Goldraub in Texas (1952)

Goldraub in Texas: Directed by Roy Huggins. With Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, Claude Jarman Jr., Frank Faylen. A Confederate Major and his troops are falsely led to believe the Civil War is not over, and become wanted men after they attack a Union Army wagon train in Nevada.

“This is a film that deserves to be better known, particularly by those fans of Randolph Scottu0026#39;s later work with director Budd Boetticher (The Tall T, Commanche Station, Ride Lonesome etc). It is a fascinating transitional work, and a one-off vehicle for Huggins, who went on to direct the Rockford Files for TV.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs Scott grew older in his acting career, he made predominately Westerns. At the same time his face grew harder, more sinewy and austere. Something of his matinee idol looks and southern accent remained, but age brought something else – a moral gravitas than added immeasurably to his on-screen presence. Finally the u0026#39;Scott characteru0026#39; achieved a magisterial quality – a characteristic that added immeasurably to the ironic resonance of his last film Ride The High Country.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn Hangmanu0026#39;s Knot, Scott plays a Confederate officer who only learns that the Civil War is over after a successful action in which his group take a gold shipment from Union soldiers. He and his men agree to return home, each with their share of the booty, but run across some outlaws who corner them in a way station, laying siege to them.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a situation familiar to those who know those later Scott-Boetticher masterpieces, and the familiar hallmarks are already in evidence. Even the same locations are utilised. Like the later films with a different director, this is a morality play, almost a chamber drama, where Scott makes a dignified stand of principle. In Hangmanu0026#39;s Knot, those with the dark hearts are both outside the way stationu0026#39;s walls waiting to pounce, as well as inside (a characteristic performance by Lee Marvin, reminiscent of that he gives in The Big Heat). These are the men that Scottu0026#39;s character, Stewart, cannot relate to: those without honour or moral courage, greedy, cruel men. For Scott, as he says in one of those later films, u0026#39;there are some things a man canu0026#39;t ride aroundu0026#39; and these are the choices that have to be made. A man needs to face up to his options in life and live with himself on or off the trail. When he tells Marvin here that he u0026#39;never really knew (him) at allu0026#39;, we know the moral battlelines have been drawn, just as distinctly those that existed between the warring states.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt first the gold is merely the spoils of war. Then it becomes a short cut to happiness, an unexpected reward for the menu0026#39;s trouble, and a compensation for the loss of the War. Finally it is just a moral encumbrance, both to body and mind. By the end of the film, as Scott and the boy let the heavy saddle bags slip off their shoulders, the sense of relief is tangible – one which isnu0026#39;t just physical.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA film well worth investigating, full of artistic resonance and anticipations. And if you havenu0026#39;t seen the later Scott-Boetticher vehicles, some of the greatest B-Westerns ever made, see this as a taster.”