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Outlaw Country
USA 1949
produced by Ron Ormond, June Carr (associate), Ira Webb (associate) for Western Adventures
directed by Ray Taylor
starring Lash La Rue, Al St. John, Dan White, John Merton, Nancy Saunders, Lee Roberts (II), Bob Duncan, Sandy Sanders, Bob Terhune, Steve Dunill, Ted Adams, Dee Cooper, House Peters jr, Stephen Keyes, Jack O'Shea, Herman Hack, Al Haskell, Merrill McCormick, Artie Ortego
written by Ron Ormond, Ira Webb
Fuzzy, Fuzzy and Lash
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Marshal Lash (Lash La Rue) and his sidekick Fuzzy (Al St John) are sent
to an area of lawlessness somewhere out West, an area where a certain
McCord (Dan White) houses outlaws against a certain (high) price. The
problem: McCord is within his legal rights to do so, since he has declared
his land an independent state. The second problem: From McCord's land, his
gang of outlaws go on raids regularly, striking terror in the
neighbourhood. And the third problem: McCord has taken up counterfeiting
money with the help of former mint employee Evans (Ted Adams), whom he
holds captive along with his daughter Jane (Nancy Saunders). An
interesting detail not yet mentioned: McCord's top bodyguard, the Frontier
Phantom, is Lash's splitting image who will later also turn out to be his
brother (and who's also played by Lash La Rue). Phantom however is not
rotten to the core, eventually he lets Evans and Jane, who he has a soft
spot for, escape ... and right into the arms of Lash and Fuzzy. While
Phantom might not be entirely evil, he's not one of the good guys either,
that's for sure, and so he and his brother eventually face each other in a
showdown - and Lash beats the living daylights out of Phantom before
trading outfits with him and infiltrating McCord's camp undercover.
Eventually, he is found out though, and finds himself at the (limited)
mercy of McCord and his henchmen - when the real Phantom shows up. He has
in the meantime had a talk with Jane and she has persuaded him to switch
sides, and now Phantom helps his brother to break free. Lash and Phantom
soon find themselves cornered though, being simply outmanned and outgunned
by McCord and company - when an army of marshals show up to round up all
the badmen. And while it's up to Lash to clobber McCord, who tries to make
an escape, to a pulp, Phantom does the right thing and gives himself up to
the authorities - knowing Jane will wait for him. Apart from
the fact that this film has two Lashs for the price of one as a sort of
novelty, there is little special about this movie, and it's actually one
of the more boring ones of the series. Basically, the story of this one
seems to be poorly structured, lacks tension, and the low budget of the
film low budget producer Ron Ormond during his career would get very good
in hiding is a bit too obvious here. Not really worth your time,
unfortunately.
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