The story was copied many times on television shows n the 1950s. I remember seeing the Lone Ranger up against mobs, Steve McQueen and others doing the same....all preaching civility amid a rioting mob out to lynch someone. Since this film was released in 1942, it may have been one of earliest times this theme was put on film, so I can't accuse them of copying an old storyline.
What sets this apart and makes it a good movie was the great dialog, especially in the early moments when "Gil Carter" (Henry Fonda) and "Art Croft" (Harry Morgan) enter a bar. The characters in here pretty black-and-white as far as their attitudes go. The three guys the mob accuses later on are made to look totally innocent, almost too much so right off the bat, so there is really no guessing done by us, the audience.
Fonda was most interesting of the lead characters, along with Frank Conroy as "Major Tetley" and Dana Andrews as "Donald Martin." Jane Darwell was a hoot as one of the more bloodthirsty of the mob members. That was a far cry from her role with Fonda in "The Grapes Of Wrath."
The film bogs down once they get to the campsite where they think they've found the murders-rustlers. At that point, it's talk-talk-talk. Even Caesar Romero as the Mexican, "Juan Martinez" says he hungry "with all this talk going on." It makes me think they could have made this film even shorter, and it's short as it is at 75 minutes.
It does pick back up the last 15 or so minutes and the reactions of the mob at the end in the bar are interesting. Fonda reads a letter one of the accused men wrote but that turns out to be very preachy, not really a note someone in his position would have written to his wife but a sermon about law and justice.
Overall, it's okay but generally petered out after a good start and, like many classic westerns of the 1940s and 1950s, is too talky and melodramatic.
Still, it's a powerful story, well-acted, well-directed, nicely shot (the DVD looks good) and the message is one to remember. If they re-shot this today, I think they'd tighten the script up a bit and add a little more action and suspense.
What sets this apart and makes it a good movie was the great dialog, especially in the early moments when "Gil Carter" (Henry Fonda) and "Art Croft" (Harry Morgan) enter a bar. The characters in here pretty black-and-white as far as their attitudes go. The three guys the mob accuses later on are made to look totally innocent, almost too much so right off the bat, so there is really no guessing done by us, the audience.
Fonda was most interesting of the lead characters, along with Frank Conroy as "Major Tetley" and Dana Andrews as "Donald Martin." Jane Darwell was a hoot as one of the more bloodthirsty of the mob members. That was a far cry from her role with Fonda in "The Grapes Of Wrath."
The film bogs down once they get to the campsite where they think they've found the murders-rustlers. At that point, it's talk-talk-talk. Even Caesar Romero as the Mexican, "Juan Martinez" says he hungry "with all this talk going on." It makes me think they could have made this film even shorter, and it's short as it is at 75 minutes.
It does pick back up the last 15 or so minutes and the reactions of the mob at the end in the bar are interesting. Fonda reads a letter one of the accused men wrote but that turns out to be very preachy, not really a note someone in his position would have written to his wife but a sermon about law and justice.
Overall, it's okay but generally petered out after a good start and, like many classic westerns of the 1940s and 1950s, is too talky and melodramatic.
Still, it's a powerful story, well-acted, well-directed, nicely shot (the DVD looks good) and the message is one to remember. If they re-shot this today, I think they'd tighten the script up a bit and add a little more action and suspense.