User Reviews

I liked the Plunderers.A group of PUNKS ride into town and show the Cowardice Citizens a thing or two. This is NOT an unusual occurrence in life.trying to mind his own business is the One-Armed Civil War hero played by Jeff Chandler.He's lives in this town that has disgraced and ostracized him,when the line is drawn,he comes to his heroics. Interesting piece,that later became "The Incident" a 1967 movie on the NYC Subway with this time only 2 Punks showing the cowardice of the Subway riders. Naturally the Town Re-makes the Chandler character their hero "Again" and he rides out AGAIN. Not a lot of people are aware of this little gem. I have a thing for Low Budget westerns that take place in more or less 1 location,which brings even MORE excitement.

"Away All Boats" director Joseph Pevney's "The Plunders" looks like a cross-between of "Bad Day at Black Rock" and "The Wild One." Basically, leading man Jeff Chandler is cast as Sam Christy, a former Civil War officer who has lost the use of his left arm. The loss of that limb--he still retains the entire arm--serves as a metaphor for his loss of courage. Like the one-armed Spencer Tracy hero in "Bad Day at Black Rock," Sam is sullen and filled with self-pity. He lives alone on a ranch with nobody to take care of him and his relationship with a hotel owner has gone sour. Four young cowpokes ride into the meager town of Trail City. They resemble the juvenile delinquent characters on motorcycles in "The Wild One." In fact, the opening narration sounds like the cautionary words in the Marlon Brando epic because the narrator contends that it could happen to any town. These punchers are fresh out of Dodge City where they blew their wad in no time and don't have two-bits between them. Tired and ornery, they see Trail City as a place to square accounts for the raw treatment that they received in Dodge City.

They start out by refusing to pay for a bottle of whiskey at the local saloon and the town sheriff hauls them into the hoosegow. They spent the night in jail and agree to leave peaceably until they get out. Initially, they take $73 worth of clothes from a mercantile store and follow that up by getting a free room in the hotel. Nobody has enough courage to curb their wanton urges and the local sheriff buckles under pressure. Finally, they shoot the poor man down in the street, collect all the firearms in town and settle back into the saloon. By now everybody in town is quaking in their boots at the sight of the vandals. Mike Baron (James Westerfield of "The Sons of Katie Elder") refuses to serve them in his saloon and William 'Mule' Thompson (Roger Torrey of "The Nun and the Sergeant")batters him into submission. Afterward, Sam Christy bucks heads with them and the biggest of the four roughs him up. Sam exits town and decides to have nothing to do with the quartet of hellions. Eventually, the young daughter of the local storekeeper, Ellie Walters(Dolores Hart of "King Creole")prompts Sam to take another chance at the foursome. Sam rallies the rest of the townspeople and they stand together and whip the hellions. Sam takes on the Goliath-like Mule in a knife fight and Ellie turns a six-gun on the romantically inclined Hispanic gang member, Rondo (John Saxon of "Enter the Dragon") when he pulls a knife on Sam. In a showdown on the street, Sam guns down Jeb Lucas Tyler (Golden Globe nominated actor Ray Stricklyn of "The Return of Dracula")as the rowdy twenty-year old charges down the street blasting away with two guns. Sam convinces the rest of the townspeople to let the last one, Davy (Dee Pollock of "Kelly's Heroes") ride out with the memory of the event to haunt him forever.

Clearly, "The Plunders" is a morality yarn that pits old against young, weak against strong, and cowardly against brave. Joseph Pevney's taut, bottled-up direction and Bob Barbash's tip-lipped, intelligent script make this 93-minute pressure-cooker thriller worth watching, even though it's pretty predictable. Meaning, you know that Sam Christy is going to lick these young, immature hellions. Mind you, "The Plunders" isn't top-drawer entertainment, but it qualifies as above-average thanks to uniformly fine performances and contemplative pacing. Saxon looks like he is giving a warm-up act for his treacherous bandit in the 1966 western "The Appaloosa." Saxon has a moment before he dies at the hands of Dolores Hart when he talks about the prejudice that he has experienced as a Hispanic at the hands of whites. As usual, Chandler plays a stern, taciturn man who has to have his cage rattled before he shows his true colors. The only flaw in his performance occurs during a fight at his ranch with one of the plunders. Dolores Hart is around for good looks and everything appears appropriately dusty.

"The Plunderers" is essentially Marlon Brando's "The Wild One' (1953) in a western setting. Four youths having been run out of Dodge City, happen upon a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. They are led by Jeb Tyler (Ray Sticklyn) a young man with a chip on his shoulder. Riding with him are the hulking "Mule" Thompson (Roger Torrey), the Mexican Rondo (John Saxon) and Davy (Dee Pollock) the youngest of the gang.

The gang sees an opportunity to take over the town when they are shown little resistance when they refuse to pay for their drinks from saloon owner Mike Barron (James Westerfield), for their new clothes from store owner Jess Walters (Vaughn Taylor) and for their hotel rooms from hotel owner Kate Miller (Marsha Hunt).

Town sheriff McCauley (Jay C. Flippen) tries to reason with the gang but is unsuccessful. The town then turns to one-armed civil war hero Sam Christy (Jeff Chandler) for help. At first he refuses to get involved despite pleas from former girl friend Kate and the store keeper's daughter Ellie (Dolores Hart). Rondo has eyes for the young Ellie but her heart it seems belongs to Sam.

Eventually, Sam agrees to help leading to a confrontation with the gang and.............

The film has fine cast but curiously John Saxon, who is billed second over the title, has only a secondary role here. Jeff Chandler gives a fine performance as the one armed reluctant hero although Dolores Hart seems a little too young for the grey haired Chandler. Ray Stricklyn is a little James Deanish as the chief baddie. Veterans Jay C. Flippen and James Westerfield stand out among the supporting cast.

I guess by now every one knows that Dolores Hart left the glamour of Hollywood and her fiancé to enter a convent where she remains to this day.

Not to be confused with the 1948 film of the same name.

There is an underlying tension running through this movie from the first frame. Relationship tension between the residents, tension between the group of strangers and tension between the strangers and residents. I'd have liked to of seen 5 minutes at the beginning of the movie showing what the 4 strangers had been up to prior to them arriving at the town, it was briefly mentioned in the text but not in sufficient detail for me and I couldn't help wondering why they were sticking around as only 2 people in the entire town seemed to be under the age of 50. Jeff Chandler as the hero with only one working arm smoldered his way through the movie and although very watchable, never seemed to get out of second gear. Some nice use of angles by the director and a couple of very effective lighting shots particularly one with a swinging lamp in the bedroom. It was 75 minutes of waiting for the inevitable showdown but was still extremely watchable.