Director Alfred L. Werker's "Three Hours to Kill" is a solid, well-made, unpretentious, but formulaic mystery-on-the-range horse opera that clocks in at a trim 77 minutes with sturdy performances from a veteran cast including Dana Andrews, Donna Reed, Whit Bissell,and Stephen Elliot. Carolyn Jones appears in a peripheral role sporting blonde curls. The only thing missing from this suspenseful western is an opening credits ballad, otherwise it is as 50s as a 1950s western can get. Producer Harry Joe Brown, who specialized in Randolph Scott oaters, doesn't stiff on anything where production values are concerned and ace cinematographer Charles Lawton, Jr., who also lensed his share of Scott westerns, such as "Hangman's Knot," "Man in the Saddle," and "Comanche Station" as well as a couple of Glenn Ford frontier sagas like "3:10 to Yuma" and "Cowboy," gives this dust-raiser a colorful leathery look that adds to the picture's overall sense of authenticity.
Dana Andrews plays Jim Guthrie, an accused killer who has been on the lam for three years, who decides to ride back to the town that he once called home. He discusses his dark past with the town marshal, Bob (Stephen Elliot of "Beverly Hills Cop"), who gives him until sundown to clear up his affairs. Nobody in town is happy to see Jim. Two ranchers run into him at a waterhole and ride clear of him. Jim wears a gun. Before he got into trouble with the law, he rode shotgun for the stagecoach line. It seems that Jim was on the road to a long, happy life with his girl Laurie (Donna Reed of "From Here to Eternity") until her brother Carter (Richard Webb of "The Nebraskan") intervened the night of a big dance in town and beat Jim to a pulp. When Jim recovered, he found Carter lying face down in the dirt with two bloody bullet holes in his back. Jim found the murder weapon, a derringer that he had drawn earlier on Carter, but Carter knocked it out of his hand. Everybody heard the two shots, and Deke (Whit Bissell of "The Magnificent Seven") saw Jim standing over Carter's corpse with the murder weapon. The townspeople lynch Jim. They loop the noose around his neck, hurl the hemp over a tree branch, and boost him up onto a buckboard. They are about to hang him when Laurie intervenes and fires a gun that she appropriates from a bystander. The horses spook and careen through town with Jim floundering in the wagon bed struggling to slip the noose off. As the two horses rampage through town, the rope repeatedly snags on something and Jim has a hell of a time before he manages to get the rope off his badly burned neck. All along Jim protested his innocence before the townspeople but they gave into their mob instincts and went ahead with the lynching. Now, as Jim tells the town marshal, he is back to find the man who really killed Carter Mastin and let him shoulder the blame.
Dana Andrews is perfectly cast as the wronged hero. One of Andrews' first movies was most famous western lynch drama "The Ox-Bow Incident" where he was not lynched and hanged by a mob. Anytime that an actor plays a role similar to an earlier one, that actor has a better change of convincing us that he is right for the role. Andrews makes a decent, compassionate hero who refuses to let the past die, even after his friend the town marshal warns him that the sheriff is on the way to arrest him. Nevertheless, Jim intends to prove his innocence.
The literate screenplay by Richard Allen Simmons of "Yellow Tomahawk" and Roy Huggins of "Hangman's Knot" slowly lets the pressure build to the boiling point as heroic Jim Guthrie searches for the killer. Guthrie learns to his chagrin that the girl he wanted to wed, Laurie, has married another man, Niles Hendricks (Richard Coogan of TV's "Captain Video" fame). Hendricks is the local banker. He was going to sell Jim a ranch so Jim could settle down with Laurie. Before they got into a slugfest, Carter told Jim that Niles would never sell him the ranch. Consequently, Jim is as suspicious of Niles as any of the others; Niles participated in the lynching. At this point, Niles wants Jim dead, too, but largely because Laurie has never gotten Jim out of her heart. It seems that Laurie and Jim engaged in pre-marital sex and Laurie was pregnant with her son about the same time that the townspeople lynched Jim and tried to hang him. Eventually, Jim learns that truth that Laurie's boy is actually his son.
"Three Hours to Kill" is another one of those 1950s westerns with a time imposed deadline. Dana Andrews is well cast as Jim Guthrie. Richard Coogan and he have a terrific, knock-down, drag-out fist fight that tumbles their obvious stuntmen stand-ins down a brush covered slope. This taut little oater never loses sight of its plot, but it relents somewhat in the end. Of course, the Production Code Administration would never let the hero break up a marriage if they had any say, and our heroine Laurie decides to stand by the man that she didn't love because he has been so patient. As Jim rides out of town alone at the end, a red-haired beauty Chris Palmer (Diane Foster of "The Violent Men") rides out to join him. Although Jim is punished for having pre-marital sex with Laurie, he compensates enough for his misdeed by letting go of Laurie and his own son and leaving town. Only after he has proved his merit does society allow him to have a woman of his own. "Three Hours to Kill" doesn't rank as a classic, or a near classic, but it is an entertaining vintage western with strong production values and a worthwhile cast.
