Stalwart western hero Randolph Scott is at his stalwart best in "Coroner Creek" - and it wasn't directed by the overrated Budd Boetticher. Scott is a man of action as he attempts to avenge the killing of his fiancée at the hands of George MacReady in one of his most villainous roles. As mentioned, the emphasis is on action; the exasperating Boetticher often put one of Hollywood's best cowboy stars in complex psychological situations while forgoing Scott's long suit.In "Coroner Creek", Scott is surrounded by three women who manage to slow down the story by their presence; Marguerite Chapman as a moralizing hotel owner, Sally Eilers as a widowed ranch owner, and Barbara Read as Macready's dipso wife. But the storyline is so good that you can overlook these interruptions and await his next confrontation with baddies. There are gunfights and fistfights enough to satisfy the most avid action fan, including a left-handed fist fight with Forrest Tucker (you'll have to watch it for more info). I liked this one enough to rate it an eight.

It seems like Randolph Scott made a million of these near-homogenous Westerns in the 40s and 50s. Every time one pops up on the schedules – which they regularly do (usually on a weekday afternoon when they're frequently interrupted by excitable chaps selling cheap loans or offering to make you rich for tripping over your own feet, or actresses you thought were dead selling life insurance to the over 50s, or riding very slowly on a stairlift) - I think I must have seen it already, but it seems like I never have… Anyway, this is a fairly typical example of his work, although a couple of truncated scenes suggest that Ray Enright's direction was found lacking during post-production. Randy's a man on a mission to hunt down the cad who murdered his fiancée. He's provided with clues to the killer's identity by a central-casting redskin whose brief sentences comprising of mostly two-syllable words ending in A somehow translate into fulsome paragraphs when translated into English. He travels around the old West until he comes to the town of Coroner Creek where he finally finds his man, and you can guess the rest… Except you can't really, because the film's only half-an-hour old by the time Scott stumbles upon icy, steely-eyed George Macready, and instead of facing him down in a showdown, Scott's character embarks on a crusade of psychological pressure that slowly whittles away at Macready's self-satisfied hold over the eponymous town. In the hands of a more accomplished writer and director this could have made for a more compelling movie than we actually have but, like I say, it's entertaining enough. There's the regulation sidekick whose loyalty to the hero inevitably proves to be fatal, an ageing widow whose crush on Scott is barely alluded to (suggesting further deleted scenes) until he leaves her, an ineffectual sheriff, a fetching hotel manageress (and you just know where that's going to end – it's been 18 months after all) and a small coterie of secondary villains who all fall foul of Scott sooner or later.

When Randolph Scott was on your trail there was no one worse to have as an enemy in the old west. Proof of that is to be found in Coroner Creek one of the best westerns he ever did.Scott's bride-to-be was among several passengers killed during a stage holdup, perpetrated by Indians, but led by a renegade white man played by George MacReady.Armed with only a general description, Scott tracks him down to a town called Coroner Creek where the renegade is now has a veneer of respectability. No one knows of his past there. But he doesn't have a bunch of gun hands like Forrest Tucker and Douglas Fowley for nothing.Coroner Creek is adapted from a western novel by Luke Short, but it bears a big resemblance to the larger budgeted James Stewart western, The Man From Laramie. Personally I think Coroner Creek is better even though it is a B western.The highlight of the film is a nasty fight between Forrest Tucker and Randolph Scott. Tucker stomps on Scott's right hand, breaking his trigger finger. When Wallace Ford holds MacReady's men at gunpoint, Scott evens the score in a savage fight where Scott beats him even though he is only able to use his left hand. Scott then does the same thing to Tucker. You next see him sporting a left handed holster and he proves pretty adept with his left hand. The look on Randolph Scott's face as he tears into Tucker is unforgettable. He's more than a man, Scott is a force of nature in Coroner Creek.In a career where he played a couple dozen villains, one of the meanest George MacReady ever played was in Coroner Creek. You will not easily forget MacReady, his veneer of sophistication hiding barbaric acts of unspeakable cruelty.Coroner Creek is the finest introduction you could make concerning the films of Randolph Scott. You will be a fan after you see this.

"Coroner Creek" marked a departure for Randolph Scott in the character he plays. He usually played square-jawed righteous heros with a clear set of moral values. In this film he plays a character bent solely on revenge, even to the point of almost shooting the villain in the back as he tries to escape. He is driven by hate and has few if any redeeming qualities. Scott is on the hunt for the person responsible for his fiance's death. He finally tracks him down in the town of Coroner Creek and sets out to force a final showdown. True to the Hollywood Production Code of the day, Scott's character sees the error of his ways at the end. "Coroner Creek" boasts an excellent cast. George Macready plays the chief villain in a cold, cruel and calculating manner. Marquerite Chapman is the nominal heroine who tries to get Scott to change. Sally Eilers as a rancher and Barbara Read as Macready's alcoholic wife are the other female characters. Edgar Buchanan plays the spineless sheriff who eventually finds his courage and Wallace Ford plays Scott's only real friend and ally. The rest of the cast is made up of many veterans of "dusters" both of the "A" and "B" variety. On the wrong side of the law are Forrest Tucker, Douglas Fowley and Joe Sawyer. On the right side of the law are Russell Simpson, William Bishop and Forrest Taylor. Charlie Stevens appears as (what else?) an Apache who provides Scott with information on the killer. And if you look close you'll see Joe DeRita (of the Three Stooges) and Dewey Robinson as bartenders. "Coroner Creek" was a grim, realistic western for its time. Don't miss the brutal encounter between Scott and Tucker about half way through the film.