Taggart

One of those movies where you get the impression you would have been better off reading the (Louis L'Amour) book. Shoot a gun, the horse throws his rider. Crack shots from people firing a revolver. Often while riding a horse. I watched it because I was reading David Carradine's Endless Highway autobiography, and it's his first film. He looks sufficiently evil, so I did enjoy parts.

Tony Young's family is killed and his cattle stampeded by Emile Meyer, Young gets him in a fair fight, but since he's the villain, he doesn't care about the niceties. He offers gabby gunslinger Dan Duryea a lot of money to kill Young, driving him into the desert and Apache attack. Although Young is top-billed, it's Duryea who commands the audience's excellent attention. This late Shaky A western is well directed by R. G. Springsteen, with some great Technicolor camerawork by Wiliam Margulies. It's the penultimate film for former B heart throb Dick Foran, and the first for David Carradine.

The Taggarts' story about being new ranch owners "squatting" on Ben Blazer's land could have been better developed. Tony Young's handsome Taggart stumbles across the pretty Miriam, daughter of a gold miner at a nearby mission. Taggart & Miriam could have had more meaningful dialogue since the writer gave hints of love interests by each character. BOO! To movie's ending which leaves Taggart & Miriam staring at each other! 🤦

One of those movies where you get the impression you would have been better off reading the (Louis L'Amour) book. Shoot a gun, the horse throws his rider. Crack shots from people firing a revolver. Often while riding a horse. I watched it because I was reading David Carradine's Endless Highway autobiography, and it's his first film. He looks sufficiently evil, so I did enjoy parts.

This is a mediocre low budget movie. The acting is OK including Tony Young as the lead but personally I find Dan Duryea really annoying in this one. As mentioned in other reviews there are a few familiar actors from the era. An abundance of stock footage takes away from the continuity and limits some of the action scenes. The plot starts out OK but then becomes somewhat weak and the ending rushed. It has a TV movie feel and definitely is a bottom rung B movie. OK to pass the time but that's all.

Copyright 13 March 1964 by Universal Pictures Company, Inc. New York opening on a double bill at the Palace and other theatres: 24 December 1964. U.S. release: 1 February 1965. U.K. release: 28 March 1965. 7,650 feet. 85 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Lone survivor of a family massacre is pursued by three hired gunmen into Apache territory. COMMENT: Making extensive use of action footage from some 3-D feature (Fort Ti?) for its Indians-attack-the-fort climax, Taggart is a reasonably actionful "B" western, with a strong if over-talkative villain (Dan Duryea), a commanding if too briefly observed heroine's dad (Dick Foran), and a quite pretty if late-entering female lead (Jean Hale). There are other interesting players as well, though I would exclude the somewhat surly Tony Young, who seems to have only the one expression and to deliver his lines in a similar monotone. Springsteen's direction and other credits are competent enough. The editor has done a reasonable job splicing in the stock material of cattle rustling and fort storming which gives the movie the air of a fair-sized budget. The story is developed somewhat along television lines with our hunted hero involved in three different encounters. The first is with a widow desperately trying to make a go at being a bar-girl -- an appealing portrait here by Claudia Barrett. Fans will recognise Bob Steele in a fleeting part as the Taggart cook. Aside from the stock footage, lots of dialogue, repetitious and/or fixed camera positions, Taggart has other "B"-picture stratagems including the novel idea of having the hero remonstrate (at length of course) with his dad for not hiring enough men! It's a pity that some of this ingenuity wasn't devoted to developing and motivating the character played by Elsa Cardenas. This lack of conviction undermines the impact of the climax considerably.

Director R.G. Springsteen spent many years at Republic Pictures turning out efficient little B westerns, and his expertise is evident in this crisp, sharp little western. From around 1960 to about 1966 Universal churned out a stream of quickie westerns, most of them run-of-the-mill at best and low-grade junk at worst. This tight little oater, however, falls into neither category. A cast of western veterans like Emile Meyer, Ray Teal, Dick Foran and the great Dan Duryea, and a more than competent leading man in Tony Young, combine with a good story and Springsteen's firm hand to make this one of the best B westerns to come out of Universal in that period. Young plays Taggart, a man who gunned down the son of a powerful local rancher who led a gang that attacked his camp and murdered his parents. The dead son's dying father sends hired killers out to track down and kill Taggart. Fleeing through Apache territory, he comes to the aid of an old man and his daughter defending their gold mine against rampaging Indians. Young reminds you of Gary Cooper in his early years, although a bit more animated, and it's a shame his career never really went anywhere, as he's quite good in this (he also shot another western around this time, "He Rides Tall," and is equally as good in that one). Long-time cowboy actor Dick Foran plays the father, and the gorgeous Jean Hale--who years later married actor Dabney Coleman--is his daughter. The story is interesting, the scenery is pretty and Duryea is--as always--tremendous fun to watch. There's some sharp action, although a good chunk of it is obvious stock footage from other westerns, and things are resolved satisfactorily--though somewhat abruptly--at the end, something that didn't always happen in Universal's westerns of the period. All in all, a very watchable little B picture. You could do a lot worse than spending some time on this one.

This film started well and then got silly, as hero Taggart gets to meet four attractive well-coiffured women in a very short space of time, managing to keep clean-shaven when being pursued. Lifted from mediocrity by Dan Duryea (at his nastiest), several familiar support actors, and some good cinematography. The abandoned mission looked in very good shape.

The original L'Amour novel -- good. (I've read it -- you should to.) This screen play -- sketchy; the performance, story line not much better. I'm amazed this saw the light of the projection booth -- even in the mid-60's. Good character actors & D. Duryea turned in his patented wise-ass villain performance. If you're storm-stayed somewhere, trapped in your iron lung or otherwise immobilized -- it's better than infomercials (just). Otherwise, get a library card.

If wooden acting deserved an award, Tony Young would likely win it with this "movie". Duryea played his part well but he only shines when his part is not a one-dimensional killer like he had to portray here. The sets were obviously from other productions and were not convincing with the half-hearted attempts to change them into what the script asked for. A "run-down" salon barely hanging on was sure in a nice clean shape as was a supposed "ruined" mission that looked like it was a really nice house with a few fake branches strewn about. The one in the pool (that had a blue painted bottom to look deeper when filled) did not hid an obviously modern looking fake pool. The stock footage barely matched the sets (occasionally) and the inserted cannon shot close-ups were horrendously fake as were the wigs on the Indians. I'm really happy the actors were able to keep their clothes clean and even looking pressed. Even the Indians looked as if the regularly laundered their clothes (which looked as if they bought then in the "fake Indian" section at the local department store). Even the fight scenes seemed to have the actors sleepwalking and it seemed at points we saw the rehearsal because of the hesitancy as if the actors were waiting for direction or the other actor's move because they were still learning the choreographed moves of the scene The plaster fort was obviously fake because the plaster had seen better days in movies past and they did not bother to retouch the paint to cover up the white of the plaster that showed through everywhere. I really believed Springsteen made better movies but this was terrible and disappointing.