THE DESPERODOES
DIRECTED BY CHARLES VIDOR
PRODUCED BY HARRY JOE BROWN
COLUMBIA PICTURES CORPORATION
INFORMATION FROM IMDb
Plot Summary
Popular mailcoach driver Uncle Willie is in fact in league with the town's crooked banker.
They plan to have the bank robbed after emptying it, and when Willie's choice
for this doesn't show in time, he gets some local boys to do it.
When his man does turn up he decides to stick around, as he is pals with the sheriff
and also takes a shine to Willie's daughter Allison.
This gives the bad men several new problems.
Written by Jeremy Perkins
Cast
Randolph Scott ... Sheriff Steve Upton
Claire Trevor ... Countess Maletta
Glenn Ford ... Cheyenne Rogers
Evelyn Keyes ... Allison McLeod
Edgar Buchanan ... Uncle Willie McLeod
Raymond Walburn ... Judge Cameron
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams ... Nitro Rankin (as Guinn {Big Boy} Williams)
Porter Hall ... Stanley Clanton
Joan Woodbury ... Sundown
Bernard Nedell ... Jack Lester
Irving Bacon ... Dan Walters
Ethan Laidlaw ... Cass
Edward Pawley ... Blackie
Chester Clute ... Rollo
Glenn Strange ... Lem
Slim Whitaker ... Tolliver (as Charles Whittaker)
Francis Ford ... Hank (uncredited)
and many more....
Directed
Charles Vidor
Writing Credits
Robert Carson ... (screenplay)
Max Brand ... (original story)
Ben Jonson ... (poem) (uncredited)
Produced
Harry Joe Brown ... producer
Music
John Leipold
Cinematography
George Meehan ... director of photography
Trivia
This was Columbia's first Technicolor feature.
This is the film on which Budd Boetticher (then an assistant director)
met Randolph Scott and Harry Joe Brown.
More than a decade later the trio would team up for the famous
"Ranown" series of westerns, such as The Tall T (1957) and Ride Lonesome (1959).
Charles King is listed as a cast member in a modern source, but he was not seen in the film.
Crazy Credits
Opening and closing credits: 1863 - the newest frontier was Utah -
Utah's gold was its wild horses, which the Union Army was seeking to buy.
Men rushed to this new frontier - some to break these horses - others to break the law.
The opening credits of the leading characters are shown as pages with photographs
in a metal clasped book with the title THE DESPERADOES.
Goofs
Anachronisms
When the new safe for the bank arrives Uncle Willie McLeod says it's "built like a battleship.
" The story takes place in 1863.
The term "battleship" did not come into wide use until the late 1880s.
In the opening of the film they show a train with Utah Southern Railroad on the tender.
The story takes place in 1863 and the USR did not operate until 1871.
The story takes place in 1863, during The Civil War.
Just before the horse stampede through town a character says,
"...they'll think they're riding into Custer's Last Stand." Custer's Last Stand happened in 1876.
The song, "Little Brown Jug", (heard at the dance), was written in 1869
while the 'book' at the start of the film indicates that the film is set in 1863.
The Hank character compares the coming shootout with the outlaws with Custer's Last Stand.
The story takes place in 1863. The Little Big Horn would not occur until 1876.
Uncle Willie refers to Clanton as a 'Santa Claus' when he partially reimburses the depositor's stolen money. The modern conception of Santa Claus, which eclipsed earlier incarnations and names, began with Thomas Nast's first cartoons in 1864, one year before the story takes place in 1863.
Continuity
Uncle Willie carries the bag of gold in his right hand to give to the head of the bandits,
Jack Lester; when the bandits initially confront him he is still holding the bag of gold
in his right hand.
Suddenly, Uncle Willie is hiding the gold under his left arm
beneath his jacket, the same place he had put it back in the bank when it was handed to him.
When Uncle Willie goes to the bank to confront Clanton and Lester,
his hat is back to front in close up, but switches back the right way in long shots.
Filming Locations
Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA
Kanab, Utah, USA
Watch the Movie
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