Truly Dreadful Film

Sadly Over-hyped

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The Secret Of Convict Lake is based on the proposition in the title, if you're a thief you think everyone steals. So when Glenn Ford who was framed for a robbery and murder leads a breakout in a Nevada prison and takes six men over the Sierras to a remote town in the foothills. Ford is looking to even the score with the guy that framed him, but the others who include Zachary Scott, Cyril Cusack, Jack Lambert, and Richard Hylton don't believe him, they believe he's hidden the stolen money there.One of their number dies, frozen to death on a mountaintop, but the others arrive at a small settlement on a mountain lake. The men are gone and the women are led by tough old pioneer lady Ethel Barrymore. Ford has a tough time keeping the others in line, especially Scott who definitely has his own ideas. It's pretty tough among the women as well, they haven't seen their men for weeks and some of them are looking good. For Barbara Bates especially, a young inexperienced girl who Hylton takes a fancy to. By the way in those days of The Code, Hylton's portrayal of a sex offender was pretty daring.Barrymore and Gene Tierney are pretty good at reading character and realize Ford is not a real criminal type. How that all works out you have to see The Secret Of Convict Lake.The film was shot in another remote Sierra town called Bishop, California and in Durango, Colorado. The cinematography is both stark, forbidding, and strangely beautiful. It happens to be based on a true story at a place called Monte Diablo Lake renamed Convict Lake as per the film.According to Peter Ford's biography of his dad, Glenn sustained a serious eye infection during the shoot and wore a patch over the infected eye when the cameras weren't rolling. He also had a great admiration for Ethel Barrymore as actress. And he and Gene Tierney found each other's company delightful.The Secret Of Convict Lake is a must for Glenn Ford's legion of fans.

Some films end up being forgotten and that's the case with this excellent western directed by Michael Gordon (Cyrano de Bergerac, Pillow Talk) and with great black and white cinematography by Leo Tover (The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Tall Men, The Sun Also Rises, among many others). Inspired by a legend of the Convict Lake (Sierra Nevada, California), it tells the story of men who escaped from jail and go looking for 40000 dollars, through the snow in a lonely group of houses located on an almost unreachable valley. Glenn Ford and the great bad guy Zachary Scott are the main male characters and Gene Tierney, Ethel Barrymore and Ann Dvorak, the female. Great script, even Ben Hecht touched it, though uncredited. Dale Robertson lends his voice as the narrator, also uncredited. This film was a critical and commercial success and I am sure that it will eventually be back where it belongs, among the best westerns, in DVDs , etc.

Those opening scenes of mushing through snow under arctic conditions made me appreciate the comforts of an easy chair and fireplace. It's an oddball Western from start to finish with a strong cast and a noirish atmosphere. Essentially a band of escaped convicts invade a small mountain village whose men are away leaving only the women. As you can guess a number of subplots evolve from the premise, the most important of which has Glenn Ford trying to clear himself of an unjust murder charge.I love it when evil-eyed bad guy Jack Lambert has a stare-down with gimlet-eyed bad guy Zachary Scott. It's almost like a couple of Darth Vaders squaring off. There are a number of good scenes most of which involve Scott, especially when he's vamping the hapless Ann Dvorak. But, the best scene defies our expectations when the two youngsters run off to the woods. It's a chilling, well done sequence. The cast is almost an A-list, with Ford quite good as the resolute Jim Canfield when he stands up to the other four convicts. Ditto, the other performers who manage to make some difficult dramatic scenes convincing enough. And catch that ending. It made me wonder just what does comprise a "duly constituted jury". It's an unusual resolution for its time, to say the least. I don't think I ever found out the "Secret" of the title, nor I believe do we ever see Convict Lake. Nonetheless, there's more than enough going on to fill a lively 83 minutes, and I agree with the others that the movie is generally an under-rated Western.

Six condemned convicts escape over a mountain pass (one of them doesn't make it, leaving five) in a blizzard and take refuge in an outpost where the men have temporarily left their wives and assorted other females to watch over the property. It's quite a setup and the movie does not let it down. Directed by Michael Gordon who did the superior Another Part of the Forest, this film nearly equals that one, with the women acting fairly mesmerizing as they eye these cons first with suspicion and later with sympathy and then a little lust. It's fairly predictable but that does not detract from the scenes, especially with Ford and Gene Tierney and Scott with Ann Dvorak. While Glenn Ford is great and has the hero's role, the parts for both Zachary Scott and Jack Lambert as the two heavies, are both excellent. Shot in black and white, the opening scene of them trekking over a mountain in a full on blizzard looks dark and ominous. Gordon doesn't waste any character in the film. Everyone has a background which is revealed with just enough information to leave a lasting impression. Amazing this film hasn't been seen more.