Rimfire (1949)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

When a gambler known as "The Abilene Kid" is tried, convicted and hung for the apparent robbery of the U.S. Gold mint, his spirit seems to return from beyond to haunt and ultimately kill the men who framed him. Everybody in this small western town is running scared, and it is up to a U.S. agent (James Millican) to get to the bottom of this with the help of the local sheriff (Victor Kilian) and his pretty niece (Mary Beth Hughes) who falls in love with him. The slow-moving first half of this rather short B western moves into quite a different mood as it changes to ghost story. Or is it? Like Scooby Doo and other ghost movie spoofs where somebody is obviously using the events of the recent past to get information on the location of the gold. But who is it, and how does the U.S. agent discover the identity? Or is it really a voice from beyond scaring people literally to their doom? This western has various elements of its structure which makes it a rank above the standard cowboy/Indian shoot em' out, but the plot is pretty obvious of where it is going. The photography in the ghostly visits is appropriately dark which adds much needed mood. In spite of obvious plot holes, the film remains an interesting change from the typical western fare audiences were getting at the time. George Cleveland provides some wit as a local judge, while some cornball humor is thrown in by Fuzzy Knight. Another plus with the DVD is the print transfer is quite outstanding, making it look much higher budgeted than many of the public domain transfers of B westerns from Monogram, PRC and other poverty row studios which released dozens of these every year.

Rimfire is directed by B. Reeves Eason and jointly written by Ron Ormond, Arthur St. Claire and Frank Wisbar. It stars James Millican, Reed Hadley, Mary Beth Hughes, Henry Hull, Fuzzy Knight and Victor Killian. Music is by Walter Greene and cinematography by Ernest Miller.Captain Tom Harvey (Millican) is an undercover army officer working in a small Texas town investigating the theft of army gold shipments. Taking on the role of a deputy, he suddenly finds the town gripped by terror as they believe the ghost of a gambler who was wrongly convicted and hanged has come back from the grave to enact revenge."Gold and greed, it seems, go together. And so do. So do gold and death"Clocking in at just over an hour, Rimfire is compact and unfussily directed for maximum impact. There's a slight irk that once the central hanging and conviction enters the story, the film barely has time to unfold the mystery element, in fact so much is crammed into the final twenty minutes you really can't afford to look away. But why would you look away when the film is so interesting in narrative and so visually arresting? The biggest character in the piece is Ernest Miller's black and white photography, low-key lighting with prominent shadows, there's a pessimistic ambiance given the production, a sense that humanity is rotten. Which when coupled with the unusual aspects of the story make this very much a unique Western of the 40s.Well performed with the likes of Hadley, Hull and Millican turning in professional shows, and with super work from photographer Miller, this rounds out as very much a Western noir worth checking out. 7.5/10

This is a good little western from Lippert studios, and I don't understand the low rating by IMDb reviewers. The film is a mystery story and is well-written, taut and compact, and in only 64 minutes. The cast, led by James Millican, does a uniformly good job, and there is nary a bad acting performance in sight from the supporting cast. One is taken aback by seeing suave, urbane Reed Hadley out in the scrubbrush, but it turns out he's the suave, urbane gambler in the story.Now, we're not talking MGM or Paramount here and so you have to consider economics, but production values are better than expected and there is a good deal of action during this just-over-an-hour affair. Overlook a couple of plot holes and a time-killing romance and you have an entertaining movie which has been unfairly neglected over the years. This was included in a DVD with "Little Big Horn", which is a better picture, but nevertheless, "Rimfire" is still a cut above.

"Rimfire" is an almost forgotten little gem of a western. In fact, I hadn't heard of it until it's recent DVD release. It was produced by the Lippert Company and directed by the veteran B. Reeves Easton. Easton had been around films since 1915 and this was his final directorial effort. Running at a scant 63 minutes it boasts a fairly large cast of recognizable western players and contains an interesting story line.Tom Harvey (James Millican) foils a stagecoach holdup and comes into town and takes a job as a deputy sheriff. Heroine Polly Jordan (Mary Beth Hughes, who was on the coach turns out to be the niece of the town sheriff Jim Jordan (Victor Kilian). Harvey confides int the sheriff that he is in fact an under cover army officer in search of some stolen government bullion. Harvey and Polly meanwhile, become attracted to each other.Gambler, The Abilene Kid (Reed Hadley) who had also been on the coach, is falsely framed for cheating in a card game by saloon owner Barney Bernard (Ray Bennett) and his two henchmen Blazer (John Cason) and Toad (I. Stanford Jolley). Harvey believes in the Kid's innocence but is unable to prove it. In a trial Bernard and his two henchmen testify against him and Judge Gardner (George Cleveland) finds him guilty and sentences him to hang.Following the Kid's execution, several of the Kid's accusers begin to be murdered by a ghostly figure believed by some to be the ghost of the Kid. A playing card in sequential order is found at the scene of each murder leading all to believe that the Kid is somehow involved. Finally Harvey discovers the identity of the murderer and.............This was a rare opportunity for veteran character actor Millican to play the lead and romance the heroine. He had been around films since the early 1930s but is probably best remembered for his western roles (on both sides of the law) and for his distinctive speaking voice. His career was cut short by an early death in 1955 at the age of 45.Others in the cast include Fuzzy Knight and Chris-Pin Martin as the comic relief, Henry Hull as newspaper editor Nathanial (Horace??) Greeley, Glenn Strange as the stagecoach driver and Margia Dean as Lolita a saloon girl.Take a look at this one if you get the chance.