Seven Men From Now

What a weird title. I mean, yes, this 1956 Budd Boetticher B-Western does nominally concern a hunt for seven men. So, hypothetically, if you were to ask the Randolph Scott character "just when will your blazing travails through the wilderness finally be through," he could reply "seven men from now." But still...it's not exactly a sensible headline for the movie.

I thought maybe it was a play on words, like the men were all from the town of Now, Arizona, or something. But, no...it's just odd and unexpected.

Similarly odd and unexpected is the film's 75 minute running time. At around the hour mark, I noticed that the plot seemed to be winding up, which is usually a touch early. It's as if the movie senses that it's wearing out its welcome, and tries to wrap everything up in a neat little package, and get you back home in time for Ed Sullivan or "Lucy" or whatever.

But the thing is certainly entertaining enough for 75 minutes, mainly due to the participation of Lee Marvin in a supporting role. His Bill Masters is a conniving, lecherous, sweaty, oafish and mean-spirited lout, and is also by far the most likable character in the movie. That guy was like a factory dedicated entirely to the production of badass.

Randolphs Scott...less so.



And, no, I'm not talking about the long-standing rumors that Randolph Scott was, to use the old Hollywood terminology, a swish. (For years, in fact, Scott was thought to be cohabitating with a similarly closeted Cary Grant). He's perfectly believable as a heterosexual male in the part.

I just mean that, with his pressed neckerchief and ceaselessly good-hearted, noble nature...He's just not the most interesting character to follow around. Scott's Ben Stride suffers from a severe case of Dudley Do-Right-ism. Gary Cooper could pull off a deep-seated sense of honor and nobility, whereas Scott just gives a pinched performance, like he's constantly suffering from painful, incurable saddle sores.

And Seven Men from Now is essentially a revenge movie. Stride was once the Sheriff in Silver City, until a bank robbery turned the town against him, as well as causing the death of his wife in the crossfire. Now, he's hunting down the 7 men responsible for the robbery, while also escorting a naive couple from the city across the rugged frontier landscape.

The film hits most of the right notes for this kind of fun genre piece. There are the obligatory shootouts, stand-offs, repeated scenes of horses running quickly across the desert scenes of Lone Pine, California. The action, in particular, is really well-shot, conveying both the wide expanses of the landscape as well as the tight claustrophobia of being huddled against a rock, dodging bullets. And there's a smashing final face-off between Scott and Lee Marvin over a strongbox filled with Wells Fargo's gold.

It's just the Scott performance that doesn't work for me...and he's a legend in these kind of movies, so it's sort of strange. Maybe it's just that he didn't work for me as Stride...or maybe it's just that I'm used to Spaghetti Westerns, which have a different sort of idea about a cool leading man...or maybe it's just the bright blue shirts and white ascots that seem to belong in a musical about cowboys, not a cowboy movie...I can't tell.

But other than that, it's a fun movie.