Exceptionally well organized Henry Hathaway Western ought to be better known. Tweaked from standard ingredients* into something lean & interesting (Robert Buckner; Wendell Mayes on script), it basically skips the first act, or rather opens at its climax, to pick up Don Murray, working his way West in search of his missing dad, riding for his life when unjustly tagged for murder and just managing to use a threatening horse stampede to evade a posse out for him. Hathaway fills us in as we go along: big boss rancher & son Dennis Hopper leading the hunt over that ‘murder’; Chill Wills & daughter Diane Varsi as sympathetic locals willing to give a hand; Murray, a deadly shot yet shy with guns/shy with girls, forced to confront both issues. That horse stampede and a few other big set pieces, camouflaging what’s really a Chamber Western, with Hathaway in full logistical control of action scenes big & small; equally smooth handling shadowy interiors and spectacular California locations to rival John Ford’s Monument Valley. Only Daniele Amfitheatrof’s score seriously letting down the side. That, and a single action sequence that relies on unconvincing process work. The film’s relative obscurity as unjust as the murder charge Murray’s running away from.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Paraphrasing Jean Renoir on Westerns: ‘I always wanted to make one. Basically, they’re all the same which, as an artist, gives you complete freedom.’
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: That’s the film’s working title on our poster. At least as good as the one they chose.
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