The Secret of Convict Lake

Michael Gordon’s The Secret of Convict Lake is an excellent Western noir crossover that pits a gang of fugitives looking for stolen loot against a small group of lonely but tough broads (their men are off gold prospecting) in a cozy, rustic settlement on Lake Diablo surrounded by Rocky Mountain harshness. Once the prison escapees make themselves welcome by behaving themselves and helping save the women’s cattle from a fire, several romances bloom, not surprisingly, but the men’s intentions — and integrity — aren’t always what they appear. The gang’s ostensible leader Jim Canfield (Glenn Ford) and the newly engaged Marcia Stoddard (Gene Tierney) realize they have more in common than physical attraction, while Rachel Shaeffer (Ann Dvorak), the sister of Marcia’s fiancé, allows herself to be seduced by Greer (Zachary Scott) who wants to pump her for information about the missing guns and the missing money, which he believes the ladies are hiding. An excellent script, claustrophobic setting, and beautiful cinematography elevate what could have been a more routine Western film, but even the natural beauty can’t ameliorate the darkness of the soul: bodies fall, women are assaulted, and a youth is attacked with pitchforks. The fantastic Ethel Barrymore plays wise matriarch Granny, who takes poetic justice in her own hands by the film’s end.