Westbound (1959)

During the war between the states, a Union officer (Randolph Scott) is relieved of his duties and asked to take over the stagecoach line that transports gold from the West for the Union. Confederate sympathizers headed by an old nemesis (Andrew Duggan), now married to the woman (Virginia Mayo) Scott once loved, plot to prevent the gold from reaching the Union. The sixth of the seven collaborations between Scott and director Budd Boetticher, this was the only one of the bunch not produced by Scott and Harry Joe Brown but instead was a purely director for hire project for Boetticher. Which doesn't mean it's inferior to their other six collaborations. Running a little over an hour, Boetticher packs the film with as much excitement and color as he can and the film is unusually violent for its era but Scott's character lacks the motivation that makes his character so compelling in previous collaborations as THE TALL T and RIDE LONESOME. David Buttolph did the score and Peverell Marley (HOUSE OF WAX) is responsible for the cinematography. With Michael Pate whose black-hearted villain is one dimensional, the luminous Karen Steele, Wally Brown and Michael Dante (NAKED KISS) as Steele's husband, a one armed solider returning from the war.