Universal signed Yvonne de Carlo as a sort of back up Maria Montez, so when Montez turned down the role in this, de Carlo stepped in. Problem is the film is still clearly written for Montez - she's a hoity-toity dame who speaks in a foreign accent and runs a saloon.
Rod Cameron, an overweight puffy dude who had a brief vogue as a leading man, pops into town looking for revenge. Cameron strikes sparks with de Carlo, sleeps with her (it was hard to tell by what we saw but this seemed implied via the dialogue...that they'd had sex not just kissed), then she thinks they're getting married but he's got a fiancee - which is pretty racy. So she forces him to marry her at gunpoint then reveals he's on the run.
There's an unfortunate rapey vibe - indeed it's one of the most rape-y Westerns I've seen. In the first act De Carlo is always slapping Cameron's face and he's roughly kissing her and she slaps him again and he kisses her again and she's supposed to like it; then later on he abducts her and forces her to go on a honeymoon; when he arrives back from six years absence he grabs her and drags her upstairs and she's struggling. He rapes her twice! (Or at least that's what it seems like.)
Then when he meets his six year old daughter by de Carlo he winds up abducting her from de Carlo because de Carlo allows her to sing on a bar, and then spanks the daughter when she throws a tantrum (but the daughter doesn't mind because it means he loves her). And he goes and fetches his old fiance! Then later on when the daughter is kidnapped by the baddie, de Carlo tries riding after them.. and Cameron forcibly removes her from the horse. And at the end Cameron gives de Carlo a spanking to show he loves her with the daughter looking on.
It's really horrible. It's also tonally a mess because the film starts off with Cameron seeking revenge against the guy who killed his partner... all good stock Western stuff... but then his six year old daughter becomes involved and the film moves into Full House territory with cuteness of a clueless cowboy dealing with his daughter... but the mum is still around, and the dad is keeping the daughter from the mum! The revenge plot is forgotten until the end - actually it's forgotten at the end too because the baddie kidnaps the daughter, it's got nothing really to do with shooting Cameron's partner.
There's an awful scene where de Carlo - this is after Cameron has stolen her daughter - goes on how much she loves Cameron, how she'll do anything for him, etc etc. Then later on de Carlo's meant to be all embarassed because she runs a saloon... whereas Cameron was in prison!
How to fix it? I think start the film when Cameron returns from prison (i.e. the six year later mark... remove the prologue). Have him come to town. Don't make De Carlo the mother, make her a saloon keeper looking after the kid; kill off the mother so Cameron's actions aren't so obnoxious and immoral.
De Carlo looks nice but has to be passive the whole thing. She slaps Cameron a few times but gets spanked and raped in return.
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