Director John Sturges made "Backlash" with Richard Widmark, Donna Reed, and John McIntire after he helmed "The Walking Hills," "Escape from Fort Bravo," and "Bad Day at Black Rock." This Borden Chase scripted horse opera deals with a dark truth concealed about the past. Not only must our rugged hero find the father he never knew, but also the heroine must learn what happened to her long-gone husband. Sixty-thousand dollars' worth of gold figures prominently in this mystery. This concise 84-minute, Universal-International release boasts a sturdy cast, with a handful of gritty villains with whom Widmark tangles, including Robert J. Wilke, Harry Morgan, William Campbell and John McIntire. Although this is a western set in the days of horses and stagecoaches, Donna Reed is pretty leathery herself, sauntering about with a quirt dangling from her wrist like an S&M mistress. She doesn't just sit around and let things happen, she shows her tough side, too. Shoot-outs, Apaches on the warpath, and men talking tough to each other provide the bulk of the drama, but "Backlash" isn't in the same league with "The Walking Hills," "Escape from Fort Bravo," "Bad Day at Black Rock" and the later collaboration between Sturges and Widmark entitled "The Law and Jake Wade." Primarily, Sturges doesn't stage the action as distinctively as he did in either his previous or later westerns.
In the first scene, Karyl Orton (Donna Reed of "From Here to Eternity") rides across Widmark slinging dirt around with a shovel at the remnants of adobe ruins in the wide-open spaces. They swap words and she asks Slater to fetch her cigarettes. As Slater is rummaging around in her saddle bags, an assassin tries to ambush him. Widmark stalks the man atop a mountain taking potshots at him with a Winchester rifle. Jim Slater (Richard Widmark of "Kiss of Death") scales the mountain, six-gun in fist, and gets the drop on the trigger-happy hombre. The guy exhausts his supply of shells, and Slater brings him down. Only after Slater searches him does he learn that his attacker was Silver City deputy sheriff Tom Welker (Regis Parton of "This Island Earth"). Initially, Slater thinks that Karyl set him up to be shot by the rifleman when she asked him to for her cigarettes. The Sheriff of Silver City puts Karyl on the stage to Tucson and warns Slater that Tom Welker's brothers will come gunning for him. In the midst of all this gunplay, Slater gets caught off guard momentarily when the thuggish brothers of Tom Welker try to drop him in a saloon. Future "Dragnet" co-star Harry Morgan and Robert J. Wilke of "The Magnificent Seven" play the gun-toting Welker brothers out for vengeance. The enmity between Karyl and Slater doubles because Slater thinks that she set him up again. He catches a flesh wound and rides out of town. She follows him to his campfire and bandages his wound, stripping off her blouse and using it to wrap him up. This happens after she informs him with a knife to his throat that she doesn't need other men to do her dirty work when it comes time to do it. Once they get this issue out of the way, Slater and Karyl become friends.
Nevertheless, Slater is committed to his objective. "My father was killed at Gila Valley, and I'm going to find the man who murdered him. "The trail that Slater rides to learn the ugly truth takes them into an Apache besieged trading post to ask a U.S. Cavalry Sergeant George Lake (Barton MacLane of "High Sierra") about the bodies since he was in charge of the burial detail. Before he can get his information, our hero has to help Sgt. Lake distract the bloodthirsty Indian so that the people at the trading post can escape by the stagecoach while Slater and he keep the Indians busy by running off their horses. Lake doesn't shed much light on the mystery before he dies from an Indian bullet, but he gives Slater a clue that takes him to Major Carson's ranch. Later, Slater insists that there was a sixth man, and this sixth man left the others to die at the hands of the redskins. Meanwhile, a feud brewing between two ranchers, Jim Bonniwell (John McIntire of "Wagon Train") and another rancher Major Carson (Roy Roberts of "My Darling Clementine") and along the way Slater has to shoot it out with a decked out in leather hired pistolero, Johnny Cool (William Campbell of "Escape from Fort Bravo"), who is lightning fast on the draw. Jack Lambert has a minor role as a guy who sells rifles to the Indians. Look closely and you will spot Maxwell Smart's superior (Edward Platt) from TV's "Get Smart" playing a sheriff wearing a Stetson and packing a six-gun.
