Catalyst

Howdy again! Boy, I got keyed up over Decision at Sundown. Even though it's not a "great"movie, it has a great deal of human elements that I like seeing in a picture like this. And again, be forewarned that the Spoiler Express is running at full throttle today.

Our "hero" is a jerk. He's also a catalyst. No, I'm not talking about your livestock inventory. I'm talking about something that causes changes, or reactions, but is mostly unchanged in the process. Randolph Scott did his part well, and it was comparatively small. But vitally important.

Bart Allison (Randolph Scott) has been wanting revenge on Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) for three years. It seems that he's been hunting him for two years. Bart finally finds out that Kimbrough is in the town of Sundown, and arrives with his friend Sam (Noah Beery, Jr.).

Kimbrough runs the town of Sundown. He has a few accomplices, but most people don't like him very much. Tate is also getting married on the day that Bart and Sam hit town. (Ruby doesn't want Tate to marry Lucy, she's always loved him. Silly girl.) Bart goes into the church and interrupts the wedding, telling the bride, Lucy Summerton, that he's doing her a favor or else she'd be a widow by sundown. He wants to kill Kimbrough because of a woman named Mary. Then he runs out of the church. Gunfire is exchanged, of course, but nobody seems to be able to hit anyone. Bart and Sam hole up in a stable and are promptly surrounded.

But Lucy runs out on the wedding. She didn't wave the threat off, even though Allison seems powerless at the moment. Her father, Charles Summerton, is sent by Kimbrough to have her back by noon. He talks to her and tries to persuade her to go through with it, but she still hesitates.

One of Kimbrough's henchmen, Spanish, pops through a window of the stable and almost shoots Allison, but Sam gives him a massive hurt in the arm with a bailing hook. But instead of killing him, they actually allow the doctor, John Storrow (John Archer), to patch him up. They are both allowed to leave, but first Doc tells Bart, "When a man is set on revenge, he has a one-track mind", and he's not being sensible.

The waiting game continues with the boys in the stable and the bad guys taking occasional pot shots. I wonder why nobody smoked them out? Perhaps they weren't enough of a menace to justify the property damage. Sorry, just thinking out loud.

You wanna pour me a bit of that coffee there? Thanks.

Kimbrough sends Charlie Summerton to make an offer to Bart and Sam: They can ride away. Summerton also makes his own offer of five hundred dollars (today, that offer would be worth about ten thousand dollars). Hmmm...Lucy is hesitant to get married, so maybe she doesn't really want it. Her father is pushing her to go forward with it, and tries to bribe Sam and Allison. Sounds to me like Mr. Summerton has a lot to gain by having his daughter marry Kimbrough.

Sam discusses the situation with Bart. One thing is that Bart should have just shot him, if that was his goal. Allison replies, "Even a rattler gives a warning".

Lucy goes to the stable to talk to the two men. She learns about the bribe that her father offered. Also, she learns that Mary was Bart's wife. Lucy tells Bart that nobody can take away a woman if she doesn't want to go, and, "Maybe you didn't lose anything that was very worthwhile". She was rudely escorted out the door at that point.

Sam says that he would not have been so involved if he had known this was all about Mary. Then he told Bart that she was sleeping around on him while he was away at the war (I reckon that there really was "something about Mary").

But when Sam told Bart that he had been with Mary as well, Bart hit him. Then Bart shouted out to the sheriff in the street to see if the offer to ride away was still valid. He sent Sam out, even though Sam didn't want to go. Lookie here, Sam had the courage to confess what he did with Mary, and he was still going to be loyal to Bart even though he hit him. Sam went out, and said he'd get some food and then come back.

Sam tells Doc that you "can't convince a man about something he just doesn't want to know", and tells Doc about Mary. She wasn't fit to be a wife. She killed herself, Allison is blaming Kimbraugh for it because he thinks she only cheated with him.

Then Sam heads back to the stable, but Spanish shoots him in the back. Allison shoots Spanish from across the street. Sam's dying words to Doc were to make sure that Bart understood that Mary was just no good. Doc shouts at the onlookers. How can they stand and watch while someone is gunned down in front of them? In fact, they were promised safe passage. A man's word is supposed to mean something.

Wow, we get a lot of information about how Bart Allison head works, don't we?

Later, Doc Storrow is telling the men of the town that, even though the crooked sheriff and Spanish killed Sam, they were all guilty because they let the town get to this kind of point.

And this is the point where I have to stop. This talk is getting long, so I'll let you all saddle up and ride away safely. I'll finish this tomorrow. The best is yet to come.