Vengeance Valley (1951)

As Good As It Gets

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Owen Daybright is the adopted son of cattleman Arch Strobie; his loyalty extends to trying to protect Arch's son Lee. Lee has fathered a child and has Owen give the mother, Lily, five hundred dollars; her brother is determined to find the identity of the father and have his vengeance against the man who brought dishonour on his family; neither Lily nor Owen is going to name the father. It soon becomes apparent that Lee has no intention of repaying this loyalty; he sees Owen as a rival for his father's affections and his future inheritance. It would suit him nicely if Lily's brothers were to think Owen was the baby's father and kill him.This is a solid western; it might not be full of action but it has a good story. Having a story which features an unmarried mother who isn't a 'terrible person who must suffer' is rather surprising for a film of this era… of course ultimately the man responsible will have to pay but even this is because he betrayed his adopted brother rather than fathering the child. There are a few action scenes but only one of them is a traditional shootout. I liked how this showed a fair amount of the cowboy's work; we see them breaking horses and rounding up the cattle after they are allowed to roam during the winter… I might have learnt something about nineteenth century cattle farming in the United States! The cast does a fine job; Burt Lancaster is most notable as protagonist Owen; Robert Walker is also solid as the cowardly antagonist Lee Strobie. Overall this isn't a must see but it is still worth watching if you are a fan of Westerns.

Burt Lancaster started his career in the late forties starring in films noirs like "The Killers" or "Sorry, Wrong Number", and then in the early fifties became an action hero in swashbuckling adventures like "The Flame and the Arrow" and in Westerns like this one. There are similarities between the plot and that of "The Man from Laramie", another Western from the fifties. Both films feature a power-struggle within the family of an elderly, wealthy rancher. In each case the old man has a single son of his own, and has adopted his trusted ranch foreman as a virtual second son. In both films the old man's biological son is a dissolute, worthless character. The main difference lies in the personalities of the adopted sons. In "The Man from Laramie" the adopted son, Vic, initially seems like a decent character, but eventually turns out to be as villainous as his adoptive brother Dave; the real hero of that film is a stranger, the titular Man from Laramie. In "Vengeance Valley" the adopted son initially seems like a cad, but later turns out to be the film's hero. In 19th century Colorado, a young woman named Lily Fasken gives birth to an illegitimate child, and refuses to identify the father. Her brothers Hub and Dick believe that the culprit is Owen Daybright, the adopted son of a wealthy cattleman named Arch Strobie. Hub and Dick know that Owen has given their sister $500 to take care of the baby and come looking for him, hoping to force him to marry Lily. What they don't know is that the real father is Strobie's real son Lee, who is already married. The film then explores the complications arising from this situation and from Lee's attempts to cheat his own father over a cattle deal. The film's main faults are the poor quality of the colour, which appears dull and washed-out, and of the sound, which is sometimes muffled. It lacks the power of the really great fifties Westerns like "Shane", "The Big Country" or, for that matter, "The Man from Laramie" itself, which has a similar plot but a greater depth of characterisation and is an excellent film as opposed to a merely good one. Those points apart, however, "Vengeance Valley" is a very watchable Western with an exciting plot. Lancaster was perhaps not yet the great actor he was to become later in his career, but he makes an attractive and sympathetic hero as Owen, and he makes this a very decent example of a "second division" Western. 7/10

From the film's title you would think the story in the film has something to do with revenge, yet it's really more to do with opportunism. The idea that the son of a self made wealthy rancher would grow up spoiled has been explored in other westerns, while the adopted son would truly appreciate the values of hard work and sacrifice and thus earn more of the respect of the father than his own true son ever could. This of course drives the true son to want to get rid of the adopted one, even if they grew up the together and the adopted one always tried to cover for the numerous deficiencies of the true son. In this case wayward Sally Forrest has a child which is fathered by true son Robert Walker, while adopted son Burt Lancaster voluntarily takes the so-called blame. Walker is married to attractive Joanne Dru, who seems to instinctively know who the real father is, and after witnessing Walker take a whip to a horse, decides to dump him. Forrest's two brothers (Hugh O'Brien and John Ireland) are mistakenly after Lancaster's character instead of Walker's. Maybe it's their revenge that is at the heart of the film's title, though why they should want to kill the father of their sister's illegitimate child is not clear, other than being a typical Hollywood plot utilized in order to move things along. In any event, Walker does decide to take advantage of the two brothers' misplaced hatred for Lancaster and the plot actually isn't half bad once it gets going, when everyone is out on the range rounding up the cattle. Dru looks especially good, Lancaster is solid in his part, but Walker's character is the most interesting, with whatever vengeance he may feel towards Lancaster well concealed beneath a cool exterior.

Foreman Burt Lancaster, the mature responsible adopted son of a wealthy rancher, tries to protect the reputation of his sniveling adoptive brother Robert Walker, who recently fathered a son out of wedlock. This leads to a case of mistaken identity and his running afoul of the mother's family, including her violent brother John Ireland.To make things worse, the heartless Walker is scheming against his father and brother.A decent frontier melodrama for grown-ups, this has an immensely likable performance by Lancaster with effective support by Walker and Ireland, their characters truly nasty creatures.Though never boring, things sag a bit in the middle. A good final act features some great cattle-drive scenes, some nice scenery, and a serviceable climax.