Burt Lancaster's first Western is worth watching.
Here's what I liked:
Here's what wasn't so great:
Here's what I liked:
- Burt is at his charming best. Very likable character played with a lot of heart. Maybe the first in a long line of "cattle baron's adopted son foremen". See Arthur Kennedy in "the Man From Laramie" and Charlton Heston in "The Big Country".
- Robert Walker is excellent as the sniveling bounder.
- The movie abounds in heavies. John Ireland and Hugh O'Brian do a nice job playing a couple of mean brothers bent on revenge.
- Very unusual for its time to have an unwed mother at the center of the plot.
- Nice location shooting in the high Rockies. A lot of effort went into portraying a realistic cattle drive.
Here's what wasn't so great:
- Plot and characterizations are a little too simplistic and melodramatic.
- Joann Dru took a step back for me in this one. Was it her hairdo? Can I be that superficial?
- Very little comic relief
- A few plot holes, the worst of which is Burt Lancaster outdrawing Robert Walker in the end when is has been conclusively demonstrated previously that Walker is a faster draw. Also, the unwed mother was at the center of the plot, then disappears.
- "Cattle baron" Westerns leave little room for Indian, Civil War and Mexican themes.