ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Spondonman
Ray Milland directed a film himself for the first time with this, and not a bad effort too. He had a rather up and down career as an actor and continued in the same vein as director.Gunfighter Milland is lost and on foot in the desert, stumbles across a stagecoach with its occupants brutally murdered and as it transpired, robbed. He makes it to the nearest town, is shot at by a deputy sheriff who should really have stuck to driving trains, then witnesses and gets accused of a cold-blooded murder, goes on the run and holes up in a young lady's house whose sheriff father is quarantined with yellow fever. Should he stay or should he go? With Love potentially in the air you know the answer to that. So, now with plenty of time for moralistic asides and romance he tries lamely to clear his name. It's sound and simple fare expertly done and an engrossing oater which also manages to lightly analyse duty (or dooty as Ward Bond might say), justice, hypocrisy and redemption. Poor old Raymond Burr got saddled once again with the deranged baddies part. The Gun is usually the final judge and jury in these kind of Westerns, however not so here - and it ends like a TV episode of Bonanza with the suddenly contented people rolling by like clouds.Refreshingly any blurred lines that are introduced are not allowed; this film is straightforward in every department with all the generally accepted correct morality boxes ticked by the end and well worth watching because of that.
MartinHafer
I was surprised to see that Ray Milland not only starred in this western, he directed it! The fact that a British man would star in an American western, however, did not surprise me. After all, if a Tasmanian (Errol Flynn) could star in one--why not Milland--especially since his Welsh accent was pretty faint. Plus, since the US is a country of immigrants, there MUST have been a few Brits in the Old West. However, I am sure none of them had a name like 'Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones' (Milland's actual given name)! "A Man Alone" is helped along by having a couple really good heavies--Raymond Burr (a familiar heavy of the 50s until he struck gold playing Perry Mason) and a young Lee Van Cleef (who was always menacing). These two automatically improves the movie from the onset. Ward Bond, a wonderful character actor is on hand to play the sick Sheriff. Plus, while he's not especially well-known today, Milland was a dandy actor (at least until his later years when, like Bette Davis, he would accept ANY part--and a few were pretty bad). Here he's still in his prime--a good, solid leading man--not the macho or romantic type--just a good everyman actor--and a far cry from his sophisticated image of the 1930s.This film starts off very sad. Milland is riding his horse in the middle of the American desert when he comes upon a party from a stage coach--and all of them, including the children, have been murdered. When Milland comes into town, the Deputy Sheriff sneaks up on him--Milland turns and shoots (wounding him). Now the town thinks HE was responsible for the massacre--not realizing some of the town's 'upstanding citizens' were the guilty parties. Milland discovers this but no one believes him. It's up to Milland to clear himself and ferret out the guilty parties by the end of the film.There is a major cliché that hinders the film from being one of the best westerns of the day. When Milland hides out, he just happens to hide out in the home of the Sheriff. While the Sheriff is delirious with fever, there is his pretty daughter in the home as well. When she discovers him and realized everyone is looking for him, she shelters him from the posse!!! Why would a woman do this--particularly the Sheriff's daughter?! This makes no sense--and I wish they'd not relied on such a phony plot device as this. And, when she inexplicably falls in love with him, it seems even more phony.Another cliché comes into play later in the film when Milland has his showdown with the leader of the murders (Burr). Burr refuses to draw his gun, so Milland throws away his advantage and his a fist fight! First, in a fight I am sure that the big and burly Burr would have won. Second, any SANE man would have shot out Burr's kneecaps or put a bullet in his brain--that's the only 'fair fight' that really took place in the West. The fist fight cliché is just sloppy writing.However, the film is entertaining and it does take a few nice detours apart from the clichés. As a result of good acting and part of the writing being good (only part), it is very watchable. Just don't expect a lot and you'll be happy with the results.By the way, Alan Hale is listed in the credits. This is actually Alan Hale, Jr. ('Skipper' from "Gilligan's Island")--not his famous character actor father (who was usually billed as 'Alan Hale').
silverscreen888
"A Man Alone", adroitly directed by Ray Milland, starred himself as a gunfighter who happens upon a stage robbery, where several people have been slain, while he has been stranded in the desert. He takes one of the horses he finds, and heads to town to report the crime. He is instead accused of the crime himself. He flees and hides in the town's bank. There, he overhears the gang responsible for the deaths talking over the robbery. Another banker is shot in the back, and again Wes (Milland) is made to look guilty of the murder. He stumbles into the sheriff's cellar during a sandstorm,still trying to evade capture; and the next morning, while he is trying to leave, he is confronted by the sheriffs daughter, Nadine. He can't leave; and they become unwilling companions. The sheriff (Ward Bond) is sick with yellow fever. He finds her asleep, exhausted by taking care of her father, and puts her to bed. Their whole relationship changes; she knows he is a good man; but when the sheriff wake he feels he must go. She wants him to stay, they embrace and from then on the situation changes, again. The sheriff wants security for his daughter; and he has sold his soul to the bad element in town to get it. he confronts Raymond Burr, the real killer; they fight and he is wounded. He stumbles back to the house, where he passes out. Nadine, by now in love with him, fetches the doctor to help him. The sheriff finds him there and is livid, saying that he has compromised their home. Days pass; in the meanwhile, seeing what he has become by his own fear, the sheriff decides to let Wes, the gunfighter, go free. The townsmen still thinking that Wes is the murderer go after the sheriff when he has done so; but Wes returns to save the day. This is a tense, dramatic film with good dialogue and a fine silent portion at the film's outset that is superior storytelling with a camera. This film represents an unusual achievement by Milland both as actor and director. The production is in color which is well-used and unobtrusive; cinematography was done by Lionel Linton. The screenplay by John Tucker Battle I find to be taut and well-fashioned; the music by Victor Young served the story-line very well. Art direction was by Walter E. Keller, costumes by Adele Palmer and the important set decorations were supplied by Fay Babcock and John McCarthy, Jr. Among the other actors in this fine cast who made an unusual impression were Raymond Burr as the nefarious banker, Mary Murphy as Nadine, Ward Bond as the embittered sheriff, Grandon Rhodes and Lee Van Cleef, powerful Arthur Space as the doctor, Thomas Browne Henry as the newspaper man, Douglas Spencer, Alan Hale Jr. as the luckless acting sheriff. and Minerva Urecal. This is a tense film, from start to finish; and the pace was never neglected. Much of its action takes place in darkness or shadows, heightening its power on the mind of the viewer. The underlying theme in a semi-wilderness noir situation (where the central character cannot rely on the law to aid him) is strongly demonstrated, namely "to do what is important and be prepared to admit a mistake". This is a narrative about men and women alone on the frontier in a dangerous situation where the only certainties are to be found in one's own courage, character and self-reliant judgment. By my standards, it is a well-directed and very good and unusual story.
alexandre michel liberman (tmwest)
Milland, besides acting also directed this western with excellent results. His role is of the gunfighter who hides in Barbara Steele's house where she lives with her father, the sheriff(Ward Bond).The relationship of this trio is the high point of the film, Steele the repressed daughter, Bond the father who will do everything to make sure she will never be poor and Milland the man who comes to liberate her. Raymond Burr is the corrupt boss who rules the town and Lee Van Cleef is a mean guy who works for him. Things get so desperate for Milland that is hard to think how he is going to get out of it. He was a witness to all the dirt and murder that went on, so they must kill him.
