The Redhead From Wyoming

Rating:
Summary: Redhead From Wyoming
Review: In what seems more a showcase for Maureen O'Hara and a warehouse full of spectacular Technicolor costumes than anything else, Universal's 1953 THE REDHEAD FROM WYOMING is a pleasant enough range-war horse opera.
O'Hara plays a saloon owner and the `friend' of an ambitious and manipulative politician who arranges to have her act as buyer for the strays rounded up by ever burgeoning population of wranglers. Or rustlers, as the established and beleaguered local cattle baron would have it. Rustlers in this context being both a fighting and a hanging word.
It can be argued that Maureen O'Hara was the most beautiful movie star of the `50s. At least you won't hear a nay from this corner. O'Hara's sensuality, or meal ticket if you will, was more inward looking, more introspective and defensive than others. O'Hara simply didn't project that sensuality as naturally as, say, her contemporary Jane Russell. In a few early scenes this movie has her play the brash and brazen "set-em-up-boys" frontier dame, scenes which are embarrassingly unconvincing. Heck, O'Hara looks embarrassed playing flirty-flirty. The situation improves significantly as the movie progresses. O'Hara shucks her Technicolor gowns for Technicolor wrangling duds, hits the range and spends pretty much the rest of the film imposing her feminine will on a succession of strong willed men. In other words, after a couple of shaky opening scenes, the movie scoots its star back into her comfort zone and keeps her there till they roll the closing credits.
Universal didn't exactly stock REDHEAD with a galaxy of stars. O'Hara's love interests in this are William Bishop, who plays the opportunistic politician fomenting a range war between the newcomers and the entrenched order and Alex Nicol is the cowpoke who drifted into a sheriff's job and does his best to thwart Bishop's nefarious plans. There's a noticeable lack of chemistry between O'Hara and Nicol, mostly because Nicol's take on his role ranges from laconic to catatonic. For oldies television buffs a very young Dennis Weaver (Gunsmoke, McCloud) has a fairly sizable role as a young, firebrand wrangler.
THE REDHEAD FROM WYOMING is just good enough to recommend, not quite good enough to urge or insist upon.