Nonureva Really Surprised!

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

classicsoncall Interesting to speculate what might have happened if the Jack Bruhn gang never showed up. Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) was creating a lot of resentment with his insistence on putting a stop to the fencing on open range land. Given his demeanor, the thought occurred to me that the town of Bitters might have been named after him. Had it gone that way, the story might have been just as grim as the one we got to see.I'm still not used to seeing Burl Ives in a Western setting, even though he's appeared in a number of them. Often as a villain too, as in 1958's "The Big Country". I guess I was too conditioned as a kid by his voicing Sam the Snowman in the TV movie "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"; that's where I think I first became aware of him. I think the story could have used a better explained rationale for the hold he had over his fellow band of thugs and cutthroats. They all stood down when he made it a point, but after a while I began to question why they were so afraid of him.The one casting surprise in the story for me was that of David Nelson as the young outlaw Gene who had an eye for town girl Ernine (Venetia Stevenson). Brother Rick appeared in a few but this is the first time I've seen David in any vehicle other than his parents' TV series.Where the film departs from a more conventional dynamic occurs in the latter part of the story when Ryan's character leads the outlaw bunch on a death march with the complicity of their leader Bruhn, who at that point pretty much knew that he was dying of a bullet wound. Starrett's only hope of making it out alive is borne out when the gang members start taking each other out in an expanded take on "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre".With as many Westerns as I've seen, this is the first one that graphically depicts what a difficult time a horse can have trying to walk through a couple feet of snow. It's obviously not that easy, and something Blaise Starrett might have considered when he stated to Bruhn at one point while on the trek - "None of us are gonna make it".

JasparLamarCrabb André De Toth's odd western stars Robert Ryan as an angry gunslinger feuding with a local farmer and coveting the farmer's sexy wife. Before Ryan can have it out with the farmer, a band of outlaws hit town and a tense psychodrama ensues. While the acting is uniformly excellent, this film is so devoid of any style it's hard to imagine what De Toth was after. Ryan and Burl Ives (as the lead bad guy) are excellent and the snowy imagery (it's set in the mountains of Wyoming) is different, but the plot is anemic. With zero close-ups of any of the actors, it's tough to get too deeply invested in what happens to any of these characters. Tina Louise and David Nelson are in it too. The rousing music is by Alexander Courage.

bkoganbing Day Of The Outlaw casts Robert Ryan as a tough westerner who resents the homesteaders like Alan Marshal fencing off the open range. But in Marshal's case, he's got other resents going as well since he's married to Tina Louise who once had a fling with him. He has every intention of doing something about it legally or illegally and who's to question in this remote rugged high country in a town that's barely twenty or so people.But when Burl Ives and a murderous pack of outlaws ride into town and take it over to provision up because the US Cavalry is chasing them, Ryan, Marshal, Louise and everyone else is in the same boat. Imagine if you will Ives's Rufus Hannessy from The Big Country leading a gang of outlaws and you see what the town is up against. The only one not a killer is young David Nelson of the group.Ives has an additional problem, a bullet in his chest and the only doctor around is a veterinarian, Dabbs Greer. He gets the bullet out, but Ives would need proper medical care in a hospital to recover and to guard against internal bleeding. That's what slowly killing him, despite the morphine Greer is loading him up with.That part of the story is absolutely the true. Around this same period President William McKinley was shot in Buffalo and was thought to be recovering at first. But even he did not get adequate medical care and took a turn for the worse and a week later, died. Andre DeToth who did many good and rugged westerns did this grim tale set in the west during the winter. It looks like good skiing country, but this ain't no winter paradise for anyone concerned.

elf-65 This is a strange one: superb performances and realistic action set in a wonderfully harsh and beautiful setting, yet let down by plodding, uninspired direction. The sub-plot/romance concerning young Gene and the blonde girl reminded me of "3.10 to Yuma" for some reason, and then I felt a bit disappointed when I compared the two films. The camera work is a bit dull, with only wide shots, and a variety of mid-shots. De Toth never really seems interested in his characters or his story. And, like one of the other reviewers, I was a bit worried about the horses. Still, the location sequences are great, and a wonderful juxtaposition with a more typically dusty Western setting. The gloomy tone of the film, combined with the setting, gives it an intriguingly noir edge.Not bad, but this could have been so much more powerful.But, hey - I could watch Robert Ryan in anything!