I watched this a very long time ago (sometime in the early 60's, and I think I was about 10 years old). It made me cry at the end, and I recall feeling embarrassed about that, but I always remembered it, and when I joined Netflix, I figured I'd track it down. I knew it was black-and-white, so when I started watching the John Ford, John Wayne version, I realized it wasn't the same film.
Sure enough, the characters and the ending were nothing like this one, the original (talkie, since I gather there was also a silent version that preceded this one). Even though it was over 40 years ago, I vividly remember the scene at the waterhole, and the last of the bad men stumbling into that dusty little town on the edge of the desert. I didn't understand it fully at the time, but it was probably my first exposure to the idea that good and evil can coexist in the human soul.
Sure enough, the characters and the ending were nothing like this one, the original (talkie, since I gather there was also a silent version that preceded this one). Even though it was over 40 years ago, I vividly remember the scene at the waterhole, and the last of the bad men stumbling into that dusty little town on the edge of the desert. I didn't understand it fully at the time, but it was probably my first exposure to the idea that good and evil can coexist in the human soul.