Blah Western with Alan Ladd as a cattle man in the years after the Civil War who has trouble selling his cattle, so he persuades some farmers to build a railroad and set up a town… which seems to be doing things the long way ‘round, but there you go.
There’s disappointingly little action in this film, with too many scenes of Ladd persuading people to his scheme – which is a shame, because the action that is there is quite well done: a solid cattle stampede, a cowboy attacks Ladd with a branding iron and there is a decent final gunfight (director Gordon Douglas showed a similar flair for “duel” sequences in The Iron Mistress).
Ladd seems tired and not that interested in what’s going on; better performances from Edmond O’Brien, who plays an alcoholic, and Virginia Mayo, the love interest. The villain is played (averagely) by Anthony Caruso, who was a favourite of Ladd’s and appeared in several films for that actor’s production company, Jaguar.
There are shades of Shane throughout the film: a gunman who wears all black, a tyrannical cattle baron, a bunch of poor but honest homesteaders struggling against said baron, a weak character who is goaded into fighting by the baddy, Ladd coming in at the end to kick arse. But it’s very meh. Ladd’s son David has a small role; the little fellah impressed people enough for him to be cast in the lead in The Proud Rebel (which like this had Alan Ladd as a former Confederate who is persecuted after the war by Yankees… gee those poor Confederates).
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