Anthony Mann directed this surprisingly tough (for its era) and gritty western about an ex-outlaw (Gary Cooper) who, along with a card-sharp and a pretty woman, is left stranded after gun-toting thieves rob a train, only to end up taking refuge with the bloodthirsty gang--his former partners, led by his uncle. Screenwriter Reginald Rose, adapting Will C. Brown's book "The Border Jumpers" (a better title!), appears to have been given free reign in regards to the adult content of the story, and some of the sequences--particularly a nasty one wherein knife-wielding Jack Lord commands Julie London to strip in front of the men--are unsettling. Cooper is too old for the lead, and his budding relationship with London seems to bloom off-screen (at first she's a wise, jaded cookie, but too soon becomes the proverbial lovestruck female, turned soft by her victimization). Ernest Haller's cinematography is excellent, as is Leigh Harline's score, but the picture is almost overwhelmed by its own unpleasantness, and by Lee J. Cobb's growling, snarling performance as Cooper's grizzled relative. ** from ****
Review of Man of the West
