Ride Clear of Diablo (1954)

Clay O'Mara's (Audie Murphy) family are shot, so he returns to town to try to get revenge. The real culprits—a devious lawyer and the local Sheriff—send him on a series of dangerous missions to "help" his quest, in the hope that he'll get himself killed. His first such mission is to capture Whitey Kincade (Dan Duryea), a notorious bandit, from nearby Diablo. Kincade takes something of a liking to O'Mara and provides occasional help in capturing the right people, although possibly more for his own amusement than out of a sense of justice.

Audie Murphy only ever had limited acting ability, and never really comes across as someone fixed on revenge. However, he is fairly charismatic and that works well enough for the purposes of the film. Dan Duryea is excellent as the affable "villain" and pitches his performance perfectly between likeable, obviously dangerous, but not wholly evil, with his motivations being constantly changing an unclear throughout. He's helped by a script with gives him some great lines:

Whitey: "Well ain't you gonna shoot them?" Clay: "Not in the back." Whitey: "It's safer that way. They can't shoot back at you."

The script in general is strong: not much intrigue (since we know who the murderers are from the start) but an enjoyable amount of double-crossing and good characters, especially from the baddies. In summary, it's never going to be one of the absolute classics (and Murphy's acting doesn't help, although doesn't hinder too much either) but it's really quite decent and well worth anyone's time.

Links

A few other reviews:

• http://livius1.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/ride-clear-of-diablo/
• http://laurasmiscmusings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tonights-movie-ride-clear-of-diablo-1954.html