Laramie (1949) User Reviews

Deja Vu All Over Again!

[bsmith5552 · 5/10 · 20 March 2018]

This below average Durango Kid western owes whatever success it may have had to the final attack on a stagecoach lifted entirely from John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939).

The story is yet another version of the smuggling of guns to the Indians scenario. The story takes place for the most part, in an army fort (likely a set from another more prestigious Columbia film) where an impending Indian war is looming. A meeting between the fort's commander, Col. Dennison (Fred F. Sears) and Chief Running Wolf (Shooting Star) his son Running Wolf (Jay Silverheels) and Steve Holden (Charles Starrett) representing the Government Peace Commission is taking place. Suddenly the Chief is murdered and his pro war son Running Wolf assumes the role of Chief.

Running Wolf is jailed but the Durango Kid breaks him out. Army scout Cronin (Bob Wilke in a ridiculous Saturday morning cowboy show costume) is responsible for running guns to the Indians. Meanwhile Dennison's son Denny (Tommy Ivo) is kidnapped after the fort is raided by Cronin's "Indians" while the main army led by the Colonel is out on patrol. Durango rescues Denny who rides to warn his father that Cronin is behind all of the misdoings and that Cronin has incited the Indians to attack.

If the attack on the Peace Commission stage coach looks familiar, it should. The entire sequence was lifted from John Ford's "Stagecoach" including all of Yakima Canutt's legendary stunts and the Cavalry to the rescue shots. Starrett even changes his shirt (egad) to match long shots of John Wayne. It is the best part of the film. I wonder how Columbia was able to pull that one off as I always thought that "Stagecoach" was copyrighted. Oh well.

Also in the cast were of course, Smiley Burnette as a travelling repair man, Elton Britt as a yodeling Sergeant, Myron Healy in the thankless role of Lt. Reed, and a brief appearance by John "Lefty" Cason as a henchman.. Columbia, for some reason did not list the supporting players other than Sears, Ivo and Britt. The singing group is not even identified by IMDb.

"Pile on your horse!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 21 July 2011]

I can save myself the trouble of writing this review and simply refer the reader to the one I already did for another Durango Kid flick, 1951's "Snake River Desperadoes". Both stories have a main character inciting Indians to violence, who then turns around and sells them guns to spiral events out of control just so he and his gang can profit. Even some of the main players appear in both stories. Of course there's Charles Starrett, the Durango Kid himself, his partner Smiley Burnette, and young Tommy Ivo, this time as the son of Cavalry Colonel Dennison (Fred Sears). The Colonel's a good guy, while in "Snake River Desperadoes", Ivo's father was the villain working the Indians from both sides. It didn't surprise me to learn that the writer for both films was Barry Shipman, and since Fred Sears already knew the story, he wound up directing the later picture.

Still, if you enjoy these B Westerns like I do, you'll be entertained by the likes of Smiley Burnette, this time a 'traveling boot repair man' who displays a couple of his footwear inventions, like the 'stone removal boot' (don't ask), and one I like to think of as the 'spring in your step' boot for the man on the go. I think the picture could have gotten more out of that gimmick when it teased young Denny trying them on, but the picture did a quick fade at that point and the 'springers' didn't show up again.

A couple of surprise appearances in the film for me included Jay Silverheels as Indian Running Wolf, and Myron Healey as Lieutenant Reed, both in uncredited parts. You have to keep in mind that 1949 was the year 'The Lone Ranger' debuted on network TV, so Silverheels got this one in as well as a handful of other pictures before he became Tonto. I didn't get his outfit here though, it just didn't seem to fit his character.

In between the action scenes, Smiley does a couple of his usual expected tunes - 'The Happy Cobbler' and a fun song called 'Who Don't?'. A couple of others are handled by Elton Britt as a singing soldier, and if I were a betting man, I'd say his first one included the best yodeling I've ever heard in any picture, for that matter any venue altogether. I'd never heard of him before, and a quick look at his bio on IMDb shows he appeared in only two pictures, but gained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his composing and singing career. The guy can yodel.

Laramie

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 27 February 2022]

The Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) tries to stop an Army scout and a band of outlaws from starting an American Indian war in this fairly entertaining B-western that has some good setup of the villain ( Robert Wilke) of inciting an Indian war and some good action, though the Indian attack at the end is lifted from Stagecoach footage. In order to fit in with The continuity, Starrett wears dark clothing to match John Wayne's. Despite this budget cutting approach. Laramie is a still good as most Durango kid adventures are.

Monument Valley, California desert and Indian tribes are transported to Wyoming.

[horn-5 · 13 February 2003]

This 1949 "Durango Kid" western from Columbia starts off a bit out of kilter to begin with as Jay Silverheels (and the other Indian tribesmen) are riding around Wyoming sporting headgear associated with the Seminoles of the Southeastern United States or the Navajos of the Southwest, but not seen much on tribes of the Wyoming area---basically a bandana with a feather stuck in it. The reason for this somewhat-jarring headgear becomes apparent toward the end of the film, but there is one more out-of-character costume change to come first. While many of the westerns stars of the thirties and forties could aften be found wearing the flap shirt with a row of buttons down each side of the front, Charles Starrett, with the exception of 1937's "Cowboy Star", where he briefly appeared in a shirt like that, never wore such a shirt in any of his other films. Until "Laramie",That is. Just before he starts off to overtake the stage he, from out of nowhere, is suddenly wearing such a shirt. Then the reasons for the Indian's headdress and his sudden shirt change become clear when the last few minutes of this 1949 western is 100% stock footage from 1939's "Stagecoach." The tribesmen (or white men posing as Indians) had to match the Navajo's from that film, and Starrett's shirt had to match the one worn by John Wayne in that film, especially when he is climbing from out of the coach to the top of the coach. Stuntmen Yakima Canutt and Cliff Lyons from "Stagecoach" are also both clearly visible. A bit of irony is also involved. Several John Wayne biographers---one or two who knew what they were writing about and several who didn't---have mentioned that when Wayne was released/fired from his Columbia Players contract circa 1932, Wayne, who had no clout or prospects in sight at the time,vowed that he would never again make a film for Columbia until studio head Harry Cohn was dead and gone. And he didn't. Or,at least, he didn't on his own, but the use of stock footage put him in another Columbia film long before Harry Cohn died.