Sterling Hayden is the sheriff of a small Western town in South Dakota. A stagecoach is held up and the driver killed, and Hayden's son, Darryl Hickman, is arrested on the accounts of a couple of witnesses, some of them a little shaky. The boy is convicted and sentenced to hang. Hayden has one day to track down the real killer -- unless Hickman actually DID do the crime. Of course Hickman DIDN'T commit either the robbery or the killing. This isn't that kind of movie.
Instead, it's rather more of a mystery than a traditional Western. We don't see the hold up and killing. And we see only an exchange of shots during the climactic scene in which nobody is hit.
One can imagine the writer, Seeleg Lester, putting together a treatment of a noirish urban mystery about a police detective whose son is arrested. The resultant hurried investigation takes him through the darker parts of the city and bumps him into a couple of queer, louche characters.
Then somebody said, oh, hell, it's 1957 and noirs are on their last legs, whereas Westerns are flourishing both on the screen and on television. Let's turn it into a cheap Western.
Q.E.D. There's nothing about the film that isn't perfectly routine. The wardrobe is generic -- string ties, vests, and so on. Make up doesn't even nod in a period direction. The haircuts are echt-1950s, and the men's chins are so close shaven that not a hint of a whisker appears. The photography is functional but sometimes careless. Hickman's jail cell seems to be lighted from floor level. The performers hit their marks and repeat their lines. When Sterling Hayden tries to look mad with rage, his eyes widen slightly. When an actor puts some effort into a physical scene the overacting is outlandish, as if in a silent movie by Cecil B. DeMille. The best performances come from seasoned character actors like Will Wright. John Dehner is outstanding as one of the principals, an expensive lawyer whose character is more complex than anyone else's.
What can I say? If you like shoddy and undemanding Westerns, you'll enjoy this one. The main plot has some tension and it's not insulting in any way. There are times when one aches for mindlessness.
Instead, it's rather more of a mystery than a traditional Western. We don't see the hold up and killing. And we see only an exchange of shots during the climactic scene in which nobody is hit.
One can imagine the writer, Seeleg Lester, putting together a treatment of a noirish urban mystery about a police detective whose son is arrested. The resultant hurried investigation takes him through the darker parts of the city and bumps him into a couple of queer, louche characters.
Then somebody said, oh, hell, it's 1957 and noirs are on their last legs, whereas Westerns are flourishing both on the screen and on television. Let's turn it into a cheap Western.
Q.E.D. There's nothing about the film that isn't perfectly routine. The wardrobe is generic -- string ties, vests, and so on. Make up doesn't even nod in a period direction. The haircuts are echt-1950s, and the men's chins are so close shaven that not a hint of a whisker appears. The photography is functional but sometimes careless. Hickman's jail cell seems to be lighted from floor level. The performers hit their marks and repeat their lines. When Sterling Hayden tries to look mad with rage, his eyes widen slightly. When an actor puts some effort into a physical scene the overacting is outlandish, as if in a silent movie by Cecil B. DeMille. The best performances come from seasoned character actors like Will Wright. John Dehner is outstanding as one of the principals, an expensive lawyer whose character is more complex than anyone else's.
What can I say? If you like shoddy and undemanding Westerns, you'll enjoy this one. The main plot has some tension and it's not insulting in any way. There are times when one aches for mindlessness.