For any fans of actress Colleen Miller, you have come to the right movie. Miller looks gorgeous, cinematographer Russell Metty filmed her as if she was a model at a fashion shoot. Now for the debit side of the ledger: this Western is a badly done copycat of other movies. Copying "Winchester '73," there is an interior scene at an isolated road house called "La Tienda" (remember "Riker's" ?) where John McIntire's character is playing solitaire in the background. Miller's character is traveling with her old codger father (Walter Brennan) in a set-up just like "Along The Great Divide," where old codger Brennan plays the father of character Ann Keith (played by another beautiful actress, Virginia Mayo). Star Rory Calhoun plays the leader of a bunch of incompetent outlaws who never make it close to the border. Two of the outlaws, George Nader and Jay Silverheels, engage in some rough housing that seems rather strange considering Nader's Hollywood career crashing after Confidential magazine outed him. Silverheels' part playing a dimwit Indian is an racist offense against this fine actor. And what of the Indians who go on the warpath and charge head on into rifle fire? Universal-International (U-I) was a studio that made crap Westerns in the 1950s marked by real cheapness. "Winchester '73" and "Man Without A Star" were exceptions because of these movies' big stars. Too bad Colleen Miller bailed out of making movies after her experience at U-I.
Review of Four Guns to the Border
