ma-cortes Stylish, well paced , solid , meticulous and agreeable look with crossfire and intense drama Western . This finely acted movie is gripping every step of the way . This is the story of the sheriff who'd worn it -till he'd faced one gun too many...the young Eddie . Novice sheriff he had to learn to wear it- or watch to die and the boy who lived only to wear one of his own ! Marshal Ben Cutler (Fred MacMurray) finds unexpectedly opposition from the townspeople when he captures killer Eddie Campbell (Robert Vaughn) . After claiming his daughter's childhood-sweetheart killed the marshal, one man finds himself in conflict with his daughter (Joan Blackman), his fiancée (Maggie Hayes) and many of the townsfolk . Sheriff Cutler is going to have trouble when Campbell is sentenced to hang .Good adult Western with exciting battle of wits between an obstinate marshal and an astute young killer who begins to psych out the sheriff's daughter and townsfolk . This acceptable , meaty Western contains interesting plot , gun-blazing shootouts , a love story , and results to be quite entertaining . This passable Nathan Juran Western balances action , suspense and drama . Decent western is plenty of suspense as the dreaded hanging hour approaches and the protagonist realizes he must stand alone but his fellow town people for help , nobody is willing to help him . The highlights of the film are the court house scenes and the climatic final showdowns . The traditional story and exciting screenplay were well written by Daniel B. Ullman and Maurice Zimm based on a short story by John Reese . Nice acting by Fred MacMurray as beginner but old marshal standing against impossible odds . Top-notch Robert Vaughan as the charismatic gunslinger who gains townsfolk sympathy . Fine support cast such as Joan Blackman , Denver Pyle , Phil Chambers , Bing Russell , Emilie Meyer , and James Drury of The men of Shiloh , among others . Adequate cinematography in Technicolor superbly caught by cameramen by Henry Freulich and Henry Jaffa ; however , a perfect remastering being necessary . Atmospheric and lively musical score , the theme song for 3.10 To Yuma (1957) directed by Delmer Daves is played frequently here especially in scenes involving Vaughan and Blackman . The motion picture was realized by a magnificent duo, the producer Charles H Schneer and the director Nathan Juran who sometimes used pseudonym "Nathan Hertz" ; both of whom collaborated in several films . Before entering the film industry as an art director in 1937 Nathan Juran won an Academy Award for art direction on How Green Was My Valley (1941). World War II interrupted his film career, and he spent his war years with the OSS. Returning to Hollywood, he turned to directing films in the 1950s. He handled mostly low-budget westerns and sci-fi opuses, his most famous being The attack of the 50 foot woman (1958) . He was also responsible for the superb fantasy adventure The 7th voyage of Sinbad (1958). Juran directed some Westerns starred by Audie Murphy such as ¨Drums Across the River¨, ¨Tumbleweed¨ , ¨Gunsmoke¨ and ¨Law and Order¨ with Ronald Reagan . In the early 1960s, he journeyed to Europe, where he spent several years piloting adventure epics and spaghetti westerns such as ¨Land raiders¨. Juran made sensational Sci-fi and fantastic movies , such us : ¨First men oh the moon¨, ¨The 7th voyage of Simbad¨ , ¨20 million miles to earth¨, ¨Jack the Giant Killer¨ and several others

benfourtwoday There is some reason why I like this movie. Why I don't know but it sure wasn't for the writing or Robert Vaughn's acting. It's easy to see why they never gave him much as far as big parts or too many lines to speak in scenes in a movies when you watch this. Why they even kept him around in Hollywood is beyond me; this was terrible acting. The writers also must of forgot what they had wrote as well being the man in the beginning who tells Ben the new marshal to be(Fred McMurray) that they should hang the kid, while Ben is trying to tell him how important justice is then a little further into the movie this guy all of a sudden gets oldstimers disease or something because he is now going around saying what a awful guy Ben is for basically telling the truth. It's like they forgot what they wrote in the beginning of the movie. Plus the towns people goes Stepford Wives on us and forgets that their beloved marshal is killed and the poor old sweet lady now widow everyone just seems to forget about and they take up signatures to make sure the guy Robert Vaughn's character the killer doesn't hang, who cares about the poor old lady widow right? Come on now. This would definitely not happen in old west. What really makes me mad is Ben never once defends himself when Vaughn's character basically calls Ben a liar through the whole movie accept for in court of course.Plus he chickens out when they find a gun in the food container his daughter takes in to the jail and doesn't say a thing to the killer of what he's done to his daughter. You disappoint me Fred. The girl all i can say is had it bad. To dis her dad though for a whimpy let me die from these little scratches I want attention chew on the jail bars baby i don't get it but i see that in the real world to so when in Rome i guess. The part where Ben talks to his son to be is touching and i wonder if the guys from My Three Sons picked him because of that scene. With all this inconsistencies in this movie and Robert Vaughns terrible acting there is still something about this movie i like. Maybe because other than Robert there was some good acting going on. Ben the critic

