Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

TheLittleSongbird While the western genre is not my favourite one of all film genres (not sure which one is my favourite due to trying to appreciate them all the same), there is a lot of appreciation for it by me. There are a lot of very good to great films, with the best work of John Ford being notable examples.In the late 50s, starting in 1956 with 'Seven Men from Now' and right up to 1960 with 'Comanche Station', lead actor Randolph Scott collaborated with director Budd Boetticher in seven films. For me, 1957's 'Decision at Sundown' is one of their weakest, even a strong contender for their weakest. By all means it is a long way from terrible, it has a lot of great elements and is actually pretty decent. It just isn't in the same league as the wonderful 'Seven Men from Now' and 'The Tall T' and doesn't have enough of what made those two so good.Starting with the strengths, while not the best-looking of their outings, being smaller in scale and slightly too compact in its setting, 'Decision at Sundown' still looks pleasing. It is very nicely filmed, with some nice colour and atmosphere, and handsomely designed, it just lacks the visual grandeur of their best collaborations. The music has presence and fits nicely, while not being intrusive.Boetticher directs efficiently and mostly the film goes at a pace that isn't pedestrian. Numerous parts are suspenseful and fun, with some well choreographed action and some moral complexity. The ending is unusual and unexpected, and very effective. Scott brings likeability, charisma and intensity to his role and he is well supported by Karen Steele (oozing glamour and charm), Noah Beery Jr (enjoying himself immensely and having the best of the fun moments), John Archer (nice authority) and Andrew Duggan (suitably snake-like).However, Valerie French is rather bland and colourless in an underwritten role and lacking the charm and sometimes touching chemistry of Steele. John Carroll underplays his fairly one-dimensional villain, he's no Lee Marvin, Richard Boone or Claude Akins.The script is too wordy, lacking the meat and tautness of the scripts of the best Scott/Boetticher films, and can preach and be too basic to make the most of its complex themes. There is not enough depth to the characters, with only Scott's hero being developed enough and even then his motivation should have been explored more and more gripping. The story has a lot of great moments, but there is also some credibility straining, overload of simplicity and lack of tautness.In conclusion, decent but had the potential to be much better. 6/10 Bethany Cox

talisencrw This may not be as strong as other Scott/Boetticher Westerns, such as 'Buchanan Rides Alone' or 'The Tall T', but it's very strong, and would make a great double bill with 'High Noon'--another fine flick about someone being brave enough to stand against the tide of local cowardice, and get things done in cleaning up the town's garbage.This is very unique in that Scott's character, Bart Allison, is determined for revenge, three years in the making, for the bad guy seducing his wife (who ended up killing herself in disgrace). He seemed to think his wife had the moral fiber not to do that sort of thing willingly--unfortunately, the entire town, even his best friend, seems to know otherwise.A great look at the lengths some will go to right wrongs they come across in life. Allison's dismay at the community for allowing another wrong to happen, midway through the picture, is something that haunts and stays with you, long after the film concludes. I would have given this a higher rating, aside from an obvious, amateurish mistake that happens around ten minutes into the film, when one of the women talks, but an arm from one of the actors completely occludes her mouth, straight through her entire spiel. It's a minor thing, perhaps, but I'm very surprised no one caught it by the time it was released, especially a director of Boetticher's stature.

Robert J. Maxwell "Doc, if you'd been a bartender as long as I have you wouldn't expect so much from the human race." Good line. Thought provoking. Was Thomas Hobbes a bartender? Randolph Scott rides into Sundown with his pal, Noah Beery Jr. It's a big day in Sundown. Tate Kimbrough, who runs the place, is getting married to Karen Steele. Lucky him. But Scott interrupts the proceedings by speaking up when the preacher, Richard Deacon, asks if any man knows why these two should not be joined together. Well, Scott has a reason, although it doesn't emerge until later. Kimbrough had a fling with Scott's wife before she done killed herself.Following the interruption, everybody in town seems to take off after Scott and Beery, shooting and hollering. The pair take shelter in a stable while bullets whiz and zip through the windows. "Come on out!", yell the townsfolk. The doc is allowed to enter the bunker and tries to talk sense to Scott but Scott is a man of integrity. A visit by Steele doesn't change his mind either. He gets even more integrity when his buddy Beery is shot down in the street while unarmed. It makes the cheese more binding.It's Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher alright but unfortunately a lesser example of their work together. Boetticher was at his best with the stolid Scott hero and a flashy villain, like Lee Marvin or Richard Boone. This is a town movie, full of community involvement, and Boetticher wasn't interested in that. His subject was always two men who share a certain code facing off with one another. The fact that he'd been a professional matador in Mexico was a reflection of these values.John Carroll is not a complex villain. He's pretty much normal. The community, for all its occasional drunkenness, is dull. The music is dull. The wardrobe is dull. The location shooting is limited to a studio ranch. The dialog lacks the sparkle and freshness that Burt Kennedy brought to some of their collaborations, in one of which a character says, "Ma'am, if you'd of been my woman I'd have come for you, even if I'd of died in the doin' of it." Compared to some of the minor gems that Scott, Boetticher, and the rest of the team produced, this is lesser stuff.

poe426 What a quandary: a Budd Boetticher western that takes place within the city limits, for one thing (as opposed to where it should've transpired, like among a stand of trees or an outcropping of rock or a lean-to); three women (more than you can shake a six-shooter at, two of them still kicking, one long gone); talkative townsfolk (and plenty of them, too, crowding into every shot and babbling their fool heads off); a villain who hasn't really done anybody wrong (which makes Randolph Scott's "vendetta" seem, in retrospect, more than a little wonky); a 1950s television sensibility that permeates the whole thing (thanks to some uninspired lighting and cinematography)... For the very first time since I happened across 7 MEN FROM NOW, I was disappointed by a Boetticher western. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one was the exception to the rule.