Brucey D Rory Calhoun plays the dissipated gambler/gunslinger on some kind of a road to redemption with Piper Laurie, with plenty of other well-known actors, some good dialogue, some obligatory gun-toting, and even a little musical interest thrown into the mix.Calhoun may cough like a consumptive, but according to his doctor it is an old gunshot wound plus his louche lifestyle that is giving him gyp;"alright, what is it?""you know why you have been coughing so much recently? - you never gave that wound time to heal properly and it is inflaming the lung." "Is that a medical opinion, or a fact?""Oh, the way you go at it with whiskey, women, and poker... it's a sucker's game!""I always figured that 'the game' would end with one well-placed bullet...""Well, it still might; there's a lot of shooting days before Christmas..."Before he leaves for healthier climes, Calhoun plays classical piano at his own 'wake' (held in celebration of his departure) in a scene unlike any in other western genre movies I've seen. At a saloon girl's behest to 'play something' he taps out a pretty fair rendition of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the Saloon's beat-up piano, which reduces the room to appreciative silence.Later, in the stagecoach with Piper Laurie, when she comes to the aid of this stranger having a coughing fit, the accompanying music subtly echoes the Moonlight Sonata theme as if to underline his character's more vulnerable side.Comment elsewhere may lead you to suppose that the back-projected scenery from the stagecoach is sepia-tinted stock monochrome footage; this might be so, but the sky is blue, and in the long shots the barren landscape is almost equally sepia-tinted. If it is the case, it makes little difference.Piper Laurie's acting is a little stiff, as befits her character perhaps, but then she is also pretty well trussed up in period corsetry for most of the piece; I'm surprised she could breathe, leave alone act.It is best to pay good attention at the start of this film; many of the protagonists are introduced by the narrator in a very short period of time. If you miss this, the rest of the film makes even less sense than it does already; it smacks of having been cut somewhat from its planned length.Overall, a somewhat underrated movie, this one.

Robert J. Maxwell Real-life ex felon Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown) smirks his way through the role of gunfighter and professional gambler, Brett Wade. I don't know where screenwriters come up with these names for cowboys. I've done a scientific study of the subject and no cowboy was ever named Brett, Wade, Cole, Matt, or Dutch. As a matter of fact, the three most common names in the post-Civil War West were Montmorency, Governeur, and Bruce. Be that as it may, Calhoun, like some of the supporting cast, are well dressed in black frocks, ruffled white shirts, and those sparkly looking vests that gentlemen were supposed to wear.The opening scene is right out of "My Darling Clementine." Calhoun is the Doc Holliday figure, suffering from a hacking cough that's made only worse by the smoke, fetid air of Lordsberg, New Mexico. Lordsberg seems to have been a popular place to set Westerns, although it doesn't have the portent of a name like Contention ("The Gunfighter") or Big Whiskey ("Unforgiven"). But Lordsberg is the terminus of the stagecoach in John Ford's "Stagecoach." Calhoun wouldn't find the air in Lordsberg stifling today, if he could stay out the town's sole saloon. It's only an hour's drive from where I live and it's dry and dusty, speckled with the shabby gray boards of decrepit wooden buildings in the ghost towns scattered about the area.Oh, the movie. I was pretty well gemischt by the various allegiances of the townspeople. It was all explained by the narrator too quickly for me. Somebody doesn't like somebody else. Somebody else doesn't like somebody, and all for reasons never quite made clear, except that the Ferris family (quickly disposed of) are modeled on the Clanton boys from the shoot out at the O.K. corral.Calhoun decides to follow the doctor's advice and take the stage to Colorado Springs for his health. The other passengers are Piper Laurie and Alex Nicol. Piper Laurie's role could have been handled without a thought by any other second-tier actress of the time, Yvonne DeCarlo, Mari Blanchard, Mara Corday, Faith Domergue, zzzzz. It was a genuine surprise when, six years later, she did a magnificent job as an alcoholic cripple in "The Hustler." Here, she's merely pretty with a nose designed by a French curve and two plump lips. Alex Nicol, on the other hand, is vicious and hates Calhoun. His every utterance is an angry and contemptuous sneer. When he tries to be pleasant, it's obvious that he's TRYING to be pleasant. I don't mean Nicol himself, the actor, only the roles that he was always given. In real life he may have been a paragon of virtue and affability, his only passion being collecting Kachina Dolls or something. All three disencoach at Socorro for their own reasons. Laurie is fleeing a stern evangelical family. Nicol wants to kill Calhoun. And Calhoun wants to "get some things straight." Edgar Buchanan is on hand as the sheriff determined to keep Socorro peaceful. David Brian owns Socorro's Big Casino, a saloon and whorehouse. He's a businessman with an eye for pulchritude and he hires Piper Laurie as a "saloon girl".Not to worry. Calhoun saves her from her fate. I won't give away the ending but Calhoun is forced to shoot Nicol, Brien, and assorted henchmen before leaving town on the train with Piper Laurie, destination Colorado Springs and a better life for both of them.

classicsoncall The nods to "Gunfight at the OK Corral", the Earps and the Clanton Gang are more than evident only a few minutes into the picture, particularly when Rory Calhoun starts coughing up a storm in the middle of a card game. His take on gambler Brett Wade is a dead giveaway for Doc Holliday, but unless I'm mistaken, the brief description of the story line here on the IMDb and supported by a few reviewers is incorrect. The word tuberculosis wasn't used to describe Wade's condition; Doc Jameson (Roy Roberts) suggested that Wade hadn't properly taken care of himself after taking a slug in the ribs a couple of years earlier.Calhoun gives the impression of a strong, resolute gunman as he generously stares down his opposition in scene after scene. Taking a fancy to young Miss Rannah Hayes (Piper Laurie), Brett Wade decides to linger a while at Dick Braden's Big Casino as Hayes dons the flashy red dress of a working saloon gal. There's a high stakes poker showdown between Wade and Braden (David Brian) that goes against our hero, but he manages to turn things around by the final curtain.Altogether not a bad little flick, though some of the other reviews here are overly generous in it's praise in my opinion. Only the film's length and Technicolor format help it rise slightly over it's B Western origins, as the cast includes a nice sprinkling of cool supporting players like Lee Van Cleef, Edgar Buchanan, Stanley Andrews and Skip Homeier. There's a fair amount of clever dialog too; who could argue with Rory Calhoun's character when he proclaims "There's a lot of good shooting days before Christmas."

louis-godena *Dawn* is one of those 1950's westerns that were a variation on the Earp/Holliday story (e.g. *Warlock*). It works fairly well here. Grell Wade (Rory Calhoun) is a former Southern gentleman turned consumptive gunman and gambler who heads for the healthier climate of Colorado after standing with lawman brothers in their showdown against a family of cowboy outlaws. But of course in westerns no gunslinger is allowed to quit without at least one more fight, and that's the making of the story line here. Along the way, Wade meets his "fallen woman" with the heart of gold (Piper Laurie), a shady businessman and saloon owner (David Brian) and vengeful cowboys (Lee Van Cleef, Alex Nichol). Good supporting roles for Roy Roberts, Edgar Buchanan, James Millican, and others make this an entirely enjoyable little horse opera. A bit slow at times, but definitely a must-see for western fans and those who like their Rory Calhoun straight-up.