The town of Madden is your typical small western town, and it's been taken over by an ambitious, ruthless criminal as have many other small western towns, except for one difference - it's not a man running the town, it's a woman. And Effie Sutton is just as ambitious and ruthless as any man before her, if not more.
Effie has decided to compete with Wells Fargo with her own stage line, and to say her methods are dirty is an understatement. Wells Fargo stages could run for hundreds of miles with no incident, until they entered Effie's territory, at which point things began to happen to their coaches...suspicious things. Breakdowns, wheels coming off, and other obvious happenings are common, and the company has had enough. As a result, Jim Hardie is sent in to get to the bottom of the situation. When John Sayers, the owner of the local newspaper, is shot in the back for defying Effie, Jim Hardie convinces Sayer's daughter they should publish an edition of the paper that exposes Effie and her gang of murderers as far and wide as possible, even as far as the east coast. But it's a dangerous game. Effie means business, but so does Jim Hardie.
I gotta admit, I like this one, it's a great watch. Effie's so downright mean and nasty it's near cartoonish, but make no mistake she's extremely deadly. Despite the urging of her anxious brother the "sheriff" she refuses to ease up. I like the fact that ToWF didn't shy away from stories with willful women who crossed the line into lawlessness, and many paid the ultimate price in the end. Effie Sutton is one of the worst, and the murders committed from her orders were cold-blooded and ruthless. But she makes for a darned good watch...her gang was one scenery chewing bunch!
The cast isn't particularly noteworthy, but I recognized a good number of them from their appearances on Cheyenne with Clint Walker. Roscoe Ates was a familiar face during the era, appearing frequently in mostly westerns, but some other pictures such as Sullivan's Travels. He was best known for appearing in 15 Eddie Dean westerns as Dean's sidekick, Soapy Jones. KL Smith is absolutely on my list of favorite heavies, along with guys like Bob Wilke, Charles Horvath or Jack Lambert. He played sneering villains extremely well. But his place in pop culture is solid, as he appeared as the unnamed commander of the Klingon Battle Cruiser in "Elaan of Troyius" in S3 of Star Trek:TOS. Claire Du Brey appeared as Effie Sutton. She had a long career in in business with 247 credits, and she appeared in some well-known pictures such as Topper, This Side of Heaven and Jane Eyre.
I enjoyed this one thoroughly, there was some serious scenery chewing goin' on! Don't miss it!