BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Logan Dodd There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

MartinHafer The film begins with a group of townsfolk dragging John Cord (Joel McCrea) from a rope tied to a man's horse. Yes, their plan is to drag him to death. Apparently five years earlier, Cord and his gang of cowboys entered the town and tore the place apart and spread a lot of misery. Inexplicably, he's back as one of the leading citizens in the town has hired him to take the town's cattle to market. How could this be?! After all, he was convicted of standing by and doing nothing to stop his men from an orgy of destruction. And, why is Cord so angry?! After all, the dragging seems more than justified when year hear about all the hellish things his men did to the town! And, why does Cord agree to take the job?! None of this makes any sense....and that's okay. Just keep watching!! It will make sense by the end.This is a very good western...which isn't a surprise considering it stars Joel McCrea. Even the most ordinary of westerns were made better by his solid acting...and this is a decent film to boot. Well worth seeing...mostly because it is unique...and that's very rare with westerns.

LeonLouisRicci Widescreen, Color, Outdoor Western with Joel Mccrea Leading a Huge Herd of Cattle and a Bunch of Weak Actors on a Drive that We are Told Only He Could Make Happen. There is a Good Deal of Odd Hero Worship Combined with Loathing in the Overbaked Script.The Look of the Movie is Better than Average but its Short Running Time is Not Enough to Allow the Heavily Plotted Script to Become Believable or Very Exciting for That Matter. It All Ends Up Being a Rather Talky Tepid Affair.Alliances and Attitudes Turn Abruptly and the Action is Minimal. Not a Bad Movie but Not One of Joel Mccrea's Best. Gloria Talbott as a Now Grown Up "Niece" is Striking with Her Oddly Shaped Facial Features and a Shapely Body, but Doesn't Have Much To Do.Overall, Worth a Watch but it Doesn't Manage to Rise Above Average Despite Joel Mccrea, a Widescreen Template, Color, a Heavy Plot, and the Always Attractive Gloria Talbot.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Few guys can be considered as bad as McCrea at the beginning of this film. He blinded one man, made another lose his arm and was a disgrace to the town. Will he turn out to be good at the end? Talented writers like Daniel B. Ullman and Endre Bohem and a great actor like Joel McCrea., can makes us believe in whatever choice they make. McCrea was quite unsympathetic in Fort Massacre (1958), a western made in the same year. This film could go the same way, and part of the fun of seeing it is wandering how it will come out. In the fifties westerns were trying desperately to bring different stories due to the competition from TV. And when you saw a standard good guy like McCrea being so bad in the trailer, you would go running to the movie theater! Cattle Empire is directed by Charles Marquis Warren who has to his credit "Hellgate", "Seven Angry Men", "Tension at Table Rock", "Arrowhead" and "Little Big Horn", all remarkable westerns.

Spikeopath Joel McCrea stars as a trail boss falsely imprisoned for his men's misdemeanours. Released and suffering at the hands of an unforgiving and irate town, he's hired by a blind Don Haggerty to drive his herd - but Haggerty has his own agenda's on this trip.A routine Western that is chiefly saved from the bottom rung by the presence of Joel McCrea. McCrea was a real life cowboy type who owned and worked out of a ranch in California, thus he gives this standard Oater a naturalistic core from which to tell the story. If only they could have given him some decent actors to work with, and, or, a bolder script, then this might have turned out better than it did.Directed by Charles Marquis Warren (more famed for TV work like Gunsmoke and his writing than movie directing), the piece is scripted by Daniel B. Ullman, a prolific "B" western script specialist of the 1950s. This, however, is far from being a good effort from his pen. Shot in CinemaScope with colour by DeLuxe, it thankfully at least proves to be most pleasing on the eye. Brydon Baker proving to be yet another cinematographer seemingly inspired by the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, locations.Away from the turgid story there's a classical big Western shoot-out to enjoy, while a Mano-Mano shoot out set among the Alabama rocks towards the end is nicely handled. But the good technical aspects are bogged down by the roll call of by the numbers gruff cowboy characters, and worse still is a two-fold romantic strand that is so weak it beggars belief. All of which is acted in keeping with such an unimaginatively put together series of sub-plots masquerading as a revenge thriller. For McCrea this film is worth a watch - as it is for its beauty (the print is excellent), but in spite of the old fashioned appeal, and a couple of action high points, it remains borderline dull. McCrea and the audience deserve far better. 5/10