Coroner Creek (1948)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Ray Enright

Writers:

Kenneth Gamet (screenplay)
Luke Short (novel)

Release Date:

1 July 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

A man is bent on taking revenge on those responsible for his fiance's death. |

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Chris Denning
Marguerite Chapman	...	Kate Hardison
George Macready	...	Younger Miles
Sally Eilers	...	Della Harms
Edgar Buchanan	...	Sheriff O'Hea
Barbara Read	...	Abbie Miles (as Barbara Reed)
Wallace Ford	...	Andy West
Forrest Tucker	...	Ernie Combs
Joe Sawyer	...	Frank Yordy
William Bishop	...	Leach Conover
Russell Simpson	...	Walt Hardison
Douglas Fowley	...	Stew Shallis
Lee Bennett	...	Tip Henry

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Cinecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #12880) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch - 411 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Producers-Actors Corporation

Quotes:

Stew Shallis: Did you ever get hit with a bullet? It's like a hunk of iron ripping and tearing into you. It sets you on fire inside. Sometimes you don't die right away. You just bleed and hurt for a long time.

A Vengeance Quest

When Randolph Scott was on your trail there was no one worse to have as an enemy in the old west. Proof of that is to be found in Coroner Creek one of the best westerns he ever did.

Scott's bride-to-be was among several passengers killed during a stage holdup, perpetrated by Indians, but led by a renegade white man played by George MacReady.

Armed with only a general description, Scott tracks him down to a town called Coroner Creek where the renegade is now has a veneer of respectability. No one knows of his past there. But he doesn't have a bunch of gun hands like Forrest Tucker and Douglas Fowley for nothing.

Coroner Creek is adapted from a western novel by Luke Short, but it bears a big resemblance to the larger budgeted James Stewart western, The Man From Laramie. Personally I think Coroner Creek is better even though it is a B western.

The highlight of the film is a nasty fight between Forrest Tucker and Randolph Scott. Tucker stomps on Scott's right hand, breaking his trigger finger. When Wallace Ford holds MacReady's men at gunpoint, Scott evens the score in a savage fight where Scott beats him even though he is only able to use his left hand. Scott then does the same thing to Tucker. You next see him sporting a left handed holster and he proves pretty adept with his left hand. The look on Randolph Scott's face as he tears into Tucker is unforgettable. He's more than a man, Scott is a force of nature in Coroner Creek.

In a career where he played a couple dozen villains, one of the meanest George MacReady ever played was in Coroner Creek. You will not easily forget MacReady, his veneer of sophistication hiding barbaric acts of unspeakable cruelty.

Coroner Creek is the finest introduction you could make concerning the films of Randolph Scott. You will be a fan after you see this.