It's an enjoyable film despite being a curious mix, with the generally humorous tone being jolted by the vicious killing of the "grizzled old coot", a stock Western character here played by Douglas Fowley in a far less irritating manner than Walter Brennan or George "Gabby" Hayes. Likewise the finale with its Keystones-Cops style chase ends with a vicious gunfight.
Talking of grizzled characters, the film makes great play of its two main protagonists 'being over the hill', but neither Robert Mitchum nor George Kennedy look past it, even if stinting do stand in for them during the rougher scenes; the former was in his early fifties, the latter in his mid-forties when the film was made. Usually Hollywood casts the other way, with middle-aged actors fighting and loving in roles of people at least ten years younger. The elegiac sentiment of men having to cope with modernisation and younger rivals has been better conveyed by Richard Widmark and supporting cast in "Once upon a Texas Train", Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott in "Ride the High Country" and John Wayne in "The Shootist".
Martin Balsam does very well as the rascally, ambitious mayor and there's a fine old Western train to gladden the heart of any rail enthusiast. It's even transporting a gleaming new fire engine, but I couldn't work out how Kennedy got it to emit an instant high-pressure gush of water to repel his assailants.
It's good to see John Carradine in a light-hearted role, but as the gang leader his son David is upstaged by the vicious killer played by John Davis Chandler.
Talking of grizzled characters, the film makes great play of its two main protagonists 'being over the hill', but neither Robert Mitchum nor George Kennedy look past it, even if stinting do stand in for them during the rougher scenes; the former was in his early fifties, the latter in his mid-forties when the film was made. Usually Hollywood casts the other way, with middle-aged actors fighting and loving in roles of people at least ten years younger. The elegiac sentiment of men having to cope with modernisation and younger rivals has been better conveyed by Richard Widmark and supporting cast in "Once upon a Texas Train", Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott in "Ride the High Country" and John Wayne in "The Shootist".
Martin Balsam does very well as the rascally, ambitious mayor and there's a fine old Western train to gladden the heart of any rail enthusiast. It's even transporting a gleaming new fire engine, but I couldn't work out how Kennedy got it to emit an instant high-pressure gush of water to repel his assailants.
It's good to see John Carradine in a light-hearted role, but as the gang leader his son David is upstaged by the vicious killer played by John Davis Chandler.