The Gambler from Natchez

Army officer Dale Robertson arrives in New Orleans to settle his father's estate in antebellum New Orleans. His father had been a gambler, and an honest one, but he is shown evidence that he was cheating and killed for it by local aristocrat Kevin McCarthy, whose beautiful sister, Lisa Daniels, RObertson has rescued from a rainstorm. Despite her beauty, RObertson begins his Monte-Cristo-like course of vengeance. He is aided by riverboat captain Thomas Homez, and his daughter, Debra Paget, at her most sultry.

It's one of the series of handsome Technicolor 'shaky A' productions that Robertson starred in in this period. Robertson shows off some athleticism in a final epee duel with McCarthy. There's lots of careful camera composition by cinematographer Lloyd Ahern Sr. to cover the fact that Robertson is dueling with a stuntman.

There is some good action from Dale Robertson who appears to do all his own fight scenes in this movie. His fisticuffs and sword play are particularly good. Debra Paget is gorgeous as a bare-footed daughter of a riverboat captain played sympathetically by Thomas Gomez. It's an unusual period western with some good mystery attached. It's set in 1840s Mississippi's gambling dens and swamps. This was a swift remake of Tyrone Power's 'The Mississippi Gambler' the year before. That must make 'Natchez' one of the quickest remakes in Hollywood's history. The best scene in the movie has Robertson wading through a swamp at night with a knife in his back. He is being pursued by one of his father's three killers. He needs to solve the mystery behind his father's death and he uses the 3 of Spades as a revenge card. This card is cleverly incorporated into the film's poster with the 3 of Spades torn into three pieces.

Dale Robertson stars in the title role as The Gambler From Natchez who has come home after a furloughed leave to join Sam Houston in Texas. Which would put the year at around 1836 in the ante-bellum south and in New Orleans.

Robertson has come home to visit his father whom he finds out has been killed. His father was a gambler by trade and he was murdered with all the proprieties of the Creole code covered. Robertson himself is a gambler and good one.

He identifies three men Kevin McCarthy, Douglas Dick, and John Weingraf, as the perpetrators and he's marked them in his little black book of revenge.

The comparisons of The Gambler From Natchez with films like Mississippi Gambler and The Iron Mistress are rather obvious. But a very astute previous reviewer saw the elements of The Count Of Monte Cristo here and I salute that person.

The most harrowing scene in the film is Robertson with a knife in his back eluding the people pursuing through the shore marshes of the Mississippi. Those pursuers included the overseer who put said knife in his back and some of his slave charges. I'm sure it was with a great sense of irony that 20th Century Fox filmed black people pursuing a white runaway in the swamp.

Later on said overseer meets a most timely end at the hands of Woody Strode. How many times did black man kill a slave overseer and suffered no consequences.

Aiding and abetting Robertson's cause is riverboat captain Thomas Gomez and daughter Debra Paget. McCarthy has a fetching sister in Lisa Daniel who also intrigues Robertson. You never know on which side she will fall.

The Gambler From Natchez is not as good as the other cited films, but it certainly holds its own in the entertainment department.

This bland western made by Henry Levin belongs to the category of westerns that I will call "riverboat westerns", and taking place around Mississippi river as MISSISSIPPI GAMBLER, DUEL ON THE MISSISSIPPI, RAWHIDE YEARS, IRON MISTRESS and several others which I don't have titles now in my head. There is no Indian war, no cavalry, no desert of course, no small town, no sheriff. So it is more adventure movies than purely westerns. It is question of riverboats, gamblers, French descent supporting or not characters, honor duels at dawn in a field with witnesses. A quite good atmosphere. So, this remains a quite smooth and a bit boring time waster, but not a milestone in Henry Levin's career. Kevin McCarthy is excelelnt as the villain.