Any movie about mining for gold will eventually include double-crossing con artists, and THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN starts right off with honest hero Lex Barker punching his former backstabbing friend in the office of a saloon that's the central location: until they venture into the titular mine with two different names on the claims...
There's the shifty fella Barker fought with in charming, unpredictable Howard Duff, with his eyes on the gorgeous daughter of unlucky lifelong gambling miner William Demarest, a kind of passive version of Walter Huston...
Yet the budding romance between stubborn scene-stealing beauty Mala Powers with a wooden yet dependably agile Barker has more initial suspense than the inevitable battle-for-riches, that also includes sophisticated villain John McIntire (who owns a neighboring saloon) along with his lead thug in genuine tough guy Leo Gordon...
Eventually becoming the most severe, palpable threat, as Barker battles both crooked partner Duff and Gordon's savage gunslinger in a Western aptly balancing unpredictable twist-and-turn action/adventure and competitive romance in a perfect programmer's length of 80 minutes -- that economically covers all that needs uncovering.
There's the shifty fella Barker fought with in charming, unpredictable Howard Duff, with his eyes on the gorgeous daughter of unlucky lifelong gambling miner William Demarest, a kind of passive version of Walter Huston...
Yet the budding romance between stubborn scene-stealing beauty Mala Powers with a wooden yet dependably agile Barker has more initial suspense than the inevitable battle-for-riches, that also includes sophisticated villain John McIntire (who owns a neighboring saloon) along with his lead thug in genuine tough guy Leo Gordon...
Eventually becoming the most severe, palpable threat, as Barker battles both crooked partner Duff and Gordon's savage gunslinger in a Western aptly balancing unpredictable twist-and-turn action/adventure and competitive romance in a perfect programmer's length of 80 minutes -- that economically covers all that needs uncovering.