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The opening sees a tilted prairie during a downpour, stark terrain for even a hardened cowboy—the drifting Texan (Robert Mitchum) sets up a makeshift camp promptly trampled by a bovine stampede, he climbs a tree for an overhead view of the charging beef. (A bit later, he leads his horse to the river's edge only to be targeted by an unseen sharpshooter.) "Little argument over grazing land" involving the cattle rancher (Tom Tully), the stranger's friend (Robert Preston) leads the protesting homesteaders. "Up to now, I've never been hired for my gun." "Can you afford to be particular?" Snagging the herd is the sharpie's secret objective so he manipulates the frontiersmen along with his opponent's daughter (Phyllis Thaxter), whose sister (Barbara Bel Geddes) warms to the "loose rider" after first welcoming him with potshots. The complicated scheme involves an Indian agent (Frank Faylen) angling for shady profits, and a farmer (Walter Brennan) simmering vengefully after his son's death. "I always wanted to shoot one of you, and he was the handiest." Robert Wise on the range, graduating to prestige projects while hanging on to a shadow or two from his Lewton days. Landscapes arid or frigid under blank clouds, interiors appropriately jagged by fluctuating alliances. The famed saloon donnybrook showcases Nicholas Musuraca's chiaroscuro sculpting—it begins with a shattered lantern, proceeds with figures growing sweaty and bruised in the gloom half-illuminated by grilled windows, ends with Brennan in profil perdu. The climax has the choice image of a bullet-cracked clock, and the heft of conscience brought to bear on Mitchum's beautiful opaqueness. "When lighting strikes, you're there." Mann takes it from here with Winchester '73, Devil's Doorway and The Furies. With Charles McGraw, Clifton Young, Tom Tyler, George Cooper, Tom Keene, Bud Osborne, Harry Carey Jr., Zon Murray, and Robert Bray. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |