Ride a Crooked Trail

• Directed by Jesse Hibbs
• November 23, 1958

A fugitive bank robber assumes the identity of a dead frontier marshal, but complications arise when an old flame shows up in town.

Walter Matthau is the wily Judge Kyle with Audie Murphy is outlaw Joe Maybe posing as US Marshal Jim Noonan in a dusty Western town whose name completely escapes me right now. The more Westerns I watch starring Murphy, the more I see that he got to work with some serious talent that was behind the camera or paired with him onscreen. Sometimes both! For a man that never necessarily intended to be an actor, he had a great career.

Murphy holds his own against the very talented Matthau who was still relatively early in his career. There’s a nice give-and-take as Murphy’s Joe Maybe is clearly stumbling around trying to keep up the ruse as he feels things out. There is a clear indication in their performances that both know/suspect the others knows but can not quite reveal their hand in the moment.

There are two overt moments of this though neither features the two leads. The first time is between the boy Jimmy (Eddie Little) and Joe as the boy lets Joe know that he knows who he really is and Joe explains to the boy that he is indeed changing. It is a moment that demonstrates to the audience the character is conflicted on his impending choice that could lead to a second chance.

The second is between Jimmy and Judge Kyle as they talk about Joe with Kyle understanding that the man claiming to be a marshal is actually not and the boy trying to convince the judge that Joe is changing/has changed. We get a hint at Kyle’s conflict at doing what he feels must be done at the right moment despite growing fond of Maybe-as-Noonan. Excellent moment and a credit to the child actor on handling both very well.

I think they hang a bit of a lantern on the moment when Kyle puts it all together along with the times he’s looking for an excuse to take out Joe. It’s just a little bit of “Oh darn! I didn’t get my shot” in those instances with the camera lingering on them.

Matthau as Judge Kyle has some stage make up to get him to look older. Normally that’s a hard sell but the man was a very talented actor and makes it work simply through his acting. Kyle is essentially a dictator though kindhearted when dispensing what passes for law and order is done. He works on the concept of what is fair rather than what is legal.

Joe Maybe has an interesting backstory with it being perhaps one of the more downbeat (or mussed up) that I recall from an old Western. His mother was a prostitute and he only ever actually got the name of ‘Joe.’ The last name of ‘Maybe’ started out as ‘May’s baby’ and it just became shortened to ‘Maybe’ by the prostitutes and their customers. That speaks to me of some serious neglect and abuse.

Joe is one of those characters that is converted to the side of good, because he finally has a chance and a reason to be good. His whole goal is to use the fortuitous events of coming across a body and assuming the late individual’s identity to rob a bank but during the course of the story learns there is a better way. Civility and domestication is not bad when done right and with the right people.

Ride a Crooked Trail is a film where the West is a very small place. Complications arise because multiple people that Joe knows from his criminal life start showing up in town. It is not just because they’re passing through but because there’s a bank with plenty of money in it that they all plan to rob. It begins with Joe’s ex Tessa (Gia Scala) getting off a riverboat and almost blowing his cover and ends with her CURRENT boyfriend being the one that sent her there.

Sam Teeler (Henry Silva) is the major threat of the film and. He was one of those actors that just looked dangerous whenever he showed up. If you’re going to play a baddie you need to look like a baddie even if you’re a nice guy. He was one of those actors I could bring a sense of danger and being threatening just by walking on screen. 

Night filter is perhaps the most annoying camera trick ever devised. It never looks like dusk or dark or anything. Ride a Crooked Trail uses that in the nighttime bank robbery scene when they get out onto the pastures where cows are grazing. I would’ve taken this occurring on a set over that. Westerns were a dime a dozen at the time and borrowing a set from something where lighting can be controlled does not strike me as improbable. Perhaps the worst moment in an otherwise good film.

Ride a Crooked Trail was a pleasant surprise. Both Matthau and Murphy along with Silva are a pleasure to watch. I recommend it.