audacious1 I just watched this movie on Netflix. Although I am a big western fan, I had never seen this movie with its wonderful cast. The general story line is about a nervous confederate man shooting a boy and then becoming more cowardly than ever, allowing his brother to take the blame. That's not what this movie is truly about. It is about the psychological effects people had as the Civil War ended. On one side, we have the heroic Northern officer who can't resist always assisting the law and his perspective of the Confederacy that he has passed on to his son. On the other side, we have five war-weary confederate soldiers, four brothers and a father, having just robbed a bank in a nearby town, but having a need for water. Three of them ride into town and one is involved with a shooting. The youngest brother feels guilt and wants to do the right thing. The father of the shooting victim wants revenge against the soldiers, regardless of the fact it was an accident. The story hinges on the tug and pull of the emotions and feelings people had, due to the War. If there was something I would criticize, it would be the writer finding the easy out by making the shooter become cowardly and unconcerned about anyone but himself. What made this western stand out to me was the material it covered. It was not a simple plot. The emotional content is what makes this story special, the right and wrong perspective idea consistently flows throughout this movie with only Ruth Roman being the voice of reason and logic. All the actors did great jobs with their characters and it was refreshing watching actors, normally portrayed as stereotypical heroes playing people with huge flaws that pinpointed their humanity. I would like to have seen more of Ben Johnson (side bar complaint). Very worthy of watching more than once.

jjnxn-1 Small scale western that holds together well despite unoriginal situations and a low budget.Most of that can be attributed to the lean direction by the little known Werker and the competence of the players. John Payne is brooding and bitter in the lead occasionally going overboard with with the righteous indignation but by and large he does well. Ben Cooper is also solid as a conscious stricken young man but it's Ruth Roman who stands out with a well balanced performance as Nora Payne, weighted down with grief but compassionate enough to remain clear eyed and level headed while all around her are losing theirs.Another asset of the film is the use of natural sounds to underscore scenes adding to their import without a lot of intrusive musical cues.No prize winner but a better than average western.

Stormy_Autumn I was able to watch "Rebel in Town" (1956) & gave it 8 out of 10. I have looked for this movie for ages.I remember when the Bedlow Mason (J. Carrol Naish) family showed up in town to water the horses, get supplies & check into staging a robbery.It was there that John & Nora Willoughby (John Payne & Ruth Roman) lost their only child Petey when he startled outlaw Wesley. Wes turned & blew Petey away. This becomes bad for the baby brother of Wes & worse for John & Nora.John was filled with grief, anger & revenge. Nora's was grief, loneliness & sorrow. Her forgiveness became stronger when she realized John had brought home an injured young man, Ben...Ben Mason! The boy she saw at Petey's murder.There is so much that you will miss if you don't take time for this film. Will there be any peace between the Willoughbys & the Masons? Will the "sad", then, possibly, "understanding" emotions be overwhelming for all? If 'Pro' is the opposite of 'Con' then what is the opposite of Progress?

dinky-4 Most Westerns use one of a limited number of standard plots, but it's hard to categorize this movie. Its setting -- a small frontier town -- merely serves as a background for a drama of revenge and reconciliation which could easily be recast as a Greek tragedy. Its central question certainly rises above the usual concerns of Westerns: can the sacrifice of one man's guilty son make up for the death of another man's innocent son?Or, as J. Carroll Naish puts it in the last scene: "What the sons of some men do to the sons of others ... there's a tragedy of the world."John Payne, (sporting a mustache), gets top billing here but his character is absent from many of the movie's key scenes. Ben Cooper actually plays the main character as his feelings of guilt over the death of an innocent boy propels most of the plot. Ruth Roman seems miscast as a frontier wife and mother. The less said about the two juvenile performers, (Bobby Clark and Mimi Gibson), the better.There's a vivid flogging scene in the movie's second half in which J. Carroll Naish takes a whip to the back of his son, John Smith, who's tied shirtless to a tree. This may be the American cinema's only major whipping in which a father strikes his own son.