Firecreek (1968) – full review!
Firecreek (1968) – full review!
Directed by Vincent McEveety with a screenplay by Calvin Clements (Sr.) this relatively unknown Western is an unheralded gem a High Noon (1952) type story appropriately featuring James Stewart in the everyman role that won Gary Cooper his second Best Actor Oscar on his last Academy Award nomination. Henry Fonda plays the leader of the gang that disrupts the titled town where farmer Stewart is the part time sheriff who ultimately must decide whether to stand up to them alone. The rest of the cast includes a veritable who’s who of (Western) character actors like Inger Stevens Gary Lockwood Dean Jagger Ed Begley Jay Flippen Jack Elam James Best Morgan Woodward Louise Latham and even John Qualen. These veterans provide rich characterizations some with few words. Though downbeat in tone and containing some uncomfortable scenes (this film is not rated) the movie and its message will satisfy those who stick with it through its deliberate pacing.
Johnny Cobb (Stewart) has two young boys and a wife named Henrietta (Jacqueline Scott) who’s about to give birth to their third child. Henrietta’s time is near and the Cobb’s neighbor Dulcie (Latham) a midwife advises Johnny to take himself and the boys into town; she also asks him to take her comely blonde teenage daughter Leah (Brooke Bundy) with them. Dulcie doesn’t have much patience for menfolk in fact she seems to despise them (her husband probably abandoned her) which makes her rather stern when dealing with Leah who had just met lecherous Earl (Lockwood) and Earl Norman (Elam) members of Bob Larkin’s (Fonda) gang of otherwise unattached gunmen. Larkin arrived just in time to save her from an unpleasant fate (and possible gang rape).
Leah Cobb and his youngsters get into town and deliver hay to the stables shortly before Larkin and his men arrive. Initially the gang’s plan is to resupply and allow their leader to get a few hours rest; he’d been wounded shot in his left side. However one thing leads to another and the gunmen end up running roughshod over the town. Only Cobb and a dim-witted young man who idolizes him named Arthur (J. Robert Porter a James Dean lookalike) seem willing to stand up to the ruffians; the passive ‘sod-buster’ Cobb who’s the town’s $2/month sheriff only reluctantly gets involved when urged by Arthur and shopkeeper Hall (Qualen). Young Earl is the hothead whose actions lead to the downward spiral of events in town which begin with a fight between he and Drew (Best) a giggling crazy blue-eyed member of the gang whose actions towards Meli (Luna) lead to tragedy (for himself and later Arthur).
Inger Stevens plays her stereotypical cool blonde this one named Evelyn Pittman who spends time with Larkin while his men slip further and further out of his control like a greased pig. Flippen plays her father an aged cripple who owns the flophouse. Jagger plays Whittier the merchant whose store is used for church services when Preacher Broyles (Begley) is in town. Cautious Whittier later speaks the truth that Cobb doesn’t want hear but which energizes him to act. In the end there’s a showdown between the lawman and the gunman Stewart and Fonda naturally the former having earned the respect of the latter who’d rather not be forced to end the less qualified if resourceful Cobb’s life.
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