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Paramount Studios eager to cash in on the success of Ladd's first western WHISPERING SMITH released a year earlier, so he was quickly hurried into this one which was adapted from a Max Brand novel "Montana Rides Again" It was also the first western for director Rudolph Mate.
Following a failed robbery in town Choya (Alan Ladd) a gunfighter is on the run and is tracked down in the mountains by a couple of no-good cowboys T. Jefferson Leffingwell (Robert Keith) and his partner "Tattoo" he is persuaded into posing as the long-lost son of a wealthy rancher Richard Lavery (Charles Bickford). For the plan to work it requires Choya to have a tattoo on his shoulder to represent a birthmark on the missing son. Choya talks his way into getting a job on the Lavery's Bar M ranch and overtime persuades the Lavery's that he is their long-lost son, complication arise when he finds himself falling for the Lavery's daughter Ruth (Mona Freeman)
Following roundup time he undertakes a cattle drive for Bar M ranch to El Paso at which point Ruth also decides to go along too. About the same time Leffingwell turns up planning to kill Lavery when the chance arrives, Choya offers him an alternative of stealing the money from the cattle drive. But guilt-ridden he can't do it so he double-crosses Leffingwell and has the cattle money deposited in the Lavery's account in the El Paso Bank, but not before he forces a confession from Leffington saying that after kidnapping the boy, he lost him to the notorious Mexican bandit Mateo Rubriz (Joseph Calleia), who adopted him as his own son called Tonio (Peter Hansen).
Finally Choya tells Ruth the truth that they are not brother and sister. Choya sets out across the Rio Grande and into the mountains in search of the real Richard Lavery Jr., meanwhile back at the ranch Ruth explains to her father what has happened Lavery Sn., sets off with Ramsome (Tom Tully) the Bar M ranch foreman to find Choya and bring him back for the sake of Ruth's mother (Selena Royle) who isn't aware of the full story. Choya meantime catches up with Tonio and persuades him to return with him to his rightful family. At the same time Leffington has arrived and 'spilt the beans' to Mateo Rubriz.
Choya and Tonio set off towards the Rio Grande with Rubriz and his followers in hot pursuit, during the escape Tonio is wounded and they become trapped before they can reach the border river. getting rid of their horses they hold-up in a cave, then at night they creep up on the bandits camp pinch a couple of horses and stampede the rest causing chaos in the camp! On then to and across Rio Grande completely wore out they are found by Lavery and Ransome and helped back to the Bar M ranch. Later Rubriz and his men catch up with then after a tense time all is resolved and the Lavery's are reunited with their son. Meanwhile Choya slips quietly away and rides off into the sunset or does he?
Filmed in glorious Technicolor on location in Portal, Arizona some sixty years ago, the DVD colour transfer is very good, making for a very watchable western with a fine performance by Alan Ladd. Now in the Public Domain BRANDED is available at Amazon.com Region 1 DVD
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Alan Ladd is involved in a shootout and is branded all in the first five minutes or so of this enjoyable western
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 2, 2014
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 21, 2020
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 30, 2014
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 13, 2014
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2018
Top reviews from other countries
ruggero
Una insolita e ben congeniata storia nel west,
Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on November 10, 2016
