Plunderers of Painted Flats (1959)
To scare the squatters from the cattle country he claims as his own, rancher Ed Sampson orders the Martin farm house burned. Galt Martin is killed, and his eldest son, Joe, is pistol-whipped. Timmy Martin sees the killer, Cass Becker and points him out when he and Joe are in Painted Flats. Cass forces Joe to put on a gun but Ned East, a retired gunfighter, saves the inexperienced Joe by forcing Cass to draw on him, and Ned is the winner.
Watch Trailer
Free Trial Channels
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
An absolute waste of money
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
With Plunderers Of Painted Flats, Republic Studios came to an end of an over 20 year run as a B film studio. Its bread and butter were the westerns that you now found on the small screen. A medium that had Republic's president Herbert J. Yates embraced, Republic might still be in the western business.But if not with a classic western Republic went out with a good one with some unusual themes like wedding night jitters which you'd never see in one of Roy and Dale's films. George MacReady is at his most malevolent here, a large Ponderosa ranch owner who wants to get larger. He has no scruples whatever chasing whom he deems squatters off his land. One of his gang shoots down the father of Skip Homeier and little Ricky Allen and then an old gunfighter played Edmund Lowe shoots down the gang member of MacReady who did the deed.That's when MacReady decides some really specialized help is needed so he sends for another gunfighter John Carroll who is like a malevolent version of Shane. On the same stagecoach that Carroll are three mail order brides, Madge Kennedy, Bea Benedaret, and Corinne Calvet and Calvet is intended for Skip Homeier and she's a woman who's been around and Homeier hasn't.Those are the plot ingredients and even given the cheapness of production I have to say the story is well acted and well told. Carroll gives one of his best screen performances, sadly enough in a neglected western.I have to say that Herbert J. Yates did end his studio's output with a good one. Definitely catch this one if broadcast.
This murder/revenge western was the end of the line for the great Republic Pictures. John Carroll, the B-movie version of Clark Gable, leads this film that was actually pretty entertaining.The plot, while fairly standard, does hold the viewers attention and the casting was very unique. Look for Bea Benaderet (later of Petticoat Junction fame ) as well as Joe Besser ---- the former Third Stooge ! As Republic Pictures run ended, so did the heyday of Carroll's career. He was very personable and watchable ...... but was never able to find the break out role that would have launched him to stardom.A slightly above average western/murder mystery ......