This is a classic style western with Audie Murphy as the good guy seeking out the killers of his father and brother. Fortunately, he's got experience in the field of "troubleshooter", and can handle things better than the killers, the town's most respected men, think. They send him on suicide missions against the likes of wild cards Dan Duryea, the professor Russell Johnson, and Jack Elam, only to be stunned by Audie's survival against these odds.In making this, you could see that all involved allowed Duryea's overwhelming persona to take control. And that was the key. A great work relies not only on the great persona, but also the others to be willing to work off of him. "Great actors are great reactors" is known well to the acting community. A pity that many of the plebes who post on IMDb will laud the wrong actor.Anyone can play a sadist. The real actors are the ones who can react to the sadist, and let him come across with power. Anyone can shout "That ain't no country I ever heard of", but the real actor is the one who is willing to stutter "What?" over and over.However, here, Duryea deserves his praise. He's not your cliché bad guy. He's Duryea, full of fun and laughter, and each film he manages to make the character a little different. Just saying that the others deserve respect, too, for their cooperation.Full of thrills, the film seems to last only a few minutes. And that's the sign of a good director. You get your bang for the bullet here.Plus the classic combo of Murphy and Duryea. The only thing more magical than that would be to add in Stewart with an accordion.

Ride Clear of Diablo is directed by Jesse Hibbs and adapted to screenplay by George Zuckerman from a story by Ellis Marcus. It stars Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Susan Cabot, Abbe Lane and Russell Johnson. Irving Glassberg is the cinematographer with location filming in Technicolor at Lone Pine and Victorville in California. Plot sees Murphy as Clay O'Mara, a railroad surveyor forced to return to his home town after rustlers kill his father and brother. Getting the sheriff to make him a tin star wearing deputy, Murphy sets about finding out who was responsible for the murders. His first port of call is a meeting with notorious gunslinger Whitey Kincaid (Duryea)...Lively and utterly enjoyable B Western in the cannon of Audie Murphy. Standard revenge formula of plotting is elevated to better heights by the central relationship between Murphy's honest do gooder and Duryea's rough and tumble bad dude. Director Hibbs smoothly directs and the story has one or two surprises to off set the expected lack of credibility in the story. Glassberg's photography is beautiful and there's good support to the leads from Jack Elam and Denver Pyle. The girls look sexy and are costumed in style, while the action sequences, notably a horse pursuit featuring a gorgeous white stallion, are good value for money. Everything, tho, is in Duryea's shadow, stealing the movie, Duryea is having a great time as the cackling villain forming an uneasy friendship with Murphy. It's this coupling, and the turn of events in the finale, that most will fondly remember the film for.Real solid stuff. 6.5/10

Ride Clear of Diablo is a stand out among the B westerns that Audie Murphy did in the 1950s. Murphy is Clay O'Mara who's looking for cattle rustlers that murdered his father and brother while he was away from the family ranch.Murphy gets hired by Sheriff Paul Birch as a Deputy and also takes a liking to Birch's niece Susan Cabot. She's got a fella though in lawyer William Pullen. The joker in the deck in this film is Dan Duryea. Duryea was a fine actor who played many a psychotic villain in films. A typical and unforgettable part for him would be Waco Johnny Dean in Winchester 73. That's quintessential Dan Duryea. A year earlier in 1953 in Thunder Bay, Anthony Mann who directed Winchester 73, fooled his audience by not having Duryea betray Jimmy Stewart.Something similar happens here. Audie Murphy is sent out to bring in Duryea, but the two develop a relationship of sorts. He's still Dan Duryea, hyena laugh and all, but you're not quite sure what he's gonna do in the end. And I'm not gonna say what either, but it's the key to the film.Audie Murphy did some fine B westerns in the 1950s. Unfortunately the B western was finding a new home in television. But Murphy's work is appreciated among western fans today though.

A pretty routine Audie Murphy vehicle made infinitely watchable by Dan Duryea's colorful and totally against type performance as the notorious black clad outlaw Whitey Kincaid. A gem for Duryea fans.