It’s strange the way a modest Universal-International western can somehow encapsulate just about all the most important themes that propelled the genre to greatness in its heyday. Yet, in another way, it’s perhaps also appropriate this should be true of a movie starring Audie Murphy and coming at a point in time close to the end of what can now be regarded as the golden age of the western. Seven Ways from Sundown (1960) weaves threads incorporating such ideas as the gradual taming of the West, Fordian notions of printing the legend, sacrifice, and of course redemption into the fabric of its consistently entertaining sub-90 minute running time.
I like it when a movie pitches us right into the action. Seven Ways from Sundown opens with a shootout and the fire that ensues. The man responsible for this mayhem is Jim Flood (Barry Sullivan) and it’s soon established that he’s a man with an impressively fearsome reputation. Riding into the aftermath of Flood’s handiwork and drawing the ire of the exasperated townsfolk is an unsuspecting Texas Ranger rookie with the unique and memorable name of Seven Jones (Audie Murphy) – all the members of his family were unimaginatively named numerically, although his mother apparently tried to add some individual character and color by extending it to Seven Ways from Sundown Jones. His first assignment as a Ranger is to accompany a veteran sergeant, Hennessy (John McIntire), and effect the arrest of Flood. At this point the viewers are let in on a piece of information that Jones is not privy to, namely that Flood killed his elder brother. When Jones later catches up with Flood and sets about the laborious and perilous task of seeing him returned to face justice this hidden fact adds an anticipatory edge to the drama and alters the dynamic of the narrative to an extent. Suspense, guilt and the hint of another mystery are drawn into the story, further enriching it. This fluid, shifting quality is heightened and gains greater significance as we witness Flood’s roguish self-awareness slowly charm the simple and straightforward Jones. All told, it sets up a climax that manages to be at once fitting, affecting and satisfying.
Seven Ways from Sundown has what might be termed an interesting background. It was written by Clair Huffaker (Posse from Hell, Rio Conchos), adapted from his own novel and so has a solid pedigree to start off. A bit of browsing around the internet reveals that the movie was initially directed by George Sherman till an apparently serious row with Audie Murphy lead to Sherman’s departure and his replacement by Harry Keller (Quantez, Six Black Horses, Man Afraid). I’ve not been able to find a source for this though, nor have I managed to ascertain exactly how much of Sherman’s footage (if any) remains in the picture. The arc traced by the story and indeed the ethical journey undertaken by the main characters certainly seem like the kind of material that would have appealed to Sherman and which he would have handled with his customary sensitivity; the short interlude with the hero worshiping youngster, the brief yet still poignant moments spent over the old Ranger’s grave, as well as the low key romance with Venetia Stevenson all feel like the kind of thing Sherman would have relished.
Audie Murphy was doing some terrific work around this time – Posse from Hell, Hell Bent for Leather, The Unforgiven, No Name on the Bullet to name just a few westerns, as well as The Quiet American, every one of which are high quality movies. I would rate Seven Ways from Sundown as belonging up among his best movies, not necessarily due to Murphy’s own performance, which is perfectly fine, but more for the film that is built around it. Murphy plays it fresh and innocent even though he had over a decade’s worth of movies behind him at that point, and the contrast between the mentality and viewpoints of Jones and Flood is indicative of a West that was nearing a turning point. Murphy’s Ranger is open-hearted and honest, brimming with optimism and faith in man’s better nature, whereas Flood’s knowing charm masks if not cynicism then a touch of regret and an awareness that drifts near and flirts with an acknowledgement of the fact that his time is short. By the time this film was made change was in the air, the following decade would see the number of westerns produced drop off and a discernible shift in tone within a few years. Maybe this is not overtly expressed, but hints of it are there should you care to look for them.
Seven Ways from Sundown came out only a few years after Barry Sullivan had taken leading roles in westerns such as Dragoon Wells Massacre and Forty Guns, but it more or less marked the end of his time in such headline parts and he would shortly embark upon a two season run on television playing Pat Garrett in The Tall Man and then drift into supporting/character roles. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but I like to think his actions in the last reel represent something of a redemptive sacrifice when he’s confronted with both the impact of his actions and the realization that he’s finally running out of road – this complements and builds naturally on the moment of dreadful guilt that washed over him earlier when he understood that he had taken the life of an old friend. Venetia Stevenson, daughter of John Ford favorite Anna Lee and director Robert Stevenson, is someone I remember most for Day of the Outlaw and the effective low budget horror movie The City of the Dead. She shares a few good moments with Murphy, particularly towards the end when she puts him straight on the danger posed by Flood’s recklessness and then becomes an unwitting catalyst for the tragic yet apt climax. John McIntire could generally be relied upon to provide a touch of class to any movie and he does so here as Flood’s former associate. It’s a quiet performance and quite a touching one.