Dana Andrews plays Jim Guthrie, an accused killer who has been on the lam for three years, who decides to ride back to the town that he once called home. He discusses his dark past with the town marshal, Bob (Stephen Elliot of "Beverly Hills Cop"), who gives him until sundown to clear up his affairs. Nobody in town is happy to see Jim. Two ranchers run into him at a waterhole and ride clear of him. Jim wears a gun. Before he got into trouble with the law, he rode shotgun for the stagecoach line. It seems that Jim was on the road to a long, happy life with his girl Laurie (Donna Reed of "From Here to Eternity") until her brother Carter (Richard Webb of "The Nebraskan") intervened the night of a big dance in town and beat Jim to a pulp. When Jim recovered, he found Carter lying face down in the dirt with two bloody bullet holes in his back. Jim found the murder weapon, a derringer that he had drawn earlier on Carter, but Carter knocked it out of his hand. Everybody heard the two shots, and Deke (Whit Bissell of "The Magnificent Seven") saw Jim standing over Carter's corpse with the murder weapon. The townspeople lynch Jim. They loop the noose around his neck, hurl the hemp over a tree branch, and boost him up onto a buckboard. They are about to hang him when Laurie intervenes and fires a gun that she appropriates from a bystander. The horses spook and careen through town with Jim floundering in the wagon bed struggling to slip the noose off. As the two horses rampage through town, the rope repeatedly snags on something and Jim has a hell of a time before he manages to get the rope off his badly burned neck. All along Jim protested his innocence before the townspeople but they gave into their mob instincts and went ahead with the lynching. Now, as Jim tells the town marshal, he is back to find the man who really killed Carter Mastin and let him shoulder the blame.
Dana Andrews is perfectly cast as the wronged hero. One of Andrews' first movies was most famous western lynch drama "The Ox-Bow Incident" where he was not lynched and hanged by a mob. Anytime that an actor plays a role similar to an earlier one, that actor has a better change of convincing us that he is right for the role. Andrews makes a decent, compassionate hero who refuses to let the past die, even after his friend the town marshal warns him that the sheriff is on the way to arrest him. Nevertheless, Jim intends to prove his innocence.
The literate screenplay by Richard Allen Simmons of "Yellow Tomahawk" and Roy Huggins of "Hangman's Knot" slowly lets the pressure build to the boiling point as heroic Jim Guthrie searches for the killer. Guthrie learns to his chagrin that the girl he wanted to wed, Laurie, has married another man, Niles Hendricks (Richard Coogan of TV's "Captain Video" fame). Hendricks is the local banker. He was going to sell Jim a ranch so Jim could settle down with Laurie. Before they got into a slugfest, Carter told Jim that Niles would never sell him the ranch. Consequently, Jim is as suspicious of Niles as any of the others; Niles participated in the lynching. At this point, Niles wants Jim dead, too, but largely because Laurie has never gotten Jim out of her heart. It seems that Laurie and Jim engaged in pre-marital sex and Laurie was pregnant with her son about the same time that the townspeople lynched Jim and tried to hang him. Eventually, Jim learns that truth that Laurie's boy is actually his son.
"Three Hours to Kill" is another one of those 1950s westerns with a time imposed deadline. Dana Andrews is well cast as Jim Guthrie. Richard Coogan and he have a terrific, knock-down, drag-out fist fight that tumbles their obvious stuntmen stand-ins down a brush covered slope. This taut little oater never loses sight of its plot, but it relents somewhat in the end. Of course, the Production Code Administration would never let the hero break up a marriage if they had any say, and our heroine Laurie decides to stand by the man that she didn't love because he has been so patient. As Jim rides out of town alone at the end, a red-haired beauty Chris Palmer (Diane Foster of "The Violent Men") rides out to join him. Although Jim is punished for having pre-marital sex with Laurie, he compensates enough for his misdeed by letting go of Laurie and his own son and leaving town. Only after he has proved his merit does society allow him to have a woman of his own. "Three Hours to Kill" doesn't rank as a classic, or a near classic, but it is an entertaining vintage western with strong production values and a worthwhile cast.