Cropped screenshot of Randolph Scott from the trailer for the film Follow the Fleet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Budd Boetticher’s candy-colored Western, Decision at Sundown (1957), is a fine movie. It presents us with Randolph Scott aiming to kill the man with whom his wife, before committing suicide, had an affair. But Bart Allison (Scott’s character) is misguided, intent on dueling when, in this instance, the act would be stone foolish.
The tale is smart, the characters interesting, and the scene rhythms suitable as the film earnestly concentrates on men being forced to see their own lack of virtue. The acting, including that of Scott despite his stiffness, is good. True, some of it comes close to being phoned in, but it generally rises above such a level and is realistically restrained.
