El Paso

directed by Lewis R. Foster
List(s):"Movie Two"
Category: "Western"
Year of Release:1949
Date Added:02/03/2015
Date Watched:11/12/2021
Description:Lawyer Clay Fletcher (John Payne) heads to El Paso to deliver legal papers to Judge Jeffers. He also looks forward to connecting with the Judge's daughter Susan (Gail Russell). When he gets to El Paso, he finds the town in the grip of corrupt landowner Donner (Sterling Hayden) and his crooked sheriff, La Farge, who are bilking Confederate veterans of their ranches. When he sees an innocent man get sentenced to death by the drunk Judge Jeffers, Fletcher helps the Judge sober up and gets another man acquitted. But when Donner and La Farge kill the Judge and the acquitted man, Fletcher organizes a vigilante force and begins hanging Donner's men. Susan sends for Fletcher's grandfather, also a Judge. He counsels peace, but then is himself shot. Fletcher and his men ride into town and engage in a massive shoot-out in a dust storm. Donner is killed, but La Farge rides out of town. Fletcher's men catch him and are about to hang him when Fletcher, finally come to his senses, arrives and encourages due process.
My Rating:5

Reviews for El Paso

Review - El Paso

Well. Where do I start?

First, Gail Russell was criminally underused. She couldn't have been on screen for more than 10 minutes. Her character stood for law and justice, but she was willing to marry Fletcher at the end even though he and his men had accidentally killed an innocent man.

The shoot-out in the dust storm. Half the men in town were shooting at the other half and there's no possible way any of them could have known who they were shooting at.

When Fletcher's men ride out after La Farge and catch him, the dust storm has suddenly stopped.

One thing was really funny. Fletcher was practicing his quick-draw with a local Mexican named Don Nacho (no joke). While a servant throws plates in the air, the two men fire at them. Halfway through the scene, without explanation (or an allowable stretch of time), the two men switch shirts.
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