As a fan of western movies I find a good bit of those produced before 1950 to be formulaic and predictable, though quality. That said, "Seven Men From Now" is a classic and hold up very well. This movie is IMO where Scott transitions from the standard western movie of the day into what will be come a more "mature" western genre trend beginning in the 1950s. His performance is one of his best, and the opening five minutes where. No spoilers but with this scene he proves, "This is not your father's Scott movie!"

Randolph Scott lucked out that, as John Wayne was preparing to star in this film, he got a call from John Ford, wanting him to star in "The Searchers". Wayne decided he couldn't star in both films, as the present film couldn't be put off until later. Hence, Scott was called upon to take his place. Thus, the serendipitous relationship between Scott and director Bud Boetticher began. It would continue for 6 more films(which ,unlike this film, were not financed by Wayne's company), during the next 4 years, and would serve as a model for Scott's final Hollywood film: "Ride the High Country", after Beotticher had become obsessed with doing a film about his favorite bull fighter. This is probably the most interesting of the Beotticher-Scott westerns, having the most complex plot and including the charismatic Lee Marvin as Scott's chief nemesis. You may also prefer the introverted, rather sad-faced, Gail Russell, with her beautiful blue eyes, over her successors. She doesn't really do a lot in her significant screen time. In this, she was rather typical of Boetticher's women, who served mainly as an object of desire for their looks, rather than for a forceful personality or fitness as a partner in the stark landscapes(mostly the spectacular Alabama hills) that Scott's characters inhabited. If you would like to see more of Gail, I would suggest the B&W "Angel and the Badman". Sylvia Sydney, in "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" also much reminds me of her in looks and personality.One of the common features of most of this film series is a young couple or married woman that Scott's character serendipitously becomes attached to, for a time. The husband is characterized as a weaker personality than Scott's character, not worthy of his desirable or wealthy wife, and eventually is killed(except in the case of "Comanche Station", where the husband is encountered only at the end, and is blind). We've seen this plot feature before, in Scott's "Hangman's Knot", for example. A largely unspoken and undemonstrative romantic relationship develops between the woman and Scott's character, but they maintain a formal emotional distance, often in respect for their present or deceased spouse. Also, Scott is usually about 30 years older than the woman. In some films, such as this one and "The Tall T" and "Westbound", the woman retains hope at the end that she can eventually wrangle at least an intermittent relationship with Scott. But, in the last 2 films of this series, plus the subsequent "Ride the High Country", the woman is encouraged to form or retain a romantic relationship with a younger character, often with a tarnished past.Another common thread of most of these films is a charismatic devious villain: in many ways the opposite of Scott's reserved, straight- forward, character.(In "Ride the High Country", Joel McCrea was cast in Scott's usual role). In most of the films, this character was previously known by Scott and spends much of the film riding with him. Often, as in the present film, there are two distinct villains, who are at cross purposes with each other. In this film, they are Bill Masters(Lee Marven) and Payte Bodeen(John Larch), who both hope to end up with the gold in that stolen Wells Fargo box. We also see this in "Westbound", "Ride Lonesome " and "Ride the High Country". Often, as in this film, one of these villains helps protect Scott(or McCrea)from death at times, to help achieve their goal.In most of these films, the traveling group reaches its apex in complexity at an isolated stagecoach way station which, for various reasons, has been recently abandoned by most or all of it's employees. "Ride Lonesome " and "Comanche Station" also follow the present film in having in depth discussions during several nights, in which they learn more about each other. These two films also mimic the present one in having one or more hostile encounters with Native Americans.In this film, Scott(as Stride) has dual goals relating to the Wells Fargo robbery, in recovering the gold and in gunning down the 7 men who killed his wife in the robbery. Masters(Marvin) is the charismatic sneering villain, well known to Scott, who seems to know about the individuals involved in the robbery, without having been directly involved himself!? He joins up with Scott and the Greer husband and wife traveling homesteaders(Walter Reed and Gail Russell), hoping Scott will lead him to the strong box in his quest to kill the 7 men. He saves Scott's life in an Apache attack, killing one of the 7 who mysteriously appears during the midst of this battle!? Later, he dispatches 2 more of the 7, including the colorless Bodeen leader of the thieves, who have come to ambush Scott, who now, unexpectedly, has the strong box. Of course, Masters wants the box for himself, preferably without having to kill Stride, whom he respects. But , Stride refuses to give up without a quick draw contest. End of story.I should point out some of the curious geographical name anomalies included. Clearly, this story takes place in SE Arizona, which did then include the mentioned Fort Crittenden. However, Flora Vista is in NW NM, and Silver Springs in is western NV!

While heading to Flora Vista, the coach of John Greer (Walter Reed) and his wife Annie Greer (Gail Russell) gets trapped in the mud and the former sheriff Ben Stride (Randolph Scott) helps the couple that invites him to ride together with them. Then they meet the strangers Bill Masters (Lee Marvin) and his partner Clete (Donald Barry) and Bill tells to the couple that Ben is tracking down the seven men that robbed the Well Fargo office in Silver Springs and killed his wife that worked in the office. Annie gets close to Ben, who feels responsible for the death of his beloved wife. During their journey, they have moments of tension with an attack of Indians and the interest of Bill in Annie, and Ben asks Bill and Clete to leave the couple. When they arrive in the boundary of Flora Vista, John discloses a secret to Ben."Seven Men From Now" is a solid western, with story and characters very well developed and outstanding performances. Randolph Scott performs a lonely rider thirsty to revenge the death of his wife, and Lee Marvin performs a great villain, as usual. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "7 Homens Sem Destino" ("7 Men Without Destiny")

Seven Men From Now (1956) *** (out of 4) Randolph Scott's wife is killed by seven bandits so he sets out to kill each one of them. On his journey he comes across a young couple (Gail Russell, Walter Reed) and helps them get out west since they are going to the same town where Scott believes some of the men are. It seems like over the past couple years this film's reputation has blown up and some people talk about this as one of the greatest Westerns ever made. I wouldn't go that far since we've seen this type of revenge film countless times before but the film is still very impressive due to some great direction and fine performances. Scott is his usual good self and delivers another strong performance. Russell is also very good in her role and makes for a great female lead. The key to the film and the best performance belongs to Lee Marvin who is brilliant as one of the possible murderers. While the revenge story isn't that original what is original is how personal we get to feel and care for the Scott character since he's not completely innocent and has personal guilt that fuels his fire for revenge. The scenery is beautiful throughout the film and all of this leads to a very entertaining ending.