Convict Stage (1965) User Reviews

For a low-budget film, it was not that bad.

[kfo9494 · 6/10 · 26 January 2017]

This was another low budget western film that 20th Century made in the early and mid 60's to be shown as a double feature mostly at drive-in theaters. And yes, there are a few rough spots in this movie but overall it was not as bad as expected for a 'B' western. As usual the production features a few name actors and many newcomers which makes some of the scenes rather rocky to watch. But because of the western genre, it is easier to pass over the rough spots and make the picture entertaining as possible.

It is a rather simple plot as two young robbers, Jeb and Johnny Sims, has been arrested by the local Marshal. The Marshal wants to get the two criminals out of his territory because he knows that the two boys have many friends and will be wanting to spring them from jail. The Marshal is also dealing with a former gunslinger named Ben Lattimore. Ben's sister was killed by the two boys when they robbed a stage in the area. Lattimore is out for revenge.

The Marshal, with some help from a few people, are taking the boys to the territorial prison on the upcoming stagecoach. Lattimore gets word that the two are being transferred and he rides out to meet the stage. He wants the Marshal to release the boys so that he can take out his revenge. But when the two criminal's friends decide to free the boys, Lattimore may have to help the Marshal keep the prisoners in custody.

There is more to this tale as the wife of Lattimore is leaving him because Ben refuses to stop his gun-fighting. Also the mother of Jeb and Johnny is set on making sure that her boys are freed before they reach prison. Just by luck, or by simple writing, the two women land on the same stagecoach that the Marshal is transporting the prisoners.

Unlike others, I found this low-budget film to be watchable. Sure the acting was rough, the scenes were cheaply done and it seems that the main characters only receive flesh wounds while the no-names are killed with one easy shot -- but overall the viewer got exactly what was expected. The film was made to entertain audiences for an hour, it accomplished its task.

Late B Western with Sharp, Beautiful, Black&White Camerawork

[boblipton · 6/10 · 9 October 2018]

Some time ago, stage-coach-robbing brothers Joe Partridge and Eric Matthews killed Harry Lauter's sister. He has been chasing them since. Marshall Red Barry has captured them and is taking them to prison by stage, and Lauter means to exact vengeance, though his wife tells him she won't be there when he returns. Others are there, too. Hannah Hertelendy, the robbers' mother is on the stage, and a drummer with a very large pistol...

The American B western had vanished under the assault of television. In 1965, the TV western was not in great shape and there was still a market for the darker western. 20th Century-Fox could always use one to offer for double or triple features, and if you could keep the budget down, you could give some professionals jobs and make yourself a few dollars, just like in the old days of the cinematic west. And that is what this was: classic, simple story, competent actors (mostly; I think Jodi Mitchell as Barry's wife offers poor line readings), some decent direction by Lesley Selander and the wide-open camerawork that was often the best part of the old B Western.

In many ways, it looks like a large and gracefully shot, serious episode of a TV western. It is distinguished by Gordon Avil's black-and-white cinematography of the badlands near Kanab, Utah -- John Ford Country, but contrary to legend, a lot of people shot westerns there. Lynn Reynolds was the first in 1924, a decade and a half before Ford first went there for DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. Avil was born in Philadelphia in 1899. His career as a cinematographer began in 1929. By 1930, he had worked on King Vidor's BILLY THE KID. In 1931, it was THE CHAMP, again for Vidor. Then his screen credits vanished for 16 years. He returned to the camera in B movies and television work. After camerawork on a third of the episodes of HOGAN'S HEROES, he retired. He died of a heart attack in the Barbados in 1970.

The Stages of a Convict

[Oslo_Jargo · 5/10 · 6 October 2018]

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

*Plot analyzed*

Convict Stage is from 1965 but it looks like it is from 1955. Two violent bandit brothers rob a stage and kill everyone, including a woman. She dots down the name of them in the dirt, and her brother Ben Lattimore wants vengeance.

The mother of the bandit brothers shoots him a few times riding after them, but I guess he recovers.

The brothers are caught eventually and are to be hauled on a stage by a sheriff, from Prescott Arizona to Apache Wells, then to the territorial prison. On the stage is the mother of the bandit brothers, who plans to help them escape, and a few others, including a white guy who talks like some Indian and has a name of "Paiute". Southern Paiute Indians were from Northern Arizona, Southern Nevada, and Southwestern Utah. I don't know about him at all, as he's really annoying. They hole-up at some ghost town and await the uncle of the bandit brothers to save the bandit brothers.

It's all average stuff but has some interesting black and white ambiguity going on. The ending is ludicrous though.

