You know, I really can't complain about most of the acting in this film. Clint Walker, Anne Francis and the always wonderful Vincent Price do their parts very well, and individual scenes are very well shot and acted.
The setting was the Old West coming to an end, and the people who made it finding it hard to adjust to more "civilized" times. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" hit on these themes the same year and a lot better. This was convoluted, at best.
WHere I think this movie lost the war was in the editing room, where someone had to take all these scenes, and string them together in a coherent movie. A great example is the opening of the film, where there's this elaborate prison break in a military prison involving hiding in caskets brought in for a hanging. And then we never see those characters again (I don't think) and they have nothing to do with the rest of the plot.
I think part of the problem was Walker himself. He comes off as such a nice guy that you don't believe for a moment he killed 12 people. Or it was 12 complete misunderstandings.
Vincent Price is pretty good in this. While he's mostly remembered for horror films, they only comprise 25% of his credits. He did a lot of roles like this and he did them well. Anne Francis is great as a liberated woman trying to reform a fallen man.
What hurts the movie is Paul Hampton as the young gun, Billy. Honestly, his performance is so over the top, so grating and so silly, it just ruins the rest of the movie. One wonders why the more experienced actors didn't tell him to ratchet down a bit.
Now that I've checked the spoiler box, let's get to the ending. A "Lawyer" who has been seeking Kane out throughout the whole movie shows up at his ranch where he's living a nice life with Anne Francis, and then shoots him in his front yard because he killed his father 20 years before.
I think this is part of where the western was trying to be "Daring" and "Bold" instead of being a conventional western. But it just didn't fit because the rest of it WAS a conventional western.
Final point, reading everyone else's comments. Yes, the music was strange and totally inappropriate for the scenes it was used in.
The setting was the Old West coming to an end, and the people who made it finding it hard to adjust to more "civilized" times. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" hit on these themes the same year and a lot better. This was convoluted, at best.
WHere I think this movie lost the war was in the editing room, where someone had to take all these scenes, and string them together in a coherent movie. A great example is the opening of the film, where there's this elaborate prison break in a military prison involving hiding in caskets brought in for a hanging. And then we never see those characters again (I don't think) and they have nothing to do with the rest of the plot.
I think part of the problem was Walker himself. He comes off as such a nice guy that you don't believe for a moment he killed 12 people. Or it was 12 complete misunderstandings.
Vincent Price is pretty good in this. While he's mostly remembered for horror films, they only comprise 25% of his credits. He did a lot of roles like this and he did them well. Anne Francis is great as a liberated woman trying to reform a fallen man.
What hurts the movie is Paul Hampton as the young gun, Billy. Honestly, his performance is so over the top, so grating and so silly, it just ruins the rest of the movie. One wonders why the more experienced actors didn't tell him to ratchet down a bit.
Now that I've checked the spoiler box, let's get to the ending. A "Lawyer" who has been seeking Kane out throughout the whole movie shows up at his ranch where he's living a nice life with Anne Francis, and then shoots him in his front yard because he killed his father 20 years before.
I think this is part of where the western was trying to be "Daring" and "Bold" instead of being a conventional western. But it just didn't fit because the rest of it WAS a conventional western.
Final point, reading everyone else's comments. Yes, the music was strange and totally inappropriate for the scenes it was used in.