It's not THAT awful. There were a few points of interest here.
Yeah the protagonist is virtually un-flawed, and he's played woodenly by Jeff Young. But Dan Duryea livens up the proceedings, as a slimy, womanizing, snake-oil salesman of an ex-con ranch foreman.
One of the supporting roles, that of the doctor who is forced to surgically disable the hero's gun hand, is given to a black actor, in a choice that was unusual for the time. The only character that even seems to notice he's black is the hero, and clearly it's supposed to further illustrate what a good guy he is, that he's unprejudiced. Yeah whatever.
Two, count 'em two quasi-rape scenes leave a nasty taste in the mouth. There's very little artistry to either, just ugliness. The Good Girl survives hers unscathed, the Bad Girl's ends with her death. The scene where Duryea hands her over to hostile Indians and stands by without doing a thing for her is chilling; if there was any doubt that his character was going to die by the end of the picture, it goes out the window here. You KNOW he's gonna pay for being that callous.
The climactic shootout scene is filmed at night, in and around a saloon with the lights blown out. This is the most visually interesting part of the film, with complex compositions of light and shadow. Nicely done in a noir-ish way.
Yeah the protagonist is virtually un-flawed, and he's played woodenly by Jeff Young. But Dan Duryea livens up the proceedings, as a slimy, womanizing, snake-oil salesman of an ex-con ranch foreman.
One of the supporting roles, that of the doctor who is forced to surgically disable the hero's gun hand, is given to a black actor, in a choice that was unusual for the time. The only character that even seems to notice he's black is the hero, and clearly it's supposed to further illustrate what a good guy he is, that he's unprejudiced. Yeah whatever.
Two, count 'em two quasi-rape scenes leave a nasty taste in the mouth. There's very little artistry to either, just ugliness. The Good Girl survives hers unscathed, the Bad Girl's ends with her death. The scene where Duryea hands her over to hostile Indians and stands by without doing a thing for her is chilling; if there was any doubt that his character was going to die by the end of the picture, it goes out the window here. You KNOW he's gonna pay for being that callous.
The climactic shootout scene is filmed at night, in and around a saloon with the lights blown out. This is the most visually interesting part of the film, with complex compositions of light and shadow. Nicely done in a noir-ish way.