edwagreen Interesting, but all too predictable story of a young man, out of control, who is taken under the wing by his dead father's best friend. The solution to his problems in this western is to get a wife.Buddy Ebsen shines here as the guy who searches for Keir Dullea. Lois Nettleton becomes the bride. She brings to the marriage a young son. Widowed, her character is totally not allowed to be developed here.Naturally, there are cattle rustlers who take advantage of the situation and a scene where the young boy's life is put in danger when a fire breaks out, started by the crooks, in the area where he is sleeping.The ending, naturally when things calm down, is poignant and comical as Ebsen shows that it's never too late to find love.

BigWhiskers Buddy Ebsen plays an older man who honors a dead friends request to go back and find his son and tame him by marrying him off to one of those mail order brides whom he finds in a saloon. This concept has been done before and since and the music when Ebsen is off on his cupids errand makes it sound like your in for a musical and Ebsen looks so out of place. In the midst of his Jed Clampett days in 1963-64 when this movie was filmed and came out , all he is missing is the accent and Jed's hat. The movie is boring with bland characters and really tiresome dialog, the young man whom Ebsen tries to get hitched doesn't want a bride and only doing it so Ebsen will leave and give him the deed to his dads land. The actor playing the young man and the woman playing his bride are so boring to watch , no chemistry and you wonder how they will end up together which you know they will.In the end there is a gunfight and Ebsen's character leaves the couple whom have decided to stay married with her little boy(played by Jimmy Mathers ,the older brother of Leave it to Beavers Jerry Mathers,another commenter mistakenly posted that he was played by Jerry).You think Ebsen may end up alone as the camera pulls back to him riding away but in the final scene he goes back to the saloon where he found the young bride and you hear wedding bells music,he straightens his tie and goes into the saloon fade out. This last scene refers to an earlier scene when he walks into the saloon looking for what he thinks is a young woman placing an ad for a husband and it turns out she is the owner of the saloon and middle aged. She takes a fancy to Ebsen and thinks he's there for her, so in the end he does care for her ,and ends up going back to pursue her.The rest is left up to the audience to surmise the happy ending. I found the movie boring and Ebsen so out of place - I'll bet he wanted to do his part in one day and be done with this bland movie.One thing I do admit that at 56 yrs old ,Ebsen was hardly elderly looking or an old man as the plot indicates - in fact he was handsome and sexy for his age at that time. Overall i give the movie 3/10 ..Not terrible but not good either.

moonspinner55 Minor comedic western has rural newlyweds (a hot-tempered rebel and a widow with a young son) forced together into matrimony, but attempting to make the union work if only to spite the town's naysayers. Buddy Ebsen's role as a potential troublemaker isn't well-defined--and worse, he keeps popping in and out of scenes without any character motive. Keir Dullea and Lois Nettleton fare much better as the married twosome, and Jimmy Mathers (brother of Jerry) is a cute youngster. Nettleton in particular looks very much at home in these rugged settings; she's a warm, reassuring presence on the screen, like a younger version of Deborah Kerr. The scenery is attractive and the pacing is lively, however a bit more action or excitement in the narrative might've helped. Still, fast-paced, innocuous fun. **1/2 from ****

wolfhell88 Old fashioned western comedy with an interesting cast. Keir "2001" Dullea plays a wild young man and Buddy "Barnaby Jones" Ebsen plays a friend of his dead father who should learn him how to behave. Warren Oates and a very young William Smith play his bad friends.