Editor Reviews:

Description:
Randolph Scott rides tall in the saddle as a powerful cattle rancher in this action-packed western. Scott, who made a noteworthy contribution to this genre in the late 50's as a lean, mean cowboy, stars as John Stewart, an Arizona rancher determined to rule his vast empire with strong willed integrity. Stewart meets with opposition, however, from local landowner Wick Campbell (Richard Boone) who prefers the persuasive power of the pistol to the letter of the law. Suddenly Stewart is forced to defend himself and the woman he loves, Jocelyn Brando) against Campbell's renegades who are determined to ransack the town. Now Stewart must take a life-and-death stand in a rugged confrontation that pits one man of justice against the overwhelming odds of TEN WANTED MEN.

Amazon.com:
Randolph Scott's movie-star reputation was redeemed late in the day by Budd Boetticher's remarkable "Ranown" films in the late '50s and Sam Peckinpah's sublime Ride the High Country, Scott's swan song, in 1962. Ten Wanted Men typifies the pictures his career needed redeeming from--formula oaters that are workmanlike at best and suitable for recommending only to confirmed fans of the genre.

Scott plays a well-to-do rancher who sends for his lawyer brother (Lester Matthews) to help civilize his corner of the Southwest. That's enough to tick off Scott's chief rival and former protégé, Richard Boone, who gets even more irritated when Scott's nephew charms the local señorita Boone has been wooing in his heavy-handed way. His reaction is to import a passel of gunslinging plug-uglies and start making life miserable for everybody.

Boone would prove a superb adversary to Scott in The Tall T two years later, but here he just flails. Scott's character is possibly the most irritatingly self-righteous he ever played, so he scarcely bothers to play it at all. Bruce Humberstone's lax direction leaves no doubt when a stunt double has stepped in for Scott, and if a gunshot happens to fill the frame with smoke, you can count on the air being clear as a bell in the next camera angle. The only mildly interesting thing to wonder about in Ten Wanted Men (apart from exactly which 10 the title refers to) is how elements of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War came to be grafted onto the otherwise nondescript plot. --Richard T. Jameson

Rating : - "Ten Wanted Men (1955) ... Randolph Scott ... Columbia Pictures Classic Westerns"
Columbia Pictures presents "TEN WANTED MEN" (1955) (80 mins/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Jocelyn Brando, Leo Gordon, Lee Van Cleef & Skip Homeier --- Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and released in February 1, 1955, our story line and film, A powerful rancher John Stewart, attempts to establish law and order on his vast Arizona spread without resorting to violence ... Less peacefully inclined is Stewart's chief rival Wick Campbell, who believes that might is right. To this end, Campbell recruits the services of hired gun Frank Scavo and eight other henchmen to drive all competition out of the territory ... Complicating matters is a dispute between Stewart & Campbell over a Mexican girl that Stewart's been sheltering ... Caught up in all this is Stewart's newly arrived brother Adam and his nephew Howie who falls in love with the Mexican girl, much to Campbell's chargrin --- Richard Boone in a strong supporting role --- Some wonderful character actors from the early B-Westerns days Terry Frost, Leo Gordon, Reed Howes, Francis McDonald, Jack Perrin and Denver Pyle, even Dennis Weaver and Lee Van Cleef join in the fun --- And Mr. Scott was secure enough in his stardom that he gave good lines and depth to the younger actors in the film.

Under H. Bruce Humberstone (Director), Harry Joe Brown (Producer), Harriet Frank, Jr. (Short Story Author), Kenneth Gamet (Screenwriter), Irving Ravetch (Short Story Author),Wilfrid M. Cline (Cinematographer), Paul Sawtell (Composer (Music Score), Gene Havlick (Editor) - - - - the cast includes Randolph Scott (John Stewart), Jocelyn Brando (Corinne Michaels), Richard Boone (Wick Campbell), Alfonso Bedoya (Hermando), Skip Homeier (Howie Stewart), Leo Gordon (Frank Scavo), Lee Van Cleef (Al Drucker), Denver Pyle (Dave Weed), Donna Martell (Maria Segura), Clem Bevans (Tod Grinnel), Minor Watson (Jason Carr), Lester Matthews (Adam Stewart), Tom Powers (Green), Dennis Weaver (Sheriff Clyde Gibbons), Louis Jean Heydt (Tom Baines), Kathleen Crowley (Marva Gibbons), Boyd "Red" Morgan (Red Dawes), Francis McDonald (Warner), George Pat Collins (Bartender), Jack Perrin, Reed Howes, Terry Frost - - - - Randy Scott had a quiet gentleman nature about him which is not seen in the films of today ... Randy took his job and his responsibility to his audience very seriously --- would not settle for anything less than his best ... same was true in his personal life.

SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. Randolph Scott (aka: George Randolph Scott)
Date of birth: 23 January 1898 - Orange County, Virginia
Date of death: 2 March 1987 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

Special footnote, George Randolph Scott better known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s ... his popularity grew in the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in such films as "Gung Ho"! (1943) and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1938); but he was especially famous for his numerous Westerns including "Virginia City" (1940) with Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, "Western Union" (1941) with Robert Young and "Ride the High Country" (1962) with Joel McCrea (a coin was flipped to see whether Scott or McCrea would receive top billing, and Scott won despite having a slightly smaller role) ... his long fistfight with John Wayne in "The Spoilers" (1942) was frequently cited by critics and the press as the most thrilling ever filmed; they were fighting over Marlene Dietrich ... another smash hit film together that same year called "Pittsburgh" (1942) once again with Dietrich, Scott and Wayne --- Daniel Webster defines "Legend", as being a notable person, or the stories told about that person exploits --- well by the time Randolph Scott made his best films he had long established himself as a legend in the film industry --- they say practice makes perfect, if that is true by 1958 at 60 years of age he was the master with these oaters from the 50s ... "The Cariboo Trail" (1950), "The Nevadan" (1950), "Colt .45" (1950), "Santa Fe" (1951), "Sugarfoot" (1951), "Fort Worth" (1951), "Man in the Saddle" (1951), "Carson City" (1952), "The Man Behind the Gun" (1952), "Hangman's Knot" (1952), "Thunder over the Plains" (1953), "The Stranger Wore a Gun" (1953), "Ten Wanted Men" (1954), "Riding Shotgun" (1954), "The Bounty Hunter" (1954), "Rage at Dawn" (1955), "Tall Man Riding" (1955), "A Lawless Street" (1955), "Seven Men from Now" (1956), "Seventh Cavalry" (1956), "Decision at Sundown: (1957), "Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend" (1957), "The Tall T" (1957), "Buchanan Rides Alone" (1958), "Ride Lonesome" (1959), "Westbound" (1959), "Comanche Station" (1960) --- Scott's age seemed to matter little, they only came to see another Randolph Scott film and always got their money's worth --- Scott's films were good and getting better becoming classics --- so if you wonder "What Ever Happened To Randolph Scott", just rent or purchase one of his films and you'll see he's never left us.

2. Richard Boone
Date of Birth: 18 June 1917 - Los Angeles, California
Date of Death: 10 January 1981 - St. Augustine, Florida

3. Jocelyn Brando
Date of Birth: 18 November 1919 - San Francisco, California
Date of Death: 27 November 2005 - Santa Monica, California

4. Skip Homeier
Date of Birth: 5 October 1930 - Chicago, Illinois
Date of death: Still Living

5. Alfonso Bedoya
Date of Birth: 16 April 1904 - Vicam, Sonora, Mexico
Date of Death: 15 December 1957 - Mexico City, Mexico.

6.. Leo Gordon
Date of Birth: 2 December 1922 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 26 December 2000 - Los Angeles, California

7. Lee Van Cleef
Date of Birth: 9 January 1925 - Somerville, New Jersey
Date of Death: 16 December 1989 - Oxnard, California

8. H. Bruce Humberstone (Director)
Date of Birth: 18 November 1901 - Buffalo, New York
Date of Death: 11 October 1984 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 80 min on DVD ~ Sony Pictures Video ~ (9/06/05)