A lot of Audie Murphy's baby boomer fans seem to remember him best, and love him best, in his "nice guy" movie persona: a naive cleancut young man who's surprisingly handy with his fists or his gun. To me Ride Clear Of Diablo is about the most enjoyable of his "nice guy" westerns.
Murphy plays Clay O'Mara, a young railroad surveyor who comes back home when his father and younger brother are killed by cattle rustlers. He doesn't know that the local sheriff and lawyer are the leaders of the cattle rustlers, and they decide that the quickest way to get him out of their hair is to deputize him and send him on dangerous law enforcement jobs so he will get killed. Unfortunately for the bad guys, Clay's a lot better at this kind of thing than they think. The first thing he does as deputy is outdraw, arrest, and befriend a notorious outlaw played by Film Noir character actor Dan Duryea. In contrast to the understated Murphy, Duryea is a Large Ham with a funny-annoying laugh somewhere between Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker, and he spends the whole movie spinning gleefully round and round in the Heel Face Revolving Door. He has great chemistry with Murphy, as does Susan Cabot, playing Murphy's love interest, who is the niece of the evil sheriff and fiancee of the evil lawyer.
The film drags a bit whenever it focuses too much on the main villains and their henchman, a very bored-looking Russell Johnson. But generally the action scenes and the interplay between Murphy, Duryea, and Cabot keeps things interesting. It's a little tricky to get hold of on dvd in the US: you have a choice between a $20 Amazon exclusive and a $40 TCM exclusive that includes three other Murphy films. But if this kind of thing interests you, and you can find it on TV or at a price you can live with, it might be worth a try.
Ride Clear of Diablo (1954)
A lot of Audie Murphy's baby boomer fans seem to remember him best, and love him best, in his "nice guy" movie persona: a naive cleancut young man who's surprisingly handy with his fists or his gun. To me Ride Clear Of Diablo is about the most enjoyable of his "nice guy" westerns.
Murphy plays Clay O'Mara, a young railroad surveyor who comes back home when his father and younger brother are killed by cattle rustlers. He doesn't know that the local sheriff and lawyer are the leaders of the cattle rustlers, and they decide that the quickest way to get him out of their hair is to deputize him and send him on dangerous law enforcement jobs so he will get killed. Unfortunately for the bad guys, Clay's a lot better at this kind of thing than they think. The first thing he does as deputy is outdraw, arrest, and befriend a notorious outlaw played by Film Noir character actor Dan Duryea. In contrast to the understated Murphy, Duryea is a Large Ham with a funny-annoying laugh somewhere between Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker, and he spends the whole movie spinning gleefully round and round in the Heel Face Revolving Door. He has great chemistry with Murphy, as does Susan Cabot, playing Murphy's love interest, who is the niece of the evil sheriff and fiancee of the evil lawyer.
The film drags a bit whenever it focuses too much on the main villains and their henchman, a very bored-looking Russell Johnson. But generally the action scenes and the interplay between Murphy, Duryea, and Cabot keeps things interesting. It's a little tricky to get hold of on dvd in the US: you have a choice between a $20 Amazon exclusive and a $40 TCM exclusive that includes three other Murphy films. But if this kind of thing interests you, and you can find it on TV or at a price you can live with, it might be worth a try.