Don't listen to the negative reviews

Admirable film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's always amazed me that this lavishly produced, excitingly scripted and thrillingly staged western has no following. Perhaps it's the cast that has failed to attract the fans. Victor Mature is always acknowledged to have delivered a fine portrayal in Ford's My Darling Clementine, but he's just as effective here, even if the role is less showy. Heroine Coleen Gray is never numbered among the greats, yet she too has given a number of telling portraits. We enjoyed her characterization here. With the support players of course there are fewer cavils. No critic in his right mind would fail to praise the likes of Reginald Gardiner, Albert Dekker, Fred Clark, Charles Kemper, Charles Stevens and company. Gardiner has the most showy role, but all contribute engrossing performances.Lucky Humberstone has directed in an appropriately bravura style, assisted by Harry Jackson's striking studio and Arizona location cinematography. The large sets are equally impressive. So is Newman's score. This is a handsomely mounted and produced western which still comes across with tremendous force and power.In fact, despite its catchpenny title, to my mind, Fury at Furnace Creek rates as director Bruce Humberstone's masterpiece, breathtakingly photographed with a strong plot line and spectacular action sequences. The large cast acquits itself well and production credits are honorable in all departments. Humberstone's forte is action, but he handles the dialogue confrontations with equal ease. The script is peopled with interesting characters and only a somewhat conventional romantic interest dulls an otherwise really outstanding production. The climax is a tour-de-force of edge-of-the-seat excitement, the absence of music and the high contrast photography contributing to the dramatic effect. Both stationary camera angles and running inserts are used in the chase sequences - in Humberstone's expert hands, both are equally effective.

Victor Mature's second role in a western, the first being as Doc Holiday, in "My Darling Clementine". Here, he has top billing , and is one year away from perhaps his most remembered role, as Samson, in Cecil DeMille's biblical extravaganza.....Mature starts out in jail, apparently, related to an altercation over a crooked card game. Soon, he is free, and heads for Furnace Creek, AZ., where his estranged father recently died of a stroke, while defending himself against a charge of criminal bad judgement as an army officer. Strangely, the trial was conducted in a civilian court, rather than in a court marshal proceeding?! General Blackwell((Glenn Langan) was charged with sending a written message demanding that Capt. Walsh quit escorting an supply wagon train heading for Fort Furnace Creek, AZ, and lead his troopers to Lordsburg, NM. The wagon master pleaded that this was tantamount to a death sentence for the wagon personnel, which turned out to be true. While traveling through Apache territory, they were massacred by a party headed by Little Dog. The Apache then hid in the wagons, which were welcomed in Fort Furnace Creek, where they proceeded to massacre the undermanned, inhabitants, and burn down the fort. Mature was one of 2 sons of Gen. Blackwell, and hoped to find evidence that his father didn't sent the incriminating message, which had conveniently been lost. This meant that an important handwriting comparison could not be made, to settle the issue. Mature's estranged brother, Capt. Rufe Blackwell, also came to Furnace Creek to look for similar evidence of his father's innocence. Mature meets baker Molly Baxter, whose father was killed in the fort raid. She's convinced that town boss Ed Leverett was somehow behind the fiasco, by either bribing the General, or bribing the Apache. In contrast, Mature suspects that Capt. Walsh was somehow involved, but for what motive? He notices that Walsh, who is still around, after resigning from the army, is perpetually nervous and drinking.....Since the 2 brothers, both with an alias, don't like each other , they conduct their investigations separately, until near the end, when circumstances force them to collaborate. I will let you see the film(available at YouTube), to find out the outcome......Europeans were clamoring for the opportunity to make mineral rights claims within the Apache reserve, since silver deposits had been found. The Apache had been punished for their massacres by being stripped of their rights to that land. Leverett had immediately filed claims covering the known silver deposits, fueling speculation that he had somehow been behind the massacres.......Incidentally, the only Furnace Creek I could find reference to is the one in Death Valley, CA, not AZ. Also, the only Chief Little Dog I could find reference to was a Blackfoot, not an Apache: typical name and location confusion built into many westerns of this era. At least, this screenplay was not based on an actual incident, to my knowledge.....Charles Kemper played 'Peaceful' Jones: the town drunk, who was chained to a big tree trunk section every Saturday night, to hopefully keep him from getting drunk. Actually, he could carry the 'log' some distance, so presumably it was made of something light weight..... Filming occurred in the rugged dry country around Kanab Movie Fort, UT. It was shot in crisp B&W, which is retained.