Seven Ways from Sundown has had a few releases on DVD in various European countries although I don’t think any of them present the movie in its correct widescreen ratio – it ought to be 1.85:1. I’ve certainly never seen it in anything other than open-matte, which while not ideal is at least better than a cropped version. All told, I consider it to be a superior Audie Murphy vehicle buoyed up by an eye-catching turn from Barry Sullivan that contains a generous measure of depth and subtlety.
Riding the High Country 
This sounds great Colin. Off I go to track it down…
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I hope you enjoy it when you do so, though I feel fairly confident you will. I think it’s a little gem of a movie.
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Pingback: Seven Ways from Sundown | Riding the High Country – Audie Murphy Appreciation
I too highly recommend this superior Murphy Western.
Harry Keller was an interesting journeyman director or gun for hire if you will. He hit the ground running with the excellent Republic Noir THE BLONDE BANDIT a film stacked with twists and a deeply ironic ending. The follow up TARNISHED with the same female lead (Dorothy Patrick) is said to be even better. We live in hope these little gems will turn up on a Kino Noir set or perhaps one from Australia’s Imprint.
His later Universal Noir MAN AFRAID is also very good and the much sought after Western DAY OF THE BADMAN only seems to exist as a 4×3 with the master CinemaScope elements on the missing list. Keller’s SIX BLACK HORSES reputedly a Burt Kennedy script left over from the Ranown series is only available,to my knowledge, as a Dutch import and rather murky looking
Perhaps,if by some miracle, decent copies of the two Westerns surfaced as well as copies of the two Republic Noirs Keller might be due greater respect.
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I like Six Black Horses, it’s not perfect of course but it got Murphy and Duryea, some good locations, and that script with Kennedy’s characteristic dialogue. There have been a few versions in a number of European countries but all of them appear to be taken from the same indifferent print. It deserves better treatment.
Of Harry Keller’s other movies, I also enjoyed The Unguarded Moment and The Female Animal, and Voice in the Mirror looks like it might be interesting if a decent print were to turn up.
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In my view The Female Animal is a movie that deserves a lot more love. It surprises me that it’s so often dismissed as camp (which just reminds me how much I despise the term camp). It is melodrama, but it’s nicely executed melodrama. Great Hedy Lamarr performance.
I liked The Unguarded Moment as well.
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The Female Animal was included by Arrow in their last, very attractive, film noir box, alongside Calcutta, Ride the Pink Horse and Outside the Law so it’s stock has probably risen somewhat.
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I’ve had this one on my hard drive for quite some time without knowing whether it’d be worth it to watch. Guess I know what I’m doing with an upcoming spare evening! 🙂
Six Black Horses is quite good, too, although watching it gives the vague impression that it would have preferred Jimmy Stewart/Anthony Mann.
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I could kind of see that working as Mann/Stewart vehicle now that you mention it.
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A superior Audie Murphy western? That definitely gets my attention. I wonder if there’s any chance Kino Lorber will release another Audie Murphy boxed set including this one?
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It may depend on how well that set sold. But yes, there is scope for another one and Seven Ways from Sundown a well as Six Black Horses would be worthwhile releases.
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I think they’ve now released three Audie Murphy sets so they put bee selling quite well.
What I like about these Kino Lorber sets is that the prices are not exorbitant. I bought one of their film noir sets the other day. It worked out at least than twenty dollars a movie. In Australia these days that’s way cheaper than average. It means it’s worth taking a risk on a set that includes one or more really obscure movies.
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Kino’s output, both the sets and individual releases, over the last few years has been remarkable in terms of depth. There’s something so gratifying just knowing that it will soon be possible to view films like Finger Man, Saigon and The Unseen via scrubbed up prints.
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One of the things I like about 50s westerns is – proper acting rather than tortured contrived Method acting. Guys like James Stewart, John Wayne, Joel McCrea, Glenn Ford, Randolph Scott, Audie Murphy just acted. They didn’t need phoney histrionics.
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Not a fan of the Method myself, too often it seemed to me it ended up achieving the opposite of what was intended by drawing attention to itself. Of course some people employed it more successfully and effectively than others, Clift for example.
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Yes, that’s my feeling as well. If you don’t consciously notice that someone is acting that probably means you’re watching a very good actor.
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The mystery of WordPress-I normally sign myself as john k but now wordpress spells out my name-all lower case but at least my comments are getting through unlike the lamented Jerry who’s far more of a techie than me and is sorely missed on these pages. If an uber Luddite like me can post comments why not tech wizard Jerry? Strange World Indeed!
