Jack McCall, Desperado (1953) User Reviews (9)

Kafka Rides The West

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 11 May 2009]

Jack McCall Desperado is a truly revisionist look at the old west where Wild Bill Hickok's backshooting killer was really the good guy. George Montgomery plays McCall who according to this film was a much misunderstood man.

From the early silent days it was fashionable, especially in the B westerns like Jack McCall Desperado to take western characters of legend and fashion plots around their name that had absolutely nothing to do with the lives these people led. James Butler Hickok might not in real life have been a movie cowboy hero, but Jack McCall was nothing but a backshooting punk.

However in this story, Montgomery is a southern man who volunteers for the northern armies and then gets tricked by some southern troops into giving away northern positions. The fact that these guys are in Union Blue when he does it means nothing because he can't prove it. Later on Montgomery is chased to his southern mansion home where Sergeant Hickok kills McCall's father and his cousin James Seay his mother. And McCall's still a wanted man.

Even after the war is over Montgomery's a fugitive and Hickok played by Douglas Kennedy and Seay are in business. Hickok is now marshal of Deadwood City in the Dakota Territory where he's using his influence to betray the Sioux and get a nice Indian war started.

Jack McCall Desperado is an almost Kafkaesque revision of western lore with Montgomery as McCall as a bit of an idiot who constantly is getting tricked by much cleverer people than himself. It's far from a great western, but wow is it ever interesting.

"They Can Only Hang Us Once..."

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 9 September 2020]

A good-looking Columbia Technicolor western with a Civil War backdrop that for some reason calls it's central antagonists Jack McCall and Wild Bill Hickok.

Aside from being set in the wrong decade, viewers who saw Porter Hall or Lon Chaney as McCall would be surprised to see this new handsome and upright incarnation by George Montgomery. Somebody involved in the production must have seen a photograph of Hickok, since Douglas Kennedy in the role has the only authentic Wild West moustache in the film.

A better than average Katzman "B"!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 11 April 2018]

Copyright 13 March 1953 by Columbia Pictures Corp. (In notice: 1952). No New York opening. U.S. release: April 1953. U.K. release: 20 April 1953. Australian release: 3 February 1955 (sic). 6,822 feet. 75 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A Southerner, fighting in the Union army, is framed as a spy.

COMMENT: With plenty of action and sufficiently fast-moving to satisfy undemanding fans, this one also managed to capture good reviews. True, it's shot in pleasing, if not particularly artistic color, and boasts more production values than your average Katzman "B". Though the introductory sequence is reprised (no doubt for the benefit of latecomers), there is little if any stock footage, even though a large number of costumed extras battle and chase each other (occasionally with running inserts) across real location countrysides.

Frequent changes of set and locale add to the fast pace which helps to offset the pulp novel story with its limited characterizations and elemental plot. The film would also have risen to higher entertainment heights with a couple of more personable villains. Yes, it's surprising to see Wild Bill Hickok as the treacherous heavy, but Douglas Kennedy is not all that convincing. Not that he is the worst actor in the piece, although all the support players here are definitely a fourth-rate bunch (including Gene Roth in a one-shot bit as the prosecutor). The embarrassingly wooden Jay Silverheels takes that honor. The girl is okay, though bland. Her role is rather small anyway. Montgomery has a bit of presence, though obviously doubled for his fights and stuntwork.

Despite all the action, sets and crowds, and director Salkow's admirably fast pacing, "Jack McCall" offers little more than the least demanding audience might expect. Unless you're a rabid Western or Montgomery fan, the impression you take away with you will most likely be be bland and unmemorable.

A routine western that lacks authenticity

[bux · 7 March 2000]

For some unknown reason, in the 50s, there seems to have been an attempt to bring down the legend of Bill Hickok(see "I Killed Wild Bill Hickok, 1956). This entry plays fast and loose with history, with McCall as the framed good guy out to get villain Hickok. the time frame is all askew, starts in the Civil War and moves rapidly to Wild Bill's murder, which in reality took place in 1876, eleven years later. But that's not all; McCall was eventually hanged for his crimes, and not near as good-looking as Montgomery. Pass on this one.