Although it's a taut western with a surprise ending, "Backlash" resembles Frank Gruber's 1952 novel "Fort Starvation" only in minor respects. Indeed, our protagonist John Slater embarks on an inexorable quest to discover the identity of the sixth man. He visits the massacre site, and an unseen assassin shoots at him from afar. Neither the heroine of the novel, Susan Orpington, nor the movie heroine is at the site. Furthermore, Susan doesn't sport a quirt like Karyl. Instead, Susan is following her father, former U.S. Army officer Alfred Orpington, around the southwest as he struggles to find and hold down a job. Actually, he is following Slater, and Slater heads to Texas where he gets embroiled in a range war, with Orpington trying to buy stolen beef. Later, Slater poses as an outlaw to infiltrate a Butch Cassidy style gang run by Jim Bonniwell. He encounters Johnny Cool in this episode. Actually, Slater is working undercover with a Chicago detective agency to nab Bonniwell. Again, he runs into Susan and her shifty father. Ultimately, Slater doesn't encounter the father that he neither knew and Susan isn't look for her husband as is Karyl.
In the first scene, Karyl Orton (Donna Reed of "From Here to Eternity") rides across Widmark slinging dirt around with a shovel at the remnants of adobe ruins in the wide-open spaces. They swap words and she asks Slater to fetch her cigarettes. As Slater is rummaging around in her saddle bags, an assassin tries to ambush him. Widmark stalks the man atop a mountain taking potshots at him with a Winchester rifle. Jim Slater (Richard Widmark of "Kiss of Death") scales the mountain, six-gun in fist, and gets the drop on the trigger-happy hombre. The guy exhausts his supply of shells, and Slater brings him down. Only after Slater searches him does he learn that his attacker was Silver City deputy sheriff Tom Welker (Regis Parton of "This Island Earth"). Initially, Slater thinks that Karyl set him up to be shot by the rifleman when she asked him to for her cigarettes. The Sheriff of Silver City puts Karyl on the stage to Tucson and warns Slater that Tom Welker's brothers will come gunning for him. In the midst of all this gunplay, Slater gets caught off guard momentarily when the thuggish brothers of Tom Welker try to drop him in a saloon. Future "Dragnet" co-star Harry Morgan and Robert J. Wilke of "The Magnificent Seven" play the gun-toting Welker brothers out for vengeance. The enmity between Karyl and Slater doubles because Slater thinks that she set him up again. He catches a flesh wound and rides out of town. She follows him to his campfire and bandages his wound, stripping off her blouse and using it to wrap him up. This happens after she informs him with a knife to his throat that she doesn't need other men to do her dirty work when it comes time to do it. Once they get this issue out of the way, Slater and Karyl become friends.
Nevertheless, Slater is committed to his objective. "My father was killed at Gila Valley, and I'm going to find the man who murdered him. "The trail that Slater rides to learn the ugly truth takes them into an Apache besieged trading post to ask a U.S. Cavalry Sergeant George Lake (Barton MacLane of "High Sierra") about the bodies since he was in charge of the burial detail. Before he can get his information, our hero has to help Sgt. Lake distract the bloodthirsty Indian so that the people at the trading post can escape by the stagecoach while Slater and he keep the Indians busy by running off their horses. Lake doesn't shed much light on the mystery before he dies from an Indian bullet, but he gives Slater a clue that takes him to Major Carson's ranch. Later, Slater insists that there was a sixth man, and this sixth man left the others to die at the hands of the redskins. Meanwhile, a feud brewing between two ranchers, Jim Bonniwell (John McIntire of "Wagon Train") and another rancher Major Carson (Roy Roberts of "My Darling Clementine") and along the way Slater has to shoot it out with a decked out in leather hired pistolero, Johnny Cool (William Campbell of "Escape from Fort Bravo"), who is lightning fast on the draw. Jack Lambert has a minor role as a guy who sells rifles to the Indians. Look closely and you will spot Maxwell Smart's superior (Edward Platt) from TV's "Get Smart" playing a sheriff wearing a Stetson and packing a six-gun.
Although it's a taut western with a surprise ending, "Backlash" resembles Frank Gruber's 1952 novel "Fort Starvation" only in minor respects. Indeed, our protagonist John Slater embarks on an inexorable quest to discover the identity of the sixth man. He visits the massacre site, and an unseen assassin shoots at him from afar. Neither the heroine of the novel, Susan Orpington, nor the movie heroine is at the site. Furthermore, Susan doesn't sport a quirt like Karyl. Instead, Susan is following her father, former U.S. Army officer Alfred Orpington, around the southwest as he struggles to find and hold down a job. Actually, he is following Slater, and Slater heads to Texas where he gets embroiled in a range war, with Orpington trying to buy stolen beef. Later, Slater poses as an outlaw to infiltrate a Butch Cassidy style gang run by Jim Bonniwell. He encounters Johnny Cool in this episode. Actually, Slater is working undercover with a Chicago detective agency to nab Bonniwell. Again, he runs into Susan and her shifty father. Ultimately, Slater doesn't encounter the father that he neither knew and Susan isn't look for her husband as is Karyl.