George Sherman's imaginative but brooding little western drama "Dawn at Socorro" synthesizes characters and events from every Wyatt Earp & Doc Holiday cinematic shoot-em up, deadline oaters like "High Noon," "Last Train to Gun Hill," and "The 3:10 to Yuma," and "Stagecoach." This modest Technicolored Universal-International release casts Rory Calhoun of "River of No Return" as notorious but well-tailored gambler Brett Wade. He suffers from an improperly healed lung wound, aspires to hang up his gun and turn over a new leaf in his life.
The story opens with the framing device of a flashback that is later forgotten. A witness (Roy Roberts) to the infamous shoot-out in Keane's Stockyards remembers the events that culminated in the gunfight between the Farris clan--father Tom (Stanley Andrews of "Three Outlaws"), sons Earl (Lee Van Cleef of "Commandos") and Tom (Richard Garland of "Rage At Dawn")--and Marshal Harry McNair (James Millican of "Red Sundown"), Deputy Vince McNair (Scott Lee of "San Antone"), and Wade. The gunplay is snappy and well-orchestrated. Farris' youngest son Bud (Skip Homeier of "Tomorrow The World"), a drunken cowhand who gets rowdy when his girl stands him up raises Harry's hackles. He orders Bud to vacate the premises, but the drunken Farris decides to take a shot at the marshal. Wade intervenes and shoots the gun out of Bud's fist. Bud grabs another gun with his other hand and the marshal pumps him full of lead. The Farris clan learns about Bud's demise and challenge the McNairs and Wade to meet them in a showdown at the stockyards. Harry and Wade kick the patriarch and young Tom while a sniveling Earl flees the scene, vowing vengeance against Wade. Before Bud's death, Wade had locked horns with an unscrupulous, easily insulted gambler, Dick Braden, who tries to make a deal with Wade and McNair in order to open another saloon in Lordsburg. After Wade insults Braden about his casino in Socorro for serving watered-down liquor and rigged dice, Braden leaves the saloon and watches from afar as a man in a buckboard with a dressed-up woman Rannah Hayes (Piper Laurie) has some final words. The older bearded man disowns his daughter because of what he feels is her lack of moral conscience. Anyway, Lordsburg throws a farewell party for Wade and he climbs aboard the stage to Socorro for the train to Colorado Springs where he plans to recover his health. Gun-slinging Jimmy Rapp, who was too drunk to join the Farris clan during the gunfight, boards the stage, too, with blood in his eye. Hayes and Wade indulge in verbal sparring match before she saves his life from low-down Earl who tries to ambush the gambler. The crowning irony of this gunfight is that Wade kills Earl with Jimmy's six-shooter. Originally, Earl's father had hired Jimmy to act as Earl's bodyguard. When they reach Socorro, Rannah becomes a saloon girl despite Wade's protestations, and Sheriff Cauthen (Edgar Buchanan) keeps an eye on both Rapp and Wade. Initially, Cauthen escorted Wade to the train, but Wade got back off because of his attraction to Rannah. From the time that Wade enters his casino, Braden smolders with rage.
Sherman and scenarist George Zukerman delineate the hero, the heroine, and the villains during the first third of this nifty western that ends with a fast-paced gunfight in the stockyards of Lordsburg, New Mexico. The neat thing about the stockyards shoot-out is that Sherman has the premises plowed up and watered down to suggest the manure-strewn nature of an authentic stockyard; this was long before Hollywood westerns could show horse apples. The scene where Wade plays a classic musical excerpt on the piano and everybody becomes quiet is memorable. The second third of the action takes place in the stagecoach and at one of the stops on the way to Socorro. The last third happens in Socorro leading up to Wade's departure on the morning train. Carl Guthrie's subdued looking photography gives the interior scenes in the Lordsburg saloon a conspiratorial Rembrandt quality with its warm colors and dark spaces. George Zuckerman's screenplay contains many quotable lines of dialogue.
The entire cast is first-rate, with Calhoun delivering a solemn, contemplative performance as the South Carolina-bred, former Confederate officer turned melancholy gambler/gunman. If course, drawing comparisons between Brett Wade and Doc Holiday is inevitable. Meanwhile, Alex Nichol of "The Man From Laramie" gives Wade a hard time as an alcoholic, conscience stricken gunslinger named Jimmy Rapp, loosely based on real-life desperado Johnny Ringo. David Brian of "The Springfield Rifle" wants to see Wade dead, too. As Dick Braden, he operates the biggest casino in Socorro and lets Jimmy Rapp gulp his fill of booze. Edgar Buchanan is a nervy town marshal who wants to get Wade off onto the train to Colorado Springs before he shoots up Socorro. Finally, Piper Laurie of "Carrie" plays a daughter who's Puritan, suspicious-minded father has disowned and branded a 'Jezebel." Braden has hired her to work in his casino and distract his patrons with her feminine wiles so they will drink more and lose more at the gambling tables. The lives of these characters intertwine throughout this taunt 80 minute epic that doesn't look like the average 1950s' horse opera.
