Rough Night in Jericho (1967)  

Review written July 2012

Worth watching – not for B-movie plot, but for A-movie stars

A thoroughly B movie Western plot elevated by some surprisingly good performances into a perfectly enjoyable oater, this 1967 Western is probably most notable for having Dean Martin play the `bad guy', Flood. He is an ex-lawman, that, for reasons never fully explained, has gone bad. The town he helped clean up is now ruled by him with an iron fist, and he has his stake in all the businesses in town - except for Molly Lang's (Jean Simmons) stagecoach. She brings in ex Marshall (John Mcintyre, adding some old style Hollywood class) and his ex Deputy Dolan (George Peppard) to run the stagecoach. When Peppard sees the mood in the town, he figures as a gambling man the odds are against him, and he decides to stay on the sidelines until he can leave. But how long will his conscience stay unpricked as the situation deteriorates around him..?

The story is all `been there, done that', and the photography and music are very much Hollywood churning the latest of hundreds of Westerns - so it's slickly done, if uninventive, and yet it certainly has a surprising streak of violence in places. Someone shot in the face, fist fights to the death, Martin smashing a man's face off the bar until he is unconscious... perhaps the desire to compete with the European Westerns which were popular by this time?

On the whole though, Peppard is surprisingly amiable company, and holds his own against Martin, who is a show stealer with his role as Flood. Martin was not taken entirely seriously for his acting by many, and yet here he brings probably the only 3 dimensional character to the movie. Flood has charisma, is likeable to a point, is understandable, and yet has a mean streak and occasional temper that make you completely believe in the town being terrified of him. Simmons on the other hand is a fine actress but her role seems to start well and then go nowhere. Watch out for Slim Pickens playing.. well, Slim Pickens.

The gunfights work fine, if really nothing new, the fistfights are, as mentioned, quite brutal, and the pace keeps moving along quite nicely. All is shown in a very clean and bright transfer, in, as far as I could tell, original ratio which showed off the able cinematography nicely.