Jack McCall, Desperado (1953)

• Year: 1953
• Released: 01 Apr 1953
• Country: United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045924/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jack_mccall_desperado
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Approved
• Genre: Western
• Runtime: 76 min
• Writer: John O’Dea, David Chandler
• Director: Sidney Salkow
• Cast: George Montgomery, Angela Stevens, Douglas Kennedy
• Keywords: civil war,

5.3/10

Jack McCall, Desperado Storyline

Jack McCall is a Southerner, but joins the Union Army in the Civil War. When he is tricked into giving out the location of headquarters, he’s tried as a spy and sentenced to death. He makes good his escape, but Hickok and Bat kill his parents to seize his plantation and money. Trying to prove his innocence, he locates Spargo after the war, who’s paid off by Hickok and Bat, so that Jack is once again jailed and again escapes. He still has hopes of clearing his name, but Bat and Hickok now are after gold in the Dakotas.

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Jack McCall, Desperado Movie Reviews

Kafka Rides The West

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…”

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.

An action full western

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.