Diagonaldi Very well executed

Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

RanchoTuVu A cattle drive from Texas arrives at its destination in a town in Kansas. This sets off a wave of price gouging to take as much advantage as possible of the new business. Virginia Mayo runs a restaurant and Robert Middleton is set to open a new saloon. Marshall Robert Ryan comes face to face with the past in both Middleton and the cowboy son of a gunslinger (Jeffrey Hunter) who believes that Ryan gunned down his father in cold blood in the previous town he was a marshal in. The film is pretty good at showing the avariciousness of the merchants, who are willing to let law and order slide in order to profit from the business. Do they want law and order or wild and uncivilized profiteering led by the crooked Middleton and his gunslingers? It's a good question and the film could have been a whole lot better with a script that made more sense, especially for the beautiful Mayo, who's character is trapped in a stereotype.

MartinHafer Of all the genres, Westerns are among my least favorite--mostly because I just think there have been too many. So many that the same themes appear again and again and they just don't hold my interest. So, when I find a Western that's just a little different, I get pretty excited. Now THE PROUD ONES has a lot of familiar elements, but enough new ones that I liked the film and am glad I watched it.It also didn't hurt that it starred one of the best and most underrated actors of the 1950s, Robert Ryan--who played a wonderful character. This character seemed inspired, somewhat, by Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON--a sheriff who refused to back down when it came to doing his job and doing what was right. However, there were a few unique story elements, such as the back stories of both Jeffery Hunter and Ryan. Also, the villain (Robert Middleton) wasn't the usual bad guy--it's usually some power-hungry land baron or bank robber.Overall, due to a very well constructed script, good action, plenty of tension and excellent direction, this one manages to get an 8--it's really quite good.

Poseidon-3 A very captivating and entertaining western which seems to have been misplaced in the shuffle of endless films of the genre that were churned out in the 50's, this deserves more attention than it has thus far been accorded. Ryan plays a town marshal, preparing for the inevitable boom that is about to come from men just in off a major cattle drive. His sweetheart Mayo runs a local restaurant/hotel and his heretofore-uneventful jail house is attended to by elderly Brennan and meek O'Connell. When the cattle drive has concluded, Ryan is introduced to hotheaded and confrontational Hunter, whose father was shot and killed by Ryan in a previous town. Adding to Ryan's woes is the fact that an old enemy (Middleton) from that same town has just breezed in to open up a casino. The animosity between Ryan and Middleton is anything but dormant and within minutes, they are ready to reopen the war between them. Hunter's role in this wavers frequently between the two, while Mayo just wants to see Ryan survive it all. Ryan is excellent here, displaying a strong sense of justice and vindication against tough odds (made even worse when his character begins experiencing physical afflictions caused by a recent skirmish.) He delivers his lines with great authority and/or affection, depending on what's called for. His assessment of the town elders is a highlight. Hunter, a gloriously beautiful man whose eyes alone light up the screen, is great, too. His part is difficult to handle in that his loyalties and motivations change swiftly, but he does a nice job with it. Unlike a lot of actors might have done in this time period, he continues to walk with a limp long after his leg is injured by a bullet. Many others would have considered it "healed" after a reel and reverted to their usual gait. In one amusing instance, he is being nursed for his leg and his pants are cut up to the thigh and his shirt is removed (though there is nothing whatsoever wrong with his upper half – decidedly so!) Mayo manages to get in a few good licks and benefits from a character that is spunkier and more determined than some of the ladies who were featured as window-dressing in so many other westerns of this era. Middleton is effectively slimy and self-satisfied, Brennan is enjoyably laconic and sly and O'Connell ably portrays a man in over his head and who suddenly wound up with more trouble than he bargained for. Many effective character actors dot the town. Look for "The Dick Van Dyke Show's" Deacon as the local barber (oddly, he is good in every scene except for a very awkward appearance at an impromptu town council meeting.) Former child star Coogan is reduced to one line or so as a restaurant customer. Fortunately, "The Addams Family" would come along within a decade. The use of music is very interesting in the film with a whistled theme coming up whenever the past is mentioned paired with more dramatic scoring during the, at times, suspenseful and dramatic moments. The exquisite cinematography by Ballard only adds to the other already winning ingredients.

reelguy2 Twentieth-Century-Fox was second only to Warner Bros. in rehashing the plot lines of its earlier films. "The Proud Ones" was made a mere four years after "Red Skies of Montana" - but the similarities between the films are only too obvious. The newer film even features the same star, Jeffrey Hunter. Not only that, "The Proud Ones" incorporates music cues that Sol Kaplan composed for "Red Skies of Montana." The story of the Cinemascope picture is bound to evoke deja vu: a young upstart seeks vengeance on an older man he believes is responsible for the death of his father. As the young man, Jeffrey Hunter deserves credit for lending credibility to a character whose actions are anything but credible. He did the same miraculous job in "Red Skies of Montana." If anyone thinks Hunter was just a pretty face, his subtle work in these films should prove he had much more to offer.The rest of the cast in "The Proud Ones" is also excellent, helping to make this one heck of a movie. Unlike its also good predecessor, this "remake" is a western. The genre was obviously chosen to make it seem different from the original. But make no mistake, the two movies are essentially the same. Watch them both and enjoy!