A superior B Feature. Mature and Langan are the sons determined to prove their father, the commander of a lonely cavalry outpost, acted correctly and was not responsible for the fort's destruction in an Indian attack. In doing so they expose a plot by Dekker to buy up cavalry land rich in mineral deposits for a pittance. Script and direction give the production a stylish edge. It's not the question if Victor Mature is a good actor or not. I wouldn't like to decide this. It's like real life: Some real people also leave the impression of being bad actors. It's Mature's face that is interesting. It looks not only attractive, but uncommon, too. Behind it seems to be much more than you can immediately see, waiting to be revealed at any moment, wherefore it's interesting to watch him.

Fury At Furnace Creek is a richly textured Western from 1948 starring charming second-tier leads Victor Mature and Coleen Gray. The mid to late 1940's, the Golden Era of Hollywood movies, produced such Western Classics as Red River (1948), My Darling Clementine (1946), and San Antonio (1945) (see my review). While not in a league with those blockbusters, this picture reaps the benefits of a big studio industry that was at the absolute peak of movie-making artistry. Though a medium budget picture, it gets the same glossy production values as any top-dollar 20th Century Fox number.Mature and second lead Glenn Langan play long-estranged brothers uneasily reunited in a effort to clear their late Army General father of charges he caused an Indian massacre. Ms. Gray, as a pretty, but spunky diner waitress whose enlisted man father died in the massacre, makes a lovely romantic interest for the appealingly laid-back Mature. Formidable villainy is provided by Albert Dekker as a suave crime boss with henchmen Roy Roberts, Fred Clark, and the ever sinister Charles Stevens. Stevens, who claimed to be the grandson of Geronimo, was an asset to any Western. With his beady eyes, his weathered ferret-like face, and his wiry, stooped physique, he seemed the quintessential Western villain. Reginald Gardiner plays a pivotal supporting role as an alcoholic retired Army captain possibly involved in a conspiracy to frame the General.Though director Bruce Humberstone directed only two other Westerns, he nevertheless shows a nice touch for the genre here, getting fine performances out of a diverse cast and brilliantly setting up the scenes for some dazzling cinematography. He and film editor Robert L. Simpson move along the critically acclaimed Charles Booth/David Garth story with silky smooth scene transitions and nary a wasted camera shot in a lean 88-minute running time. The colorful score, credited in the movie's opening graphics to Alfred Newman, not David Raksin as IMDb indicates, consists mostly of pervasive period honky-tonk music but works quiet effectively. Sets are lavishly detailed and costumes are colorful and authentic looking. All of which along with intelligent, colorful dialog, and Harry Jackson's stylish cinematography creates a rich, layered, ambiance. The style of Jackson's atmospheric cinematography, abounding with night scenes and starkly shadowed, obliquely angled camera shots, shows the influence of the dark, Gothic crime melodrama, now known as film noir, which was all the rage of the late 1940's. Look for some some real knock-out camera work in this modest Western, particularly the following: 1) a lengthy sequence of panicked Garder stalked through, dark streets, boardwalks, and alleys by Stevens -- 2) a shot of Mature descending a stairway viewed between the silhouetted hats of the two villains watching him -- 3) in the final reel horseback chase a pose of villains galloping across the top of a rugged cliff while the two fleeing brothers ride parallel to them at the bottom of the cliff, all in the same frame. And surely the climatic shoot-out scene in the ruins of the old fort accompanied by whistling wind, tumbling tumbleweeds, and screeching gate hinges, has served endless inspiration for a later generation of Spaghetti Western directors.If you are a Western fan, or just a fan of classic movies, don't miss this one. Fury At Furnace Creek is a skillful blend of drama, intrigue, and action, exciting, atmospheric, and engaging from beginning to end. First-rate Western entertainment from Old Hollywood's Golden Years.