The best Audie Murphy Westerns of the 50s had verve, pep and pace - by 1960 Universal evidently weren't keen to spend any money on them, because this looks very cheap. It's also lethargically directed and feels like a long, mediocre episode of a TV show. Audie is a green Texas ranger who heads off after villainous Barry Sullivan with a kindly old marshall. When kindly old marshall dies, it's up to Audie to bring the man back himself.
What follows is a really, really dull battle of wills. Sullivan was a good actor and Murphy could be effective, but neither have a character to play. There's no historical background or complexity, just a lot of he-pulls-a-gun-then--he-pulls-one. Sure they encounter some Indians, and gunslingers, and women... but there's no progression. It all feels repetitive. The filmmakers were probably hoping for a work along the lines of the Randolph Scott's Ranown cycle, but they miss by miles.
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