Engrossing start diluted by improbable developments

[adrianovasconcelos · 5/10 · 30 August 2023]

Director Sidney Salkow, about whose work I know very little, apparently cranked out quite a few B Westerns in his day, and this one is not exactly bad to look at, cinematographically, but it suffers from a poor script. On the plus side, it posts a gripping beginning but loses steam.

According to other reviewers, one desperado by the name of Jack McCall did exist in the real West, and apparently he was a bad seed, shooting people in the back, among other dastardly deeds!

Well, thank God for little mercies, Montgomery portrays an upstanding character who has inadvertently given away the position of his Union troop HQ to Confederate men in Union uniform, and he has to clear his name, and save his neck from the noose for high treason, by tracking down the man to whom he drew the map... on the back of an envelope addressed to Jack McCall. That tells you that Jack would never rate the sharpest knife in the drawer. Still, although he shoots other men facing them, he is not above jumping jail and enlisting the help of pretty Angela Stevens, known in saloon circles as thieving Rose.

That the reb who can clear his name survives years of secession war, postwar yank-reb enmity, and all the shootouts at Deadwood and all over the Far West, gives you a measure of this desperado's faith in favorable fate. More faith than I have in ever retrieving the 76' I invested in this BS fest. 5/10.

Fast Paced action

[davyd-02237 · 6/10 · 21 August 2020]

At least this one "paints" the indians as good guys although the villain (who dies in the first couple of minutes) is called "Wild Bill Hickok" which doesnt give this as much credit as it might appear, the rest of the villains are hardly frightening, including the relative who guns down the heros mother for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Montgomery is usually good viewing material and this plays to his strengths as the wronged man out for justice. It could have been better but its a 50s western so lacking in a fair amount of quality including the leading lady

The Desperado

[osloj · 5/10 · 3 April 2017]

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

*Plot and ending analyzed*

Jack McCall, Desperado (1953) is an average Western film, dealing with the effects of the Civil War on one man. George Montgomery plays Jack McCall, who gets branded a traitor in one ridiculous set of events that aren't very believable.

Some Confederate soldiers dressed up as Yanks intercept him as he's about to deliver a message for Union reinforcements. They ask for the location of headquarters and he obliges with a note. The Confederate soldiers launch an attack on Union headquarters. He's wanted for that, and about to get lynched. All heck follows, as his parents are murdered by greedy Union officers, including his own cousin.

After the war, he looks for the Confederate soldier who asked for the location of the Union headquarters, but then gets double crossed again. He escapes the jail by making an effigy with a piece of paper and hangs it by a candle. I guess the Union guard is so dumb because he thinks the prisoner hung himself and opens the cell, whereby George Montgomery escapes to seek vengeance. A very funny scene, unintentional of course!

A lot of the scenes are fun but not very provocative. It's all a bit contrived to say the least.

An action full western

[coltras35 · 8/10 · 3 January 2021]

Mixing the historical characters and locations with the myth has been done many times, and this fast-paced western is no different. Hickock is the villain of the piece, which itself is interesting, but there are unusual elements such as the leading lady, who isn't your usual run of the mill heroine who is there for the romantic scenes. She's up there with hero, the usual stalwart, George Montgomery, jumping off stagecoaches and getting involved in hold-up. A solid B western with an energetic shootout finale.

A western that combines fictional and real life western characters

[sally-13 · 18 September 1999]

Jack McCall Desperado is an interesting varient on the western story. It deals with the war of independence and the character of Jack McCall wrongly accused of being a spy.

Wild Bill Hickcock also makes an appearance as the friend of Jack's crooked cousin Bart.

The interesting blend of real people we have all heard of and their fictional and real lives make this a movie a little different from the ordinary western fair.

Also refreshingly different is the relationship between Rose, a girl who can take care of herself ie she holds up the jail to rescue Jack and tumbles from horses with a certain aplomb also!

All in all an unusual western in some respects that doesn't forget its origins and stays mainly true to formula.