classicsoncall As a kid I saw Fred MacMurray in a bunch of films like "The Absent Minded Professor", "The Shaggy Dog" and of course his TV series "My Three Sons". So when I catch him in a Western every now and then it just seems hard to picture him as some rugged plainsman shooting it out with villains in the Old West. Yet he generally acquits himself reasonably well as he does here, a testament to his range as an actor in a role obviously against stereotype. Speaking of which, MacMurray offers up one of the better barroom brawls you'll see in a Fifties Western, going up against Edmon Ryan portraying defense attorney Selby. Slick move by the lawyer with the quick sucker punch, just as I expected. The story however, is another story. I'm not thoroughly convinced (especially after having seen a few hundred Westerns), that the good people of Springdale would have been so fickle as to turn on their newly appointed Marshal Cutler (MacMurray) for actually doing his job. Reasonable doubt never held much sway in films involving pioneer justice, and the idea that a slick lawyer might have changed a few opinions wasn't enough to save Eddie Campbell's (Robert Vaughn) hide here either. The added element of the marshal's daughter (Joan Blackman) having a thing for the bad guy was an interesting concept here as well, but it's not like it hadn't been done before.There was a puzzling element in the script for me, considering how the writers were seemingly making the liberal case against capital punishment. The idea of a fence around the gallows was deemed necessary to prevent gawkers, as public execution was coming to be seen as cruel and unusual punishment. Yet nothing prevented Campbell from watching the carpenters build the scaffold that he was going to die on - how cruel was that? I just didn't get it.Before this was over, you just knew that somehow, Cutler and his daughter would have to arrive at some reconciliation over her relationship with the young outlaw. That's done with Eddie's jailbreak setting up the finale, and I just knew I would groan if Eddie wound up accidentally hanging himself as he climbed up the gallows during the shootout between his gang and the town folk. That actually happened in some B Western I can't remember the title of right now, but when I do I'll get back to you on it. You have to wonder sometimes how far a picture will go to stretch credibility. Here they only stretched it a little bit.Addendum***9-22-2016*** OK, I found the title I was referencing in the last paragraph in which an outlaw inadvertently falls into a noose and hangs himself. It was the 1968 spaghetti Western "This Man Can't Die' starring Guy Madison. You can look it up on IMDb as "Long Days of Hate" or by it's Italian title, "I lunghi giorni dell'odio".

Panamint Basic flaw of the townsfolk: that "just a boy" is incapable of being a hardened criminal. Since when? There are a lot of hardened young criminals. Maybe the producers were trying to distort the Billy the Kid legend?And if you listen carefully you will hear this "just a boy" repeated over and over. As late as minute number 59 on the DVD it is said again by the Marshal's fiancé. Even later almost at the end a group of citizens take up a petition to the governor for clemency (based ultimately back to the "he's just a boy so he..." idea). This simple theme dominates the movie. Was the scriptwriter on a hard focused crusade or something?Nevertheless, MacMurray is great and demonstrates why he kept coming back decade after decade in excellent dramatic roles. Joan Blackman had beauty, charisma, fine acting, was in some quality movies; why did she have such a short starring career? Young method actor Robert Vaughn demonstrates a lot of technique and you can tell how serious he was in those days.The paint of the trim INSIDE the courtroom is literally black, obviously a clumsy attempt to convey injustice. Once again, we are hit with a sledgehammer to drive home the single-minded crusade theme of this movie.But overall the very good acting by all participants keeps this movie interesting and overcomes the deeply flawed concept.