Synopsis
A western... with a difference!
In Johnny Concho, Frank Sinatra plays a man who goes from the town bully to town coward!
1956 Directed by Don McGuire
In Johnny Concho, Frank Sinatra plays a man who goes from the town bully to town coward!
Talky dull serious 50s western. It is part of the first run of movies Sinatra did after he had control of his acting career , but while it is made to highlight his range, the role isn't that good and the script feels to forced in how he has to adapt to his fall from grace and the movie mostly decide to ignore how he is too much of a 50s presence for the setting instead of trying to do something with it. He seems set to fail in a movie he produced and seems to have a lot of control over which might explain why this has become so obscure in the past few decades.
Watched on Ok.ru
Not a bad film, but definitely a novelty.
Not only was this Sinatra's first Western, but it is also the first film he ever produced.
Keenan Wynn gets second billing, yet is barely in this film. The few moments he has in this are all gold though. His character, easily, could have had his own series.
The plot is fairly unique, but it's not as fleshed out as it should have been. Unfortunately, Sinatra's character really suffers for that.
Obviously anything involving Sinatra is on my radar, but this intrigued me after learning that his friend/arranger Nelson Riddle did the score.
Sinatra/Riddle would have been enough for me, but I loved the Saul Bass title cards.
Johnny Concho (Don McGuire, 1956) 7/10
Sinatra is cast against type in his first Western - as a coward who terrorizes a town because everyone fears his brother who is a notorious gunfighter. A stranger (William Conrad in full-on sleazy mode) arrives in town, announces he has killed the gunfighter and starts treating the townfolk like dirt. It is up to the coward to prove he's in fighting mode in order to save his town from the intruder but instead he is run out of town. B-film has atmosphere, is crisply shot in black and white by William C. Mellor and has a good score by Nelson Riddle. The film has a static pace - it feels like a talky stage play - but Sinatra's interesting performance keeps it moving along. Striking bits by Keenan Wynn as a gun-toting priest and Phyllis Kirk as the girl who loves the coward.