Rough Night in Jericho

Martin's Best Western
Dino made a number of Westerns, everything from the comic Western Pardners with Jerry Lewis, to a whodunit Western, Five Card Stud with Robert Mitchum, to playing an alcoholic lawman in Rio Bravo. But Martin had a field day playing the villain in Rough Night In Jericho, a hard-bitten, violent movie.

Martin plays Jason Flood, an ex-lawman who has taken over the town of Jericho. George Peppard and John McIntire plays former lawmen as well, who have been contracted to provide a stage to Jean Simmons, who Flood is trying to force into going into business with him. Flood is also an ex of Simmons, which makes him even more determined not to let Peppard and McIntyre help her out.

Things get increasingly violent until the final showdown, where the blood flows freely. Everyone is good in this film, fro mthe three leads to McIntire, who was always superb, particularly in Westerns, as well as the great Slim Pickens as one of Flood's henchmen. Rough Night In Jericho is...

UNUSUAL DINO WESTERN ! STILL GOOD !
This movie is not a high tension western like Rio Bravo or even Bandolero. Dean plays a chracter called Alex Flood, a bad guy. This movie provides a rare opportunity to see Dean Martin playing a bad man. And this is also a very rare opportunity to see an actor playing a bad guy can be charming. As long as your initials are D.M., it is not possible to be nasty, even when you are playing a bad guy ! So whether or not Dean Martin was the best choice for this role is arguable. Probably, the character that George Peppard played (good guy) would be much suitable for Dean Martin as people are always used to see him as a kind and happy-go-lucky persona.

As for the technical details of DVD, it is in wide screen format. Picture quality is good and sound quality is not too bad.

Dean is BAD
If you want to see what a BADMAN should be portrayed as, this is the movie and Dean Martin is the BADMAN! George Peppard co-stars and the fight-to-the-death at the end of the picture is a great ending to this excellent, but little known movie.

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