As much as I enjoy Jimmy Stewart, Dan Duryea and Audie Murphy, I can see why
Anthony Mann turned this movie down: the script is way more complicated than it
needs to be and there's no tension. Instead of being concerned about what
happened to who I spent most of my time scratching my head in confusion. From
what I gathered Stewart used to work for the railroad as a bounty hunter or
something. Anyway, he let a guy (Audie Murphy) escape once and they fired him.
Jump back to the present day and the railroad secretly hires Stewart back to
deliver $10,000 to a work camp. As luck would have it Audie Murphy and his gang
rob the train, but they can't find the money since Stewart hid it on a kid.
Other stuff happens including people riding horses and shooting guns, but it's
just a mess. Not a disaster, just a ham-handed mess.
All three of the leads are fine, but the direction by James Neilson is dead on
arrival. Also a number of the scenes are obviously shot on a sound stage, which
I found very distracting. Not really worth watching.
Interesting fact: According to IMDb Jimmy Stewart was so upset with Anthony Mann
for refusing to direct the movie he never spoke to him ever again!
Notice Jack Elam on the right?
Notice Jack Elam on the right?