The story opens with the framing device of a flashback that is later forgotten. A witness (Roy Roberts) to the infamous shoot-out in Keane's Stockyards remembers the events that culminated in the gunfight between the Farris clan--father Tom (Stanley Andrews of "Three Outlaws"), sons Earl (Lee Van Cleef of "Commandos") and Tom (Richard Garland of "Rage At Dawn")--and Marshal Harry McNair (James Millican of "Red Sundown"), Deputy Vince McNair (Scott Lee of "San Antone"), and Wade. The gunplay is snappy and well-orchestrated. Farris' youngest son Bud (Skip Homeier of "Tomorrow The World"), a drunken cowhand who gets rowdy when his girl stands him up raises Harry's hackles. He orders Bud to vacate the premises, but the drunken Farris decides to take a shot at the marshal. Wade intervenes and shoots the gun out of Bud's fist. Bud grabs another gun with his other hand and the marshal pumps him full of lead. The Farris clan learns about Bud's demise and challenge the McNairs and Wade to meet them in a showdown at the stockyards. Harry and Wade kick the patriarch and young Tom while a sniveling Earl flees the scene, vowing vengeance against Wade. Before Bud's death, Wade had locked horns with an unscrupulous, easily insulted gambler, Dick Braden, who tries to make a deal with Wade and McNair in order to open another saloon in Lordsburg. After Wade insults Braden about his casino in Socorro for serving watered-down liquor and rigged dice, Braden leaves the saloon and watches from afar as a man in a buckboard with a dressed-up woman Rannah Hayes (Piper Laurie) has some final words. The older bearded man disowns his daughter because of what he feels is her lack of moral conscience. Anyway, Lordsburg throws a farewell party for Wade and he climbs aboard the stage to Socorro for the train to Colorado Springs where he plans to recover his health. Gun-slinging Jimmy Rapp, who was too drunk to join the Farris clan during the gunfight, boards the stage, too, with blood in his eye. Hayes and Wade indulge in verbal sparring match before she saves his life from low-down Earl who tries to ambush the gambler. The crowning irony of this gunfight is that Wade kills Earl with Jimmy's six-shooter. Originally, Earl's father had hired Jimmy to act as Earl's bodyguard. When they reach Socorro, Rannah becomes a saloon girl despite Wade's protestations, and Sheriff Cauthen (Edgar Buchanan) keeps an eye on both Rapp and Wade. Initially, Cauthen escorted Wade to the train, but Wade got back off because of his attraction to Rannah. From the time that Wade enters his casino, Braden smolders with rage.
Sherman and scenarist George Zukerman delineate the hero, the heroine, and the villains during the first third of this nifty western that ends with a fast-paced gunfight in the stockyards of Lordsburg, New Mexico. The neat thing about the stockyards shoot-out is that Sherman has the premises plowed up and watered down to suggest the manure-strewn nature of an authentic stockyard; this was long before Hollywood westerns could show horse apples. The scene where Wade plays a classic musical excerpt on the piano and everybody becomes quiet is memorable. The second third of the action takes place in the stagecoach and at one of the stops on the way to Socorro. The last third happens in Socorro leading up to Wade's departure on the morning train. Carl Guthrie's subdued looking photography gives the interior scenes in the Lordsburg saloon a conspiratorial Rembrandt quality with its warm colors and dark spaces. George Zuckerman's screenplay contains many quotable lines of dialogue.
The entire cast is first-rate, with Calhoun delivering a solemn, contemplative performance as the South Carolina-bred, former Confederate officer turned melancholy gambler/gunman. If course, drawing comparisons between Brett Wade and Doc Holiday is inevitable. Meanwhile, Alex Nichol of "The Man From Laramie" gives Wade a hard time as an alcoholic, conscience stricken gunslinger named Jimmy Rapp, loosely based on real-life desperado Johnny Ringo. David Brian of "The Springfield Rifle" wants to see Wade dead, too. As Dick Braden, he operates the biggest casino in Socorro and lets Jimmy Rapp gulp his fill of booze. Edgar Buchanan is a nervy town marshal who wants to get Wade off onto the train to Colorado Springs before he shoots up Socorro. Finally, Piper Laurie of "Carrie" plays a daughter who's Puritan, suspicious-minded father has disowned and branded a 'Jezebel." Braden has hired her to work in his casino and distract his patrons with her feminine wiles so they will drink more and lose more at the gambling tables. The lives of these characters intertwine throughout this taunt 80 minute epic that doesn't look like the average 1950s' horse opera.