JohnHowardReid Randolph Scott (Owen Merritt), Joan Leslie (Laurie Bidwell), Ellen Drew (Nan Melotte), Alexander Knox (Will Isham), Richard Rober (Fay Dutcher), John Russell (Hugh Clagg), Alfondo Bedoya (Cultus Charlie), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Bourke Prine), Clem Bevans (Pay Lankershim), Cameron Mitchell (George Virk), Richard Crane (Duke Virk), Frank Sully (Lee Repp), Don Beddoe (Love Bidwell), George Lloyd (Tom Croker), James Kirkwood (Sheriff Medary), Frank Hagney (Ned Bale), Frank Ellis (townsman), Tennessee Ernie Ford (wrangler).Director: ANDRE DE TOTH. Screenplay: Kenneth Gamet. Based on the novel by Ernest Haycox. Photographed in Technicolor by Charles Lawton, junior. Film editor: Charles Nelson. Art director: George Brooks. Set decorator: Frank Tuttle. Technicolor color consultant: Francis Cugat. Music: George Duning. Songs: Harold Lewis (music) and Ralph Murphy (lyrics). Music director: Morris Stoloff. Assistant to the producer: Herbert Stewart. Assistant director: Willard Reineck. Sound recording: Frank Goodwin. Associate producer: Randolph Scott. Producer: Harry Joe Brown. Executive producers: Harry Joe Brown, Randolph Scott. A Scott-Brown Production, released through Columbia Pictures. Copyright 7 December 1951 by Producers Actors Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 2 December 1951. U.K. release: 28 June 1952. Australian release: 11 September 1952. 87 minutes.U.K. release title: The OUTCAST. SYNOPSIS: Owen Merritt, a small rancher, has to stand aside and see his ambitious girlfriend, Laurie Bidwell, marry a wealthy neighbor, Will Isham. Laurie's heart, however, is still with Owen. When Isham realizes this, he determines to destroy his rival.COMMENT: This promising theme is none too well handled by a group of first-class technicians who should have known better than fall back on such old-fashioned devices as under-cranking the camera to speed up the action. Although well-motivated, the script also fails to deliver. The story develops into one long gun-fight, with brief interludes of talkative peace. The lovely Ellen Drew is wasted as Scott's also-ran love interest.

weezeralfalfa Not the most original nor interesting Scott western I've seen. Like various other reviewers have said, Alexander Knox just seems out of his tree as a cattle baron. I can see why he made a good Woodrow Wilson, or perhaps a good bank president, for example. John Russell would have made a much more believable Will Isham, but then he couldn't have taken part in that marathon brawl with Scott unless the script were rewritten. Similarly, Richard Rober made an unconvincing gunslinger in looks, although his target practice in the saloon was quite impressive. I'm still not positive whether Rober was trying to kill Scott(probably) or Isham, or both, when he burst into the building as Scott and Isham were descending the stairs. Scott ducked back to safety, and Isham, in front, shifted over to where Scott had been, when the revolver fired. That was 3 murders Rober was credited with, and he tried to make Scott number 4. Their shootout continued into the street, where a very strong wind complicated things a bit. Guess who eventually prevailed.Returning to the brawl between Scott and Russell, not only did they destroy the breakaway furniture, they caused the breakaway cabin they were in to collapse! Very lucky they weren't buried under the rubble! They continued their fight over the romantic attention of Ellen Drew down a very steep slope next to a stream, with Ellen tumbling down the slope behind with a rifle. Russell finally managed to get on his horse for a get away before he got shot. Another cliffhanger is when Scott was driving a chuck wagon, trying to outrun a cattle stampede, and the lantern in the back fell off and started a fire. He continued to drive the wagon until it was about to burn him up, when he unhitched the wagon at full speed and apparently jumped off just before what was left was wrecked.The ending is rather unsatisfactory to me. What became of the Scott-Joan Leslie romantic relationship after Isham was murdered? Was she now damaged goods, so that a Scott-Joan union could not occur to combine their resources? Did Joan sell out to Scott or someone else? It appeared that Scott favored Ellen Drew at the end. She was a decade older than Joan, who was only half Scott's age. During sizable chunks of the film, I hardly understood what was going on, riding around here and there, often in the dark.Currently available at YouTube

Terrell-4 There's a small lake that straddles the boundary separating Will Isham's Skull Ranch and Pay Lankershim's land. Isham (Alexander Knox), a powerful, determined and jealous megalomaniac, offers $50,000 cash if Pay sells his ranch to him this night, Isham's wedding night. It's worth maybe $9,000. There's enough water for both our herds, Pay says. "You don't get the idea," Isham says with a tumbler of brandy in his hand. "I'd only own half a lake. I don't own half of anything, Lankershim. I own it all, lock, stock and barrel. That goes for anything. Whatever I have is mine and mine alone. I'll share with no one." Now Skull's boundary is up against Owen Merritt's land...and it will only be a matter of time before Isham goes after Owen (Randolph Scott). He's even brought in a hired gun to speed things along. And the woman Isham just married? Turns out Laurie Bidwell (Joan Leslie) is the woman Owen loves. She made her choice, however, because she wanted position and money, and that meant Isham, not Owen. After Owen nearly gets killed in a stampede engineered by Isham's men, Laurie is beginning to have doubts about her choice. She'd better remember what Isham told Pay: "Whatever I have is mine alone. I'll share with no one." When Owen's men start getting killed, he decides to do some killing of his own. It's not long before it's just Owen Merritt against the power of Skull, and that means Will Isham and his hired guns. Thank goodness Owen has a few loyal ranch hands and one friend, spunky, feisty Nan Melotte, the blonde young owner of a small ranch next to Owen's. We know things are going to get much rougher in the next hour. Man in the Saddle may be a B western, but it's a Randolph Scott B western. With me, that usually means a strong story even with clichés, most often a good villain or two, enough action to quickly pass the time and, of course, Scott. He was a big guy who could come across as grim, judgmental and dead serious. He also had perfected the persona of an honorable man of action. He had the screen presence to carry even B westerns. He had no trouble dominating his films, even when playing against an alpha male like Lee Marvin. I've always found a good deal of pleasure watching a Randolph Scott western. Joan Leslie has a much more complicated character to play than most B movie westerns call for. Her Laurie Isham comes from a hardscrabble past. She loves, in her way, Owen. She marries Isham because she yearns for position and security. She winds up trying to be loyal to both. Leslie manages to carry it off so well we sort of admire Laurie and how she's trying to handle the fix she's put herself in. To see Joan Leslie at her freshest and friendliest, find a copy of The Sky's the Limit. At barely 18 she stars opposite Fred Astaire and shares a fast, funny song and dance routine with him, "A Lot in Common with You." Leslie just about keeps up with Astaire and he makes it seem easy for her. When she can manage just two air-borne turns (which she does with grace and precision), he hits three but places himself just a little in front of her to disguise the difference. For those fond of pound-'em-into-the-ground fistfights, Man in the Saddle features a lulu. Scott and John Russell, an equally big guy who plays a man with a vicious temper who has a hankerin' for Nan, start walloping each other in a mountain shack, then slip-slide down a rocky, snow covered mountainside going after each other with fists, rocks and tree limbs. The stunt doubles earned their money with this one. Man in the Saddle is no classic, but it turns out to be one of the better westerns Scott made during this period.

maughancannes-2 By Randolph Scott standards of the 1950s, this is a disappointing and heavy-handed star western. Two or three of the characters could be dispensed with, while two or three other characters could be given more prominence. (The humour needs to be completely rewritten.) De Toth handles the action well - as always - but his grasp of the overall narrative is weak.