FIRECREEK

Outstanding 'adult' western that very few people have seen or even heard of. It was made in 1968 at a time when the western as a genre was going out of fashion. The stars were James Stewart, (much too old for the part of an expectant father but excellent nevertheless) and Henry Fonda, (better cast as one of the bad guys), and the director was Vincent McEveety who, on the strength of this, should have gone on to better things or at least be better known.


The theme of the picture is moral cowardice and the town of the title, "Firecreek", is one of those back-waters filled with losers, Stewart, the town's part-time sheriff being the biggest loser of all and it's into Firecreek that Fonda and his gang ride. The set-up is predictable but very well handled. There's a fine script by Calvin Clements Sr and a splendid supporting cast that includes that fine, underrated actor Gary Lockwood as the most volatile of the bad guys, Ed Begley as a preacher, Dean Jagger as a storekeeper with a past and Inger Stevens, only two years before she took her own life, as the woman Fonda is drawn to. It isn't much revived, hence its cult status, but it's definitely worth seeing.