Stars: Robert Walker, Burt Lancaster
Best Quote: I always heard you were a pretty good saloon fighter, Herb. How are you without a bottle or a knife?
There's nothing wrong with Vengeance Valley its just a very short (82 minutes) average Western with a melodramatic plot, standard characters, and two leads who don't seem very "Western" or dynamic. This is one of Burt's most generic roles. He's just the straight-forward "Good Cowboy**" and he's very dull in the role. Walker is much better as the villain, but he's no Cowboy, and looks uncomfortable in the saddle.
But after all, its a MGM movie and they never did Westerns right. At times, it seems more like a documentary about ranch work and cattle herding or a travelogue of Colorado scenery then a Western. There's little action and what we do get (at the end) its extremely bland.
The Ending Action Scene
Its completely standard - and filmed without any zest or pizazz. Two bad guys with *pistols* ambush Burt while he's riding with Walker. He gets winged in the arm, falls off his horse and then dives under a big rock. The bad guys - behind bigger rocks - shoot at Lancaster. He shoots back. Eventually, one baddie tries to outflank Burt and take him from the side. Burt sees him, and shoots him dead, with a pistol at 50 yards. The other Baddie gets scared and runs off. Burt then gets on his horse, chases after Walker. After catching up with him, Walker draws on Burt and gets killed. The End. There's zero tension and we're so diffident about both characters we don't really care.
Summary: A tepid, forgettable movie - it played better when released. In 1951, there were no TV Westerns, and very few Technicolor ones, so MGM made quite a bit of money. And this movie proved Manhattan-born Lancaster could ride tall in the saddle.
** - Absurdly, Lancaster would later describe it as a "John Wayne Role" - a slow-acting, slow-thinking Cowboy. Sorry Burt, Wayne was never this boring.
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