Tension at Table Rock (1956)

Director:

Charles Marquis Warren

Writers:

Winston Miller (screenplay)
Frank Gruber (novel)

Release Date:

3 October 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Plot:

A reluctant gunslinger tires of having to defend himself at every cow town he visits, so he adopts an alias and continues his wandering...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

Richard Egan	...	Wes Tancred
Dorothy Malone	...	Lorna Miller
Cameron Mitchell	...	Sheriff Fred Miller
Billy Chapin	...	Jody Burrows
Royal Dano	...	Harry Jameson
Edward Andrews	...	Kirk
John Dehner	...	Hampton
DeForest Kelley	...	Jim Breck
Joe De Santis	...	Ed Burrows (as Joe DeSantis)
Angie Dickinson	...	Cathy

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:L | West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:U (cut) | USA:Approved (certificate #17972)

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Quotes:

ageing bar girl: What's the matter, nobody want to play with you?
Wes Tancred: Leave it alone, I'm not a trail hand.
ageing bar girl: It's OK, I've got time.
Wes Tancred: No you haven't.

Soundtrack:

The Ballad of Wes Tancred

Almost a top Table

TENSION AT TABLE ROCK is a underrated Western starring the taciturn and fleshy Richard Egan as Wes Tancred, a man thought by society to have shot his best friend in the back (an event celebrated by an ubiquitous ballad through much of the film). The song of course is incorrect, as the audience knows full well from watching the opening scenes. But such miscomprehension is central to a film frequently concerned with people being what they are not, or at the least not what they are expected to be. Just as Tancred is not the "black-hearted, white-livered, backbitin' sidewinder" murderer as the infamous lyrics say, so Sheriff Miller (Camron Mitchell) is no longer the fearless lawman he was after his beating; his wife Lorna (Dorothy Malone)is no floozy as the audience initially suspects; and even the gunfighter Jim Brek, finally brought in to dispatch the lawman turns out to be an affable enough, if still dangerous, fellow.

Malone's casting as Lorna is on one level ideal; the actress made such a success as an unstable nymphomaniac in Sirk's marvellous WRITTEN ON THE WIND made the same year, and in that light it's the unaccustomed restraint between her character, wife of a weak male and the strong Tancred (who clearly is infatuated with her) which is one of TABLE ROCK's more interesting elements. Having said that, an early appearance by Angie Dickinson in the film, 3 years before her memorable role in RIO BRAVO makes one wonder what she would have brought to the main female part.

In one of the film's key scenes, Miller returns home early to overhear his wife treating Tancred's head flesh wound - a moment of relative intimacy, ripe for a liaison, but which never materialises. (In a quietly Freudian moment he moves Tancred's hat off the back of the door revealing a peg beneath). As she says to her patient admiringly: "You're really the man Jody thinks you are" Miller reflects upon his own shortcomings. The irony is, of course, that Tancred is in fact really a man that *nobody* thinks he is, and someone who can only be be admired, loved and respected without a damaging reputation in place. From this perspective the film can be seen as the interesting antithesis to such works as Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, where one is invited to believe the legend of the West, and not the truth.

Charles Marque Warren's direction is up to the job, although it is buoyed considerably by a fine score by Dmitri Tiomkin - another reason why the film should be better known. It may be that Warren (who made a number of Westerns, and co-wrote the fine DAY OF THE EVIL GUN) is ripe for reappraisal. Cameron Mitchell is also good in his difficult role which would probably have suited a slightly older actor. Egan's performance is subdued but fairly subtle as he plays a man who internalises a lot of his moral decisions, and this is surely one of his best works. The young Jody is played by Billy Chapin who made such an impression in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, but at times here his experience, largely among older, more violent males, recalls the world of TV's THE RIFLEMAN notably during his early scenes with Tancred and his natural father. It's these moments too, set as they are in a Fargo way station, a world threatened by the arrival of thugs with their own agenda, which might reflect the narrative influence of the celebrated Randolph Scott cycle made with Budd Boetticher, made around this time.

Trivia note: the film contains characters called Kirk and Scotty, while DeForrest Kelley (Brek) played McCoy in Star Trek.