with plenty of other well-known actors, some good dialogue, some obligatory gun-toting, and even a little musical interest thrown into the mix.Calhoun may cough like a consumptive, but according to his doctor it is an old gunshot wound plus his louche lifestyle that is giving him gyp;"alright, what is it?""you know why you have been coughing so much recently? - you never gave that wound time to heal properly and it is inflaming the lung." "Is that a medical opinion, or a fact?""Oh, the way you go at it with whiskey, women, and poker... it's a sucker's game!""I always figured that 'the game' would end with one well-placed bullet...""Well, it still might; there's a lot of shooting days before Christmas..."Before he leaves for healthier climes, Calhoun plays classical piano at his own 'wake' (held in celebration of his departure) in a scene unlike any in other western genre movies I've seen. At a saloon girl's behest to 'play something' he taps out a pretty fair rendition of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the Saloon's beat-up piano, which reduces the room to appreciative silence.Later, in the stagecoach with Piper Laurie, when she comes to the aid of this stranger having a coughing fit, the accompanying music subtly echoes the Moonlight Sonata theme as if to underline his character's more vulnerable side.Comment elsewhere may lead you to suppose that the back-projected scenery from the stagecoach is sepia-tinted stock monochrome footage; this might be so, but the sky is blue, and in the long shots the barren landscape is almost equally sepia-tinted. If it is the case, it makes little difference.Piper Laurie's acting is a little stiff, as befits her character perhaps, but then she is also pretty well trussed up in period corsetry for most of the piece; I'm surprised she could breathe, leave alone act.It is best to pay good attention at the start of this film; many of the protagonists are introduced by the narrator in a very short period of time. If you miss this, the rest of the film makes even less sense than it does already; it smacks of having been cut somewhat from its planned length.Overall, a somewhat underrated movie, this one.

There's a good story buried somewhere in the cluttered screenplay. Trouble is there're enough bad guys drifting in and out or getting splattered that you may need the proverbial scorecard. Too bad we lose one of the premier obnoxious punks of the period much, much too early-- Skip Homeier as Buddy Ferris. In fact, however, it's a stellar line-up of baddies— VanCleef, Nicol, Brian, and Homeier, along with other lesser knowns. So will consumptive Brett Wade make it to the good-air mountains of Colorado to recover before one of these cut-throats does him in. He's an ex-gunfighter, so he's racked up a lot of enemies lurking about. But Wade just wants to retire, maybe with dancehall girl Rannah Hayes (Laurie). Too bad that actress Laurie acts like she swallowed a lemon before showing up for work, so sour and unchanging is her expression throughout. Judging from her bio, she was likely obligated contractually with Universal to do a movie she didn't want to do.Calhoun does a good job as the squinty-eyed ex-gunslinger. The trouble is the screenplay can't seem to untangle which of his enemies is the most threatening and why. So Wade's got a lot of shooting to do. Seems like every western of this period had the great raspy voiced Edgar Buchanan somewhere in the line-up furnishing his singular brand of color. Here he's a sheriff, of all things. On the whole, there's nothing special here, just one more passable entry in Universal's lengthy list of 50's Technicolor westerns.(In passing—as a native of Colorado Springs, which features prominently in the screenplay, I can attest to its early attraction for tubercular patients. The mineral springs nearby were supposed to be of special help, including the clear mountain air of that non-urbanized time.)

Inspired by the OK Corral, and specially Doc Holliday this is an entertaining, colorful western. Rory Calhoun's character coughs a lot, because of a bullet that cannot be removed near his lung, which because of his lifestyle becomes inflamed. He has to move to Colorado Springs to get better but before that he becomes involved in a gunfight in a corral. Piper Laurie is the daughter of a religious man who throws her out of the house and calls her Jezebel. She gets a job offer at the Casino in Socorro by David Brian, the owner. After the gunfight Calhoun takes the stagecoach to Socorro where he meets Piper and falls in love with her. Lee Van Cleef and Alex Nicol, the ones who remained from the Ferris(Clanton) family after the gunfight will try to kill Calhoun. There is a good poker game between Calhoon and Brian. The final scenes were probably inspired by "High Noon".

I am not a fan of westerns, but I liked this one. It is interesting to see how Calhoun escapes gunman Nicol after killing Andrews and his family in a gunfight. The only problem is that he escapes from him and becomes an enemy to saloon owner Brian. An unusually exciting western.