Provide him with an adequate budget as well as an intelligent script and veteran western director Leslie Selander could make horse operas that were worth-watching more than once. "Panhandle" starring Rod Cameron, Reed Hadley, exemplifies a better than average western with Selander at the helm. Scenarist John C. Champion of "The Texican" and future "Pink Panther" auteur Blake Edwards collaborated on this smart, no-nonsense script. Rod Cameron gives a compelling performance that consists of acting suave with the ladies and tough-talking with his male adversaries. Non-surprisingly, this seasoned western star is cast as a quick-draw gunslinger searching for the lowdown varmints that gunned down his brother. He is the cautious sort and doesn't like to sit in a room unless he has the wall to his back. Essentially, "Panhandle" is a revenge sagebrusher with majestic mountain scenery as well as the feminine pulchritude provided by attractive actresses such as Cathy Downs of John Ford's "My Darling Clementine" and Anne Gwynne of "Ladies Courageous." Reed Hadley makes calculating villain who professes at least to his hired help that he never makes mistakes. Writer Blake Edwards stood in from the camera as a dandified henchmen who wears his six-gun backwards on his left hip. Although it isn't a contemporary film noir, "Six Gun Gospel" lenser Harry Neumann furnishes "Panhandle" with that brooding, pessimistic film noir look that the black & white processing enhances. Selander stages several gunfights, but the after dark shoot-out in the rain with revolvers creating lightning like flashes of light in dark is the best.John Sands (Rod Cameron of "Bullets Don't Argue") lives across the border in a dusty little Mexican hamlet where he runs a leather goods shop. Once he packed a gun and men stepped aside for him. Now, he shuns guns and walks around without them buckled across his waist. When an irate customer, Jean "Dusty" Stewart (Cathy Downs) believes she has been cheated by one of Sands' employees, Juan (Charles La Torre), she arms herself with a Winchester and threatens to shoot him. Instead, she blows a water jug hanging above his head into shards and drenches him. Sands intervenes and disarms Stewart with a strap of leather that he slings around the rifle barrel and jerks the long gun out of her hands. Sands conducts a search of Jean's wagon and they find the missing saddle that proves Juan didn't cheat her. The conversation changes between Sands and Jean, and she mentions that her father has been one of several men mysteriously slain in the Texas town of Sentinel. Another of the unfortunate victims was Billy Sands. Sands was a fearless newspaper editor who protested about anything controversial. Our protagonist closes up shop and straps on his gun belt. He rides north to Sentinel. Along the way, he proves to himself that he can still handle a six-gun. While he is buying a horse to replace his exhausted steed, Sands encounters Sheriff Jim (Rory Mallinson of "Dark Passage") and his two deputies. Jim vows to arrest Sands for his past crimes since he is back in Texas. Sands blows the gun out of Jim's hands and disarms his two deputies. This is the first of several memorable showdowns in "Panhandle." Earlier, Sands dealt with a cardsharp in a Mexican cantina. Later, three gunslinger on Matt Garson's payroll try to ambush Sands, but he eludes them at the price of leaving a good saddle behind. Matt Garson (Reed Hadley of "Leave Her to Heaven") is the chief villain in "Panhandle," and he is also the galoot who killed Sands' brother. He owns and operates The Last Frontier Saloon. Like John Sands, Billy had renounced the way of the gun and poured his energies into being a crusading reporter. Sands clashes with Garson's men, Floyd Schofield (Blake Edwards of "Leather Gloves") and eventually guns him down during a storm on the muddy streets of Sentinel. Sands gets a room in the Blue Belle Hotel and meets June O'Carroll. She is Garson's secretary. Before he can find out anything about his brother, a three man citizens committee try to persuade him to act as 'a town tamer' and oust Garson from town. John rides out to Jean's ranch, the Circle S, and reveals that he is Billy's older brother by six years. An incredulous Jean explains that Billy and she were planning on getting married. Later, she shows John when Billy has been laid to rest. After everybody on his payroll has failed to liquidate John, Garson gets the drop on our hero, and he is prepared to kill him when June intervenes and saves John's bacon."Panhandle" is a good, solid, but old-fashioned western.

Panhandle is directed by Leslie Selander and written by John C. Champion and Blake Edwards. It stars Rod Cameron, Cathy Downs, Reed Hadley, Anne Gwynne, Blake Edwards, Dick Crockett and Rory Mallinson. Music is by Rex Dunn and cinematography by Harry Neumann.John Sands (Cameron) has to return to his gunfighter ways when news reaches him that his brother has been murdered... Filmed in Sepiatone and a little more serious than many other 1940's Westerns, Panhandle is a satisfying experience for genre enthusiasts. Formula is rife as we would come to know it in Oaters, though, as picture ticks off the check list: badman turned good who is forced to turn bad again for revenge, romance tingling in the air, quick draw shoot-outs, punch-up, weasel villain and his hired cronies, poker games with the inevitable cheat called out and the "hooray" finale. All of which is nicely directed and performed by the cast. The location scenery doesn't get much chance to shine through, and in truth the Sepiatone does little to improve the picture, but this is easily recommended to the Western faithful. 7/10

Panhandle, B western for Allied Artists stars Rod Cameron as a fugitive in Mexico who when he finds out that his brother has been killed in the Panhandle area of Texas right on the Oklahoma line comes north to settle accounts. The bad guy here is Reed Hadley who is the town boss where the brother was a crusading newspaperman. Cameron has two women vying for him as well, Cathy Downs and Anne Gwynne. Both aid him at crucial times in his quest.Hadley is one slick article however and he's got a lot of gunslingers on his payroll. One of them is future producer/director Blake Edwards who plays a punk gunfighter working for Hadley. Edwards also co-wrote PanhandleAnother reviewer compared Cameron's character to some of Clint Eastwood's heroes. I certainly haven't seen that kind of speed with a gun outside of such Eastwood classics like High Plains Drifter. Edwards and Cameron seem to be decades ahead of their time.This is a B western, but it's pretty grim stuff, not at all like a Gene Autry or Roy Rogers Republic western. No real production values and Rod's speed is a bit unreal, but the film is nicely acted and not for the Saturday matinée crowd.

John Sands is a famed ex lawman ,most celebrated for having faced down Billy the Kid .He is now living in Mexico ,having fallen foul of the law in the States,and is working as a storekeeper when news reaches him that his brother has been murdered .He vows to return to America to avenge his brother despite knowing full well this places him at risk of arrest . He is drawn into enmity with the ruthless Matt Garson who is also his rival for he hand of Garson's secretary (Joan O'Carroll)and to complicate matters he law is on his tail.Blake Edwards -a man mostly known for his acerbic comedic scripts-co wrote this movie and the screenplay is above average for the genre, and the era .Add some lively action ,including the old genre staple of a bar -room brawl ,and some capable performances and the result is a good and watchable B movie that devotees of the Western will especially enjoy