The Secret of Convict Lake
Directed by Michael Gordon
Written by Oscar Saul and Victor Trivas
1951/US
Twentieth Century Fox
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
Johnny Greer: Get up.
Granny: I can’t. I’m a poor old woman lying in a bed of pain reading my bible, you blood thirsty weasel.
This pretty good noirish Western is included in the Criterion Channel’s Snow Western collection for December.
Jim Canfield (Glenn Ford) and a number of hardened criminals escape from a Nevada jail in the dead of winter. They make the very arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada mountains into California and lose several of their number in the process. The self-appointed leader of the party is Johnny Greer (Zachary Scott) is a real snake. He believes Jim knows where $40,000 is and will do anything to get it.
The men spy a farming village. A scouting party discovers that the place is solely occupied by women. Their men have gone off to join the posse that is trailing these convicts. (What kind of men leave their women, babies, and elderly alone in the middle of nowhere?). The women are armed however and allow the men to stay far away from the houses in a barn.
It turns out that Jim is actually an innocent man who is out to murder the man who framed him. He falls in love with Marcia Stoddard (Gene Tierney) who is actually engaged to the Rudy Schaeffer, the man in question. Rachel (Ann Dvorak), Rudy’s sister, is one of the women in the town and has a pretty low opinion of Marcia. With Ethel Barrymore as the wise old leader of the women.
The film is heavy on sexual menace and attempted rape, not a favorite subject of mine. But there’s some good action, including fist fights, gun fights and a fire. I think Zachary Scott makes one of the best villains of the 40’s and 50’s and he does not disappoint here. Could be worth a watch.
