WYOMING RENEGADES

(director: Fred Sears; screenwriter: story and script by David Lang; cinematographer: Lester White; editor: Edwin Bryant; music: Mischa Bakaleinikoff; cast: Phil Carey (Brady Sutton), Gene Evans (Butch Cassidy), Martha Hyer (Nancy Warren), William Bishop (Sundance), Roy Roberts (Sheriff McVey), Douglas Kennedy (Charlie Veer), Don Beddoe (Horace Warren), Aaron Spelling (Petie Carve), Guy Teague (Blackjack Ketchum); Runtime: 73; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Wallace MacDonald; Columbia; 1954)

“Carey does a decent job, but lacks the star power to carry a film by himself.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Cult filmmaker Fred Sears(“Don’t Knock the Rock”/”Inside Detroit”/”Going Steady”) directs this routine, stylish and solid B western. The rugged story and script is by David Lang. It shows Butch Cassidy wasn’t a good guy, as opposed to the more popular Paul Newman version.

Butch Cassidy (Gene Evans) and his wanted outlaw gang, after bank robberies in Idaho and Utah, return to their ‘Hole in the Wall Gang’ hideout in Wyoming, where they await Cassidy’s partner Sundance (William Bishop) and Brady Sutton (Phil Carey), just released from serving three years in prison. Brady vows to go straight and return to his profession of being a blacksmith instead of re-joining the gang. He served jail time for the robbery committed by Cassidy’s gang. Nancy Warren (Martha Hyer), the daughter of his hometown bank manager and his fiancée, supports him in his effort to reform, even if no else believes her. It turns out Brady joins the gang only to get proof they did the robbery so he can clear his name.

Carey does a decent job, but lacks the star power to carry a film by himself. What makes this western memorable is its off-kilter ending, which has the town’s men running off on a wild goose chase while the town women have no choice but to kill off the invading ‘Hole in the Wall Gang.‘

REVIEWED ON 2/21/2016 GRADE: B