Routine, Saddle-Sore Horse Opera with Few Surprises

[zardoz-13 · 2/10 · 30 October 2010]

"Convict Stage" qualifies as a predictable, saddle-sore, law and order sagebrusher about a revenge-driven pistolero who wants to kill the two outlaws who murdered his sister. Basically, nothing new or exciting occurs in this title-tells-all oater. Seasoned character actor Harry Lauter received top billing over former B-movie western hero Don 'Red' Barry. "Convict Stage" is only for die-hard frontier movie fans who want to round up as many western actors as they can. Neither the presence of veteran western director Lesley Selander nor on location lensing in Kanab, Utah, is enough to make this dreary outdoor adventure captivating.

This lumbering, loquacious, low-budget western opens with two young trigger-happy outlaws, Jeb Sims (Joe Patridge of "The Hypnotic Eye") and Johnny Sims (Eric Matthews of "End of August"), appropriating the strong box from a stagecoach at gunpoint that they have halted in the middle of nowhere. Not only do the Sims brothers gun down in cold blood the driver as well as the shotgun messenger, but they also blast a defenseless woman in the back as she scrambles on foot into the sagebrush to escape from them. As Beth Lattimore sprawls face down in the dust, she scrawls their names in the sand before she dies. As it turns out, this unfortunate woman was related to a natty, notorious gunslinger, Ben Lattimore (seasoned character actor Harry Lauter of "Posse From Hell"), and Ben vows to catch up with their sorry, no-account carcasses and kill them. He pursues the Sims across the desert, but their rifle-toting mother bushwhacks him on the trail. This turn of events seems rather contrived since she shows up out of the blue to help from boys. She makes the same mistake, however, that her homicidal sons' made when they failed to finish off Beth Lattimore. Ben catches two slugs in the arm, but he survives her ambush. Initially, she thought that her two boys were in the clear and could take care of themselves. Nevertheless, Marshal Jethro Karnin (Don "Red" Barry of "Shalako") gets the drop on the Sims as they are sleeping comfortably curled up around a campfire. He assures them that they were fortunate that he found them rather than Lattimore.

Later, Jethro has the onerous task of taking the Sims boys to the territorial prison in Prescott, Arizona, aboard a stagecoach. The bulk of this dreary yarn takes place on the trail as the marshal rides inside the stagecoach with the villainous Sims brothers and forces the two female passengers, Sally (Jodi Mitchell) and Mrs. Gregory (Hanna Landy of "Diamond Safari") to ride atop the vehicle with the driver and a Native American guard Piute (Michael Carr of "War Party"). What the cautious lawman doesn't realize is that the mother of the Sims boys is masquerading as an old lady bound to see her daughter who is about to deliver a baby. She packs two six-shooters out of sight in her petticoat and patiently waits for the opportunity to whip them out. Meanwhile, Mrs. Sims' man, Adam Scott (George Sawaya of "Embryo"), leads a group of gunmen ahead of the stagecoach. They wipe out everybody at the stagecoach relay station where our heroes will have to swap out their horses for fresh replacements. Afterward, they blow up a bridge across the river so the stagecoach driver, Dixon (Fred Kone of "The Love Bug") has to take another road when they arrive at the river and discover that the bridge has been blown up. About the same time that the marshal realizes they have to change their plans, Ben shows up. The horses are worn out so the driver cannot turn back. Reluctantly, the marshal agrees with Ben that they should hole up in a ghost town named Calico and wait for Scott and his army of gunmen. Ironically, during the shoot-out, Ben's pacifist wife Sally shoots Scott after Jethro is wounded. Mrs. Sims swings her gun on Sally, but Jethro drills her dead to rights with a single shot. Ben wings Johnny in a fair fight and a wounded Jeb decides to give up. "Convict Stage" concludes with the Sims boys back inside the stagecoach with a recovering Jethro and Piute guarding them with a shotgun.

Veteran western director Lesley Selander, who helmed over a 100 movies, most of them westerns, brings nothing dynamic to this prefabricated horse opera. Surprisingly enough, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" scribe Daniel Mainwaring penned this routine outing. Ben Lattimore proves that he is not a sadistic gunslinger but a man who lives by a code. Ben's wife, who had left him because of his gun-toting ways, takes up a six-gun to help them out. Selander manages to keep the action moving forward during its 71-minute running time, but more often than not the mouths of the thespians are the only things moving as they deliver hackneyed exposition. This undistinguished, black & white sagebrusher from 20th Century Fox must have filled out the bottom half of a twin bill for a drive-in theater. Selander doesn't generate any more excitement than Mainwaring conjures up memorable dialogue.

A very late 1950s B movie.

