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Vengeance Valley

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Vengeance Valley
Theatrical poster
Directed byRichard Thorpe
Screenplay byIrving Ravetch
Based onVengeance Valley
1950 novel
by Luke Short
Produced byNicholas Nayfack
Starring
CinematographyGeorge J. Folsey
Edited byConrad A. Nervig
Music byRudolph G. Kopp
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's Inc.
Release date
  • February 16, 1951 (1951-02-16)
Running time
83 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,008,000[1]
Box office$3,146,000[1]

Vengeance Valley is a 1951 American Technicolor Western film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Burt Lancaster, with a supporting cast featuring Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John Ireland and Ray Collins. It is based on the novel by Luke Short. In 1979, the film entered the public domain in the United States because Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.[2]

Plot

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Vengeance Valley (1951)

Owen Daybright is the foreman at the Colorado cattleman Arch Strobie's ranch and is also Strobie's foster son. When Owen and his foster brother Lee Strobie visit the local saloon they hear that Lily Fasken has had a baby. The doctor says he didn't attend the birth because the father didn't ask for him. Lee is very interested in the birth. Owen takes some food, and $500, to Lily and find's Lee's wife Jen and Lily's brother Dick at the house. Dick has been trying all day to find out who the father of Lily's baby is. Owen is very concerned for Lily's welfare. Jen asks him who the father is but Owen doesn't reply. Dick suspects that Owen is the father but Jen tells him that it isn't as Owen is a good man.

Back at the saloon Lee thanks Owen for helping Lily and covering up for him, saying he can't admit being the father as Jen wouldn't understand. Dick arrives and threatens Owen with a gun, but they are interrupted by the sheriff.

At the Strobie ranch Owen tells Arch that now that Lee is married Arch, who has been crippled for 20 years, doesn't need Owen's help any longer. Arch explains that he took Owen in because he needed him to help to run the ranch and to keep Lee in line, and that he still does. Owen agrees to stay.

Lily and Dick's brother Hub arrives by train and tells the sheriff he's going to kill somebody, but he doesn't know who, yet. Dick tells Jen he will get the truth out of Owen. Owen and ranch-hand Hewie visit Mrs Grant, where Lily is staying. Dick and Hub arrive soon afterwards. Dick and Owen fight before Lily interrupts them armed with a gun. She tells Owen to take her brothers to the sheriff.

Jen finds out that Lee has taken $500 out of their joint account. She confronts Lee who says that Owen is the father of Lily's baby but Jen doesn't believe him. Jen threatens to leave, but Owen talks her out of it saying Arch needs them both. Later, Lee finds Jen has locked him out of their bedroom. He tells Arch he wants to go out on his own. Arch asks what it will take to make him stay. Lee says a half share of the ranch. Arch reluctantly agrees, saying Owen will inherit the other half when Arch retires or dies.

Owen, Lee and Hewie track four of their stolen steers to Herb Backett's. Owen can't prove the steers were there and beats up Backett, getting a knife wound in the process, before he and Hewie take four of Backett's steers as "compensation". Lee takes no part in the fight nor the taking of the steers and offers to pay Backett for them. Backett agrees but says he will get even with Owen. Lee is unconcerned. Later, during a party at their ranch, a drunken Lee interrupts Jen after she has dressed Owen's wound, and mistakenly concludes Owen and Jen are carrying on.

Lee plots with Backett to have Dick and Hub join the spring roundup after they get out of jail. This will give them a chance to go after Owen. The roundup is split into east and west divisions, with Owen and the Strobie ranch hands in one and Lee and the Fasken brothers, who he admits knowing but claims not to like, in the other. Lee arranges to sell the Strobie steers to Dave Allard. Allard rides off to the telegraph office to arrange payment. In a heavy rainstorm Allard misses the telegraph office and ends up at Owen's camp. He tells Owen that he has bought the Strobie cattle. Owen is surprised but says nothing to Allard, but later tells Hewie he thought Lee might do something like this. Hewie admits he has feelings for Lily. When the two divisions meet Owen tells Lee he knows what's up. Hewie spots the Faskens and tells Owen. Owen realises Lee must have known but said nothing to him.

Lee later tells Owen he has changed his mind and will cancel the sale to Allard but wants Owen to go with him to help cancel the deal. In the meantime the Faskens are waiting to ambush Owen. The Faskens shoot Owen who falls from his horse, but he is only slightly wounded. Lee rides away. Hewie hears the shooting and takes some men to find out what is happening. Owen shoots Dick and when Hud sees Hewie and the others arrive he rides off, but is shot when the others are close enough. Owen recovers his horse and goes after Lee. Lee falls off his horse crossing a river and Owen catches up with him. Owen says they're going to tell Arch everything. Lee says he won't go, thinking he can draw faster than Owen. He draws but Owen is faster and kills him.

Owen tells Arch the whole story. Arch says it his own fault for not straightening Lee out himself.

Cast

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Reception

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According to MGM records the film earned $1,997,000 in the US and Canada and $1,149,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $3,138,000.[1]

About

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The final scenes are shown in the film Little Odessa.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ^ Pierce, David (June 2007). "Forgotten Faces: Why Some of Our Cinema Heritage Is Part of the Public Domain". Film History: An International Journal. 19 (2): 125–43. doi:10.2979/FIL.2007.19.2.125. ISSN 0892-2160. JSTOR 25165419. OCLC 15122313. S2CID 191633078.
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