The film starts with a woman with a baby being told they cannot continue her journey by wagon from San Francisco to St. Louis. This is because a dangerous bandit is loose and the express company has a rule about putting children in dangerous situations. They are to stay at the express station (in the middle of nowhere) until the next day at the soonest. In the meantime, she orders everyone about like dogs. This makes perfect sense to not put a baby in harm's way...but Susan Hayward's over-the-top response doesn't. She simply acts like a stuck up monster and it was quite annoying--purely a cliché in every way ("the angry and spunky lady"). At this point, the film had a big strike against it. It's not good when many in the audience are rooting for someone, anyone, to punch this b..., I mean, witch, in the mouth! Now this sort of petulant role is not uncommon for Miss Hayward (I can name quite a few films in which she did this, but the most egregious example was in THE CONQUEROR), but this is definitely among the most ridiculous and overdone.
Soon, the bandits arrive and take over the outpost--which is pretty easy because the only ones there (other than the two "guests") are Edgar Buchanan and Tyrone Power (an odd choice as a star in a Western). What happens next is all very well done, though also very, very familiar--with a plot that is reminiscent of Randolph Scott's TALL T (a superb film in every way) and Gary Cooper's MAN OF THE WEST. In fact, there are probably many more films of the genre like it--even non-Westerns such as the Bogart films, THE DESPERATE HOURS and KEY LARGO as well as Sinatra's SUDDENLY. In other words, the film is about a group of people who are being held hostage by a group of desperadoes. And, in the case of every single one of these films, you know that by the end the male lead who is one of the hostages will somehow manage to take out the entire gang AND save the innocents!
Overall, while the plot is very familiar and Miss Hayward's early scenes would even have made Mother Theresa hate her had she seen it, I still think this is basically a good film that is watchable. Some pluses were Power's amazingly restrained performance, the adorable kid and Jack Elam playing his typical menacing psychopathic role--AND you get to see him strangling Hayward! Just don't expect it to be as good as TALL T or THE DESPERATE HOURS--these have taken this theme to amazing heights, though I must admit that at least RAWHIDE was among the first of the famous films I have mentioned.
By the way, in the shoot out between Elam and Power, inexplicably both seem to fire bullet after bullet without reloading--and it appeared as if Power had no extra ammo.
Soon, the bandits arrive and take over the outpost--which is pretty easy because the only ones there (other than the two "guests") are Edgar Buchanan and Tyrone Power (an odd choice as a star in a Western). What happens next is all very well done, though also very, very familiar--with a plot that is reminiscent of Randolph Scott's TALL T (a superb film in every way) and Gary Cooper's MAN OF THE WEST. In fact, there are probably many more films of the genre like it--even non-Westerns such as the Bogart films, THE DESPERATE HOURS and KEY LARGO as well as Sinatra's SUDDENLY. In other words, the film is about a group of people who are being held hostage by a group of desperadoes. And, in the case of every single one of these films, you know that by the end the male lead who is one of the hostages will somehow manage to take out the entire gang AND save the innocents!
Overall, while the plot is very familiar and Miss Hayward's early scenes would even have made Mother Theresa hate her had she seen it, I still think this is basically a good film that is watchable. Some pluses were Power's amazingly restrained performance, the adorable kid and Jack Elam playing his typical menacing psychopathic role--AND you get to see him strangling Hayward! Just don't expect it to be as good as TALL T or THE DESPERATE HOURS--these have taken this theme to amazing heights, though I must admit that at least RAWHIDE was among the first of the famous films I have mentioned.
By the way, in the shoot out between Elam and Power, inexplicably both seem to fire bullet after bullet without reloading--and it appeared as if Power had no extra ammo.