[plan99 · 7/10 · 8 April 2023]

It's hard to believe that this film dates from 1965 as it had the look and style of a film made at least ten years earlier. No great performances but not any bad ones either. The plot was a bit of a stretch to believe but two bullets sensibly fired early on would have made the film very short. Worth watching for curiosity value to see what must be the very last 1950s style cowboy film. I slightly recognised the lead character but all the rest were new to me. Nicely filmed in glorious black and white, in 1965!, so probably one of the last non colour films made, except for those deliberately done in non colour for added effect, The Elephant Man for example.

A stage coach is robbed by the Simms brothers and they kill a woman passenger. Now her brother seeks revenge.

[OTBKING · 1/10 · 12 March 2010]

This is the worst Western that I have ever seen. The editing and direction is terrible. Characters that are shot fall to the ground before you hear the shots fired. The whole movie seems to be out of sync. Nothing is explained and it seems you have to guess what is going on and why. The acting is terrible. The dialog is terrible. This is just a terrible movie. The two female passengers must ride on top of the stage because the marshal is transporting the two prisoners. Give me a break - I have never seen something like this in the hundreds of Westerns that I have watched. They were not riding on the booth, they were riding on the top of the stage.

"I don't like to be touched by hands with blood on them!"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 18 February 2023]

Colour had been an established feature of the western genre since the early fifties, so 'Convict West' represents an unusual departure for being in black & white at so late a date. The Utah landscapes are deliberately bleak, the composition is very horizontal, the interiors bare and it betrays its sixties provenance in the frequent use of zooms.

One of the final films of veteran director Lesley Selander, scripted by classic noir scenarist Daniel Mainwaring and one of the very few films in which Harry Lauter was allowed to play a hero. Woman are in the thick of it: one of the first casualties being a young female stagecoach passenger shot in the back while fleeing by a trigger-happy hoodlum, while Hanna Landy cuts a formidable figure as a European matriarch who's quick on the trigger.

No Redeeming Features...

[nigel_hawkes · 4/10 · 19 February 2023]

...to this nasty little Western.

Dated 1965 this was presumably a second or even third feature. It's put out by a major studio, but is in B&W-unusual by then. I can't believe that the overall bleakness and moral bankruptcy is deliberate, just a result of poor script, poor acting and consequent total apathy of the viewer to any of the participants. One doesn't even have the satisfaction of the death of the baddies at the end but the presumption of their demise on the gallows.

In its favour is quite good location photography in Utah, but that's no reason to last the course!

For obsessive "tickers" off the Western encyclopedia's entries only....

Enjoyable Low Budget Oater!

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 19 December 2020]

"Convict Stage" turned out to be a rather good little "B' western released by 20th Century Fox along with "Fort Courageous" the same year. It features no big names but does have a couple of western regulars in the leading roles.

Harry Lauter who had been in westerns largely in supporting or featured roles. plays Ben Lattimore a gunfighter, Don "Red" Barry who was "B" western star in the 40s plays Marshal Jethro Karnin. The other players were largely unknown, at least to me.

The Sims Brothers, Jeb (Joe Patridge) and trigger happy Johnny (Eric Matthews) hold up a stagecoach killing the driver and guard. When the lone female passenger flees for her life, Johnny shoots her in the back. Befrore she dies the woman scrawls a message in the dirt. Lattimore and Marshal Karnin discover the carnage. Lattimore recognizes the slain woman as his sister who has identified the Sims Brothers as her killers with her message. Lattimpre vows revenge and he and the Marshal set out to find the culprits.

Lattimore is bushwhacked by Mrs. Gregory (Hanna Landy), the Sims' mother and left for dead. Meanwhile, the Marshal captures the brothers and plans to take them to territorial prison by stage coach. The passengers on the coach refuse to give up their seats on the coach. First there is Sally Lattimore Ben's wife who is leaving him because of his refusal to hang up his gun, Sam Gill (Walter Reed) a self described drummer and Mrs. Gregory looking for a chance to free her sons.

After the stage has left, Ben arrives and forces the agent to tell him where the stage has gone. He catches up to the coach and pleads with the Marshal to let him have the Sims Brothers. He refuses. The Sims' "friends" meanwhile have attacked and destroyed the relay stations thereby depriving the coach of fresh horses. When horses pulling the coach become overtired, the Marshal decides to hole up in a nearby ghost town. Ben accompanies them.

Soon they discover that the Sims gang is nearby and will soon attack. The Marshal and Ben ready the others for the attack. When they do Mrs. Gregory reveals herself shooting down Gill in the back. Sally is forced to kill one of the gang against her wishes but must do so when the Marshal is wounded. The Marshal badly injured still manages to kill the treacherous Mrs. Gregory.

