Ride Clear of Diablo (1954)

Directed by Jesse Hibbs; produced by John W Rogers

After learning that his father and brother were murdered by cattle-rustlers, Clay O’Mara (Audie Murphy) returns to his home town of Santiago. There, the local sheriff (Paul Birch) and the O’Mara family lawyer (William Pullen) tell him that a lead on who killed his family might be found in the village of Diablo, where notorious gunman Whitey Kincade (Dan Duryea) lives. Questioning Kincade is a dangerous proposition, as others have found out previously, but this time, the criminal may have found his match.

A pretty standard western from the last big decade of the genre, Ride Clear of Diablo has good acting to make up for the inadequacies of its writing and direction. The latter is in the hands of someone whose biggest success is probably another Audie Murphy movie, about the latter’s war experiences: To Hell and Back. In fact, Murphy must have liked Hibbs, as they collaborated on a number of features. Thereafter, Hibbs went into television, directing westerns in that medium. In Ride Clear of Diablo, his work is unremarkable.

The writing is rather lazy. The opening scene features two ranch-hands being delayed at a saloon so that rustlers can ride to the O’Mara Ranch and make off with the cattle. Later, Clay wants to learn more about the circumstances of his family’s murder, but doesn’t ask about the ranch-hands, though he must have known they were employed and where they were at the time of the crime.

As well, the denouement doesn’t mention a major character’s contribution to the story’s climax, despite his relation to another character. Several of the scenes might easily be deleted, for all the references made to them in other scenes.

The criminals involved appear to have a number of schemes in hand, each of which must surely be enough to keep their hands full. First, they steal a herd of cattle, certainly large enough to be difficult to hide. Mention is not made of where the animals might be driven to or hidden. Either they were disposed of remarkably fast - and fencing branded cattle in the Old West couldn’t have been an easy proposition - or they were secreted somewhere and, apparently, forgotten. Then, the crooks plan to rob a silver shipment being transported to their town, just a few days after the cattle robbery. That loot can’t be simply hidden or disposed of, either. The script seems sloppy.

The saving grace of Ride Clear of Diablo is the performance of Dan Duryea, and his character’s relationship with Murphy’s. Though Kincade’s laughter begins to grate after a while, his unrepentant villain is interesting. He appears genuinely to find Clay’s audacity and naïvté appealing, like that of a younger brother, while Clay, at first repulsed by the other’s amorality, begins to be amused by his views and antics. While Kincade’s sentimental attitude grows slowly, it is accompanied by a stronger desire to be entertained, as when - just to see what would happen - he reveals to a villain (Russell Johnson) that Clay is sneaking up on him. The two principal actors have good chemistry together, and their skills overcome the slack script.

With a bland story, ordinary dialogue and lacklustre direction, Ride Clear of Diablo is salvaged only by Murphy and Duryea, the latter giving another performance that stands out from its setting.