Rating: C
Dir: Beau Yotty
Star: Beau Yotty, Lisa Barnes, John Marrs, Sky Donovan
I’m kinda surprised it took Yotty five movies before he got round to making a fully-fledged Western. After all, this is a man who wrote a book called Modern Cowboy, and apparently is a descendant of Buffalo Bill Cody. You’d think it would be right in his wheel-house, rather than only deciding to do this after making several features more in the horror and action genres. Here we are though, and after the pot-hole in his development which was Big Cat Trail, it’s clear that Yotty has a great deal of affection for the field. That certainly helps, though it’s fair to say this can only take a movie so far.
Events take place in 1873, and tell the story of two bounty-hunters, Belle MacLure (Barnes) and William Cole (Yotty). They initially tussle gently over outlaws and the ensuing reward in the mining boom town of Black Rock. However, Cole’s actions in particular bring him the enmity of local cattle baron and all-around lowlife, Clayton (Marrs). He tries to hire MacLure to capture Cole and bring him back so an example can be made. However, she is actually after the bounty on the head of his newly-arrived hired gun, a man known only as the Easterner (Donovan). Cole also has an interest in the Easterner, though it’s considerably more personal and less financial. Naturally, a team-up is on the cards, though with the local sheriff entirely useless, they quickly discover they’re on their own.
The main positive here, is that the actors mostly seem well cast for their roles. Yotty has the look of a heroic bounty-hunter, more concerned about righting wrongs than collecting rewards. On the other end, Donovan is genuinely creepy, looking as much like a Victorian funeral director as a killer for hire, and draws the eye whenever he’s on screen. Barnes is a little less assured, and probably needs a harder edge to her character, given the era in which she was operating. Belle sometimes feels closer to a schoolma’am than a bounty-hunter. But you know me: I’m a sucker for an action heroine, so am prepared to cut her the necessary slack. [Five films in, it’s also kinda fun to realize I’m recognizing members of the Yotty Repertory Company!]
Filmed mostly at Gammons Gulch Movie Set in Benson, this does feel too clean-cut to be 19th-century Arizona. The saloon, for example, would likely receive an “A” grade from health inspectors, and everyone seems to be in possession of their own teeth. The main problem though, is action which is blandly uninteresting, and sometimes downright laughable. At one point, our pair of bounty-hunters stand still in the middle of the street and just blaze away at their target. This will feel familiar to any eight-year-old kids in the audience, as will the deaths: clap a hand to your chest, and fall slowly to the floor, without any blood in sight. There’s not much tension or excitement to be found here, yet it’s definitely not as aggressively incompetent as Big Cat Trail, and I’ve seen far worse Westerns.