Jeb Sims is wounded in the battle and surrenders. Johnny challenges Ben to a draw and.................................................................................

It was great to see two wily veterans of the sagebrush sagas in leading roles late in their careers. The movie is expertly directed by an equal veteran of the oaters, Lesley Selander.

Definitely worth a look.

The low calibur equivalent of "High Noon" and "3:10 To Yuma"

[jordondave-28085 · 4/10 · 26 August 2023]

(1965) Convict Stage WESTERN

It opens with a couple of outlaw killers killing two people during a robbery from a stagecoach and one woman. And before the woman dies with a gunshot on the back, she initial the two killers on the sand "J J SIMS" by the time both the sheriff Jethro (Don 'Red' Barry also credited as co-writer) and a gunfighter Ben Lattimore (Harry Lauter) show up, and almost immediately they knew exactly who they were. And although the first two guys bothers Jeb and Johnny murdered and killed were nobody's the woman on the hand they shot in the back happened to be gunfighter, Ben Lattimore's sister. And he wants retribution, while the sheriff wants to bring them back to the town to face trial in Apache Wells. And when Ben goes on his own, for some odd coincidence, Johnny and Jeb's ma, Mrs. Gregory (Hanna Landy) and uncle Adams (George Sawaya) were able to knock him out while he is on pursuit, which resulted to the sheriff to capturing them first. And by the time, Ben goes back in pursuit, we then see his wife,Sally Latttimore (Jodi Mitchell) who happens to be a Quaker and is attempting to talk him out of killing Jeb and Johnny. It was at this point, sheriff manage to place both Jeb and Johnny handcuffed into a stagecoach with his two helpers of the driver, Dix (Fred Krone) and his shotgun rider, Piute (Michael Carr ) to come along with him. Except that three other passengers want to come along with them, including Ben's wife Sally, Sam Gill (Walter Reed) who claims he is a whisky drummer, and Mrs. Gregory posing as a regular citizen. And as soon as Ben found out the sheriff has the prisoners of Jeb and Johnny, he catches up to it before joining the group on their way until they stumble onto the stage station only to find that there are no new horses to exchange them with. Because Mrs. Gregory's hubby, Uncle Adam is garnering reinforcements of seven outlaws sabotaging the horse station for the purpose of slowing them down, forcing the Sheriff and Ben to seclude themselves to a nearby ghost town called "Calico"

Had I not seen better Westerns such as "High Noon" and "3:10 To Yuma" among other movies I probably would have liked this but as a result of seeing better Western movies the writers may have watched to make this one give this movie the thumbs down.

Makes Terrific Use of Limited Time and Money

[TheFearmakers · 9/10 · 26 January 2021]

Two venomous outlaw brothers are on "Top of the World, ma" for their Ma Jarrett type Hanna Landy, the scene-stealer of CONVICT STAGE, a b-Western with a tight, contained story to fit the tight, contained setting of a ghost town where all the characters wind up, including a tough old sheriff along with a gunfighter in Harry Lauter, whose sister gets violently murdered (in an eerily mundane fashion) during a prologue that ignites a revenge plot-line that doesn't completely own the programmer as often happens...

Only the revenge-seeker's wife is consumed by it.. by hating it... threatening to leave if he kills cold-blooded siblings Joe Patridge and Eric Matthews who, given more time and a bigger budget, would have made a classic antagonist duo...

But there's still some cool sporadic action in several dusty locales as the brothers are taken by that titular coach to/towards jail, and that's where faithfully resilient evil mom Hanna Landy comes in (as her phantom gang prepares elsewhere), going undercover under sheriff Don 'Red' Barry's nose as one of several supposedly mundane passengers, also including the ingenue/wife and a few other gun-toting cowboys, who wind up in a rushed shoot-em-up finale...

But only because so much essential time's spent building the characters and motivations since in CONVICT STAGE, everyone's got something either hidden up their sleeve or bleeding right outside it.

Lost and forgotten western

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 18 September 2022]

Very unusual, so interesting little western, far better for me than most of bigger budget productions, so sure of their cast. It was made by lesley Selander, one of the most prolific western provider of the industry, with also Ray Nazarro. This one is from the early sixties, a period where western topics could be very offbeat. The story of a vengeance and shown not in a classical and predictable way. The directing is unfortunately flat and without surprise. Don Red Barry is at his place in this role. This not STAGECOACH as you can easily guess, but for a B western it remains, I repeat, more interesting than most of them, where you have to watch one hundred of movies to find only one or two worth seeing.