As mentioned before I hope both Kino and Australia’s superb Imprint continue to release Republic material especially their B Noirs which are generally amazing. Kino got badly burned with their Republic Westerns so no more of them and Imprint have no interest in 50’s Westerns unless it’s a tentpole attraction like LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL.
It’s very hard to find pristine copies of Republic B Thrillers on the “collectors” market because TCM do not show them and TCM transmissions are superb the logo only appears occasionally and from what I’ve seen TCM USA must be a HD channel. The Republic titles released by Kino and Imprint show that the master material is in very good shape unlike, sadly many of the Monogram masters. I wonder what’s going to happen to many of the Monogram titles Warners own now that they are Blu Ray only and come to that there are still many tasty Monogram titles now owned by MGM/UA and Paramount/Republic.
At least several of these Monogram titles turn up on TCM which.I guess is the only way we are going to get to see them. Most Republic B Thrillers have something going for them and most punch way above their weight TRAIN TO ALCATRAZ is a little gem with a superb cast and pacing a one hour thrill ride.
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John, WordPress can be very odd at times – it didn’t use to be and I’m not at all happy with some of the developments that have been rolled out. As a site owner I still use the old editing software to compose posts as I’ve never been able to get a handle on the newer version they try to push. Were that facility to disappear, then that would be it as far as I’m concerned. I also miss Jerry and his always welcome contributions, I’m sure others feel the same.
As for lesser titles slipping through the cracks, I’m not sure we need worry too much. Most material will get some kind of clean up if at all possible for broadcast purposes if nothing else.
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Unfortunately having them only on TCM means that if you’re in a country like Australia you will simply never get to see these movies.
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I don’t have TCM but many TCM transmissions are appearing on the “collectors” market and generally they are in very good shape. Recently I’ve done something I said I would never do and that is source titles from the Digital Underground for want of a better term.At my age there’s just so many movies I’d love to see before The Grim Reaper comes a knocking. I still refuse to watch CinemaScope films in the4x3 ratio and avoid color titles but old B & W films often scrub up nicely when shown on the likes of TCM. Finding good copies of vintage Fox titles is very hard and now even harder now Disney has taken over.
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It all comes down to availability, doesn’t it? Once a movie has undergone a clean up and been given a new master for broadcast packages, it will inevitably turn up in a number of places and won’t be confined to just one or two channels.
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I’m sure Jerry is keeping up with all of this.
I’ve just name dropped him over at Toby’s H8 where another “Desperado Waiting For A Train” Mike has re-surfaced. Apologies to Guy Clark.
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Yes, must drop him a line actually.
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Great post Colin 🙂 Seven Ways from Sundown has many worthy moments 🙂 Speaking of Audie Murphy, did you ever see that 1952 western directed by Budd Boetticher entitled The Cimarron Kid, which was another western that starred Audie Murphy? I loved it and as you know, Boetticher is known today for those 1950’s westerns he directed starring Randolph Scott 🙂
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Yes, I have seen The Cimarron Kid, John, a few times actually. I enjoyed it too and I typically get on well with Universal-International westerns of that vintage. Murphy was settling into acting nicely by that time, and this was his third take on a famous outlaw in quick succession after playing Jesse James and Billy the Kid.
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Pretty much all of us here love watching westerns, but what about reading them? I assume we have some keen fans of western fiction?
How do you think the movie westerns of the “golden age” stack up against western novels of that era?
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That’s a good question, but probably one I’m not best placed to answer as I’ve not read much western fiction for a while now – not a conscious decision on my part, just a matter of other stuff getting in the way and/or taking my attention. However, I have a reasonable selection always enjoyed it. It has fallen out of favor or fashion somewhat and is not visible in the way it once was. I remember how it was common to see titles on paperback racks in newsagents and the like (just typing the word newsagent feels old now!) when I was growing up back in the 1970s although admittedly a lot of that would have been J T Edson or George G Gilman fare, the type of pulpy, exploitative material that can’t have done the genre any favors.
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Yes, the western is one of a number of pulp fiction genres that are now out of favour. I wonder if people don’t want to read them, or publishers just don’t want to publish them because they’re “problematic” or “dated” or whatever?
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I imagine publishers will print whatever they think will sell. So my hunch is that the genre has simply fewer fans nowadays. Of course there is still western fiction being published, just not as widely as was once the case.
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From what I hear from people who have been involved in that world that’s not how publishing works these days. Publishers publish whatever they find politically acceptable. If you’re not politically acceptable you don’t get published.
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Not just publishers, but film and television people as well. You have it nailed.
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I’ve been getting lots of recommendations from people for Donald Hamilton’s westerns. Since I love his Matt Helm novels (which are very gritty and realistic and very very different from the films) I’m tempted to sample some of them.
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