Almost a decade before Marlon Brando yelled "Stella!", Dana Andrews as con artist Eric Stanton says it quieter, but equally as intense, hearing of Linda Darnell as Stella's death while newly married to rich girl Alice Faye, who quit movies entirely because Darnell, even dead, stole the scenes away from the first-billed singer/starlet in her first, and last, dramatic role, Otto Preminger's FALLEN ANGEL.
The seventies' Western TAKE A HARD RIDE seemed to have several sub-genres at play, and yet, despite a small yet important role, Dana Andrews is the best representation since it's not a Blaxploitation despite stars Jim Brown (as Dana's friend), Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly, nor a Spaghetti Western with Lee Van Cleef on their trial, but more a modernized version of the kind of classic rough-and-tumble cowboy picture that Dana himself was a veteran of, from CANYON PASSAGE to THREE HOURS TO KILL, and before and beyond, including his last starring roles, TOWN TAMER and JOHNNY RENO.
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