Colorado Sundown (1952)

This ranks as one of the best B westerns that I have ever seen, filled with a believable dramatic plot, complex characters, some frantic comedy and even a couple of songs. Rex Allen has arrived in Colorado from Texas to assure his light above the neck pal Slim Pickens gets his share of an estate he has been promised. The only issue are the other heirs, which includes easterner Mary Ellen Kay and the unscrupulous June Vincent, one of the few female western villains I've ever seen. Her motive concerns logging rights, allegedly involving a tree killing beetle.There's a terrific characterization by Louise Beavers, stealing every moment as Kay's companion. With a huge heart and feisty demeanor, she's more than willing to risk her life for Ms. Kay. When one of the villains confronts her over a letter she received and is holding for Allen, it takes a shocking turn, especially concerning their beloved terrier who in an early scene set Kay and Beaver's unmanned carriage running wild thanks to spooked horses. A feisty goat also goes for laughs, getting targets in the butts of both Pickens and Beavers. You won't soon forget the sight of Pickens in "Charley's Aunt" drag as the talking brooch he carries. Dark lady Vincent certainly is also fascinating, basically the Lady Macbeth of the old west, stopping at nothing to get control of the entire valley. When genre like this take on the dark themes that makes the legitimate theater so powerful, that automatically raises the bar for me.

Colorado Sundown finds Rex Allen accompanying his sidekick Slim Pickens to the reading of a will where Slim will inherit a third of a ranch along with fellow heirs Mary Louise Kay and June Vincent and Fred Graham. The last two were expecting the whole ranch and these other heirs two the two thirds they don't have throw a crimp into their plans.Which are to denude a forest area which provides a natural flood barrier for the ranchers. These two want to open an old mill and to get permission to cut the trees have spread word of a plague of beetles in the area who would eat the trees until they rotted. They even get another idiot brother of their's to pose as a forest ranger giving them permission. They also kill the real forest ranger.June Vincent played a lot of evil women in many a film. She's at her worst in Colorado Sundown.Slim Pickens has some good moments himself, fighting a few losing battles with a goat that nails him every time he bends over. There's also a gag borrowed from the Road To Morocco where Pickens plays himself and his own mother. It worked well here as it did for Bob Hope.This is a good Rex Allen feature and I'm convinced more than ever that Rex was doing a lot of material meant originally for Roy Rogers. He does it well though.

One of director William Witney's later works, the film features much of the above average action scenes Witney is noted for. Rex Allen and Slim Pickens provide their usual journeymen performances. Stuntman/heavy Fred Graham is featured in this film - giving him probably more lines than in any other film he appeared in. Rear screen special effects are used throughout - and they reflect the low budget that was given to action, westerns during the early 50s. Additionally, the script is one of the weaker ones of the Rex Allen films. The story turns on the results of what would be a "very sophisticated medical autopsy" in this day and time "performed by a country doctor in his office" in a matter of hours.

The last and certainly one of the better singing cowboys, Rex Allen, stars here in this fast-moving Republic "B" western, accompanying his pal Slim Pickens, in their initial matchup, to be on hand at Slim's home in Colorado where he expects to benefit from the bequest of the estate of a deceased relative, Zeke Reynolds, consisting of substantial timber holdings. To Slim's surprise, there are other claimants who think they will be heirs to the estate: Jacqueline Reynolds (Mary Ellen Kay), a distant cousin, and a brother/sister duo, Dan and Carrie Hurley (Fred Graham/June Vincent), owners of the Hurley Lumber Mill, whose business practices include overharvesting of trees, bringing about flash flooding while destroying cattle grazing land in Pine Valley. The Hurleys are guilty of crimes more serious than unsavoury commercial methods, and Rex and his employees, including Slim and the vocalising "Republic Rhythm Riders", find themselves in a range war between timbermen and ranchers who are avidly seeking to catch the Hurleys in the midst of committing their misdeeds. Typical of Republic productions in this genre, COLORADO SUNDOWN provides a great deal of furious fight footage, a runaway stagecoach corralled by trick riding and several musical numbers which appear at incongruous moments, including the traditional folk song "Down by the Riverside" (during a flood!) with performances from Allen, Kay, Pickens and the "Rhythm Boys". Director William Witney downcranks his camera during fight scenes, as is his wont, for by marginally slowing filming speed, action appears to be extraordinarily violent, and with the physically capable Allen and veteran stunt coordinator Graham on hand, these passages leave an indelible impression during the course of this interesting low-budget work.