Warner Brothers teamed rising stars Tab Hunter & Natalie Wood (respectively just off BATTLE CRY/’55 and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE/’55) to little effect on consecutive 1956 programmers. This Western followed by THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND, a military coming-of-age dramedy (not seen here). But the two stars prove less than the sum of their parts with Tab injured on the run from a posse of bad guys and Natalie flunking Mexican accent 101 as she helps out. Secondhand stuff in spite of Louis L’Amour source material, only Wood’s fully developed 18-yr-old breasts grabbing Howard Hughes-worthy attention while Tab seems to disappear from the action for suspicious amounts of time. (He’s really not a bad actor, but director Stuart Heisler seems to be hiding him.) With such bland leads, only Skip Homeier, in particularly nasty form as he hunts them down, shows command and presence. Tall and powerful (he's just a year older than Hunter), if only the script had built in a bit of ambivalence from Wood they might have sparked something dramatically interesting. On the plus side, CinemaScope shooting strategies had loosened up considerably after three years of flat staging techniques. And while interior sets still look twice the size they ought to be, cinematographer Ted McCord manages to darken his lighting schemes and move in to create some good claustrophobic fights for journeyman director Heisler.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: *Homeier didn’t get the breaks he needed to step up to leading roles, but could be awfully good when given a chance. An opportunity he grabbed earlier this year in what is probably a career best playing an outlaw who develops a conscience in STRANGER AT MY DOOR/’56. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/10/stranger-at-my-door-1956.html
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