THE RESTLESS BREED
US, 1957, 78 minutes, Colour.
Scott Brady, Anne Bancroft, Jim Davis, Jay C. Flippen, Rhys Williams.
Directed by Alan Dwan.
The Restless Breed is a short conventional western melodrama. A secret agent is killed, his son, a lawyer, is angry and goes to the town to avenge his father against a group of gunfighters who are smuggling arms into Mexico. He meets a mixed-race girl, cared for by a lay preacher. All the ingredients for his being a gunfighter, a man of mystery, saving the town, falling in love with the girl, wreaking revenge on the killers are all there, presented by Alan Dwan, a veteran of 400 films from the silent era into the '60s. Because of the straightforward storytelling, it probably plays better in later decades than some more stylish films of the period.
The other reason for seeing the film is that it features Anne Bancroft at the end of a period where she was a Hollywood starlet from 1952 to 1957, appearing in a great number of support features. However, she moved to Broadway and when she returned to the screen, it was as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, for which she won an Oscar and then became a celebrated stage and screen actress.
1. The popularity of this kind of western? From the '50s? Brief running time, studio locations?
2. The work of Alan Dwan, his skill as storyteller? The basic ingredients, characters, conventions? Fulfilling audience expectations?
3. The title, the song - and its frequent repetition in melody throughout the film? The songs, Anne Bancroft dancing?
4. The title - reference to whom?
5. The basic situation: Mitch getting the information about the death of his father, the Secret Service and its establishment, undercover work, gun-smuggling on the Mexican border, the assassination? The avenging of the father?
6. The town, Newton dominating it, Cherokee and his henchmen, the shoot-ups in the bar, the deaths of the sheriffs? The confrontation with Mitch, his drawing on them, the deaths? The people looking to him as someone to save them, his being challenged by the set-up in the bar, his going, his evasive tactics, coming in different doors, expectations of the gunfighters? The set-up of the ambush, his seeing it, coming in behind, defeating them, getting the two killers to dance, the Reverend coming in, the shoot-up, his sending them out of town?
7. Mitch as a man of mystery, stolid in manner, attracted to Angelita and trying to kiss her, the Reverend and his suspicions? The encounters with Angelita, talking with her, the revelation of the truth, his talking to her about guns?
8. Angelita, the dancing, adopted, mixed-race, the other children? Her falling in love with Mitch, going to warn him? Learning the truth about him? A future together?
9. Newton, the gunfighter, the assassination? Alan, his listening and spying, his own personal cowardice, his informing Newton? Newton's arrival with Cherokee, the intercut with the preparation for his arrival? In the bar, Cherokee killed, Newton dying?
10. The Reverend, his God-fearing attitudes, justice, looking after the wounded, Cherokee, intervening, humiliated? His care for the children, discovering the truth about Mitch, his friendship with his father?
11. Steve, the marshall, the laying down of the law to Mitch, Mitch not listening, the discussion in the room, Steve's being shot, handing the badge over to Mitch, helping him operate within the law?
12. The American tradition of the lawless west, gunfighters, administration of the law, violence, the gun culture, avenging deaths? The atmosphere of the frontier in the 19th century?
