Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

weezeralfalfa An Andre de Toth western. Not my favorite. I've never appreciated Robert Ryan as an actor. Too somber, lacking in emotion, especially in westerns, for me. Burl Ives' character is very similar to that of Rufus Hannassey, in "The Big Country"', released the previous year. He treats his motley crew of desperados just like he treats his adult sons in the prior film. He functioned as their collective conscience and disciplinarian. One reviewer wondered what hold Ives had over his gang that made them stick with him and submit to his pronouncements. It would be nice if we had an inkling of how he accumulated this gang: all at once or individually. What they all wanted was a fair share in the $40,000. in gold from a stolen army payroll. It's not clear why several or all of his gang didn't demand dividing the gold at this point and perhaps scattering to make tracing them more difficult. It wasn't clear where the badly wounded Ives was leading his gang, other than away from the distantly pursuing cavalry. It was in the interest of the people in the small settlement his gang took over to do what they could(an operation by a veterinarian!) to try to prolong his life at least until he decided to leave, and give the people back their town. If he died before they left, the others clearly would have gone wild, since they had all the guns. We saw how wild they acted with the women during the organized dance, sometimes trying to force a kiss or hug, even with Ives watching.......I don't understand some things in the last part of the trek by the gang plus Robert Ryan through the snow, over a mountain, to hopefully throw off their pursuers. As predicted, Ives succumbed during this trek, leaving the others free to decide what to do. They don't want Ryan to die, ,because he's the only one familiar with this route. The number in the party gradually dissipates until only 2 gang members are still with Ryan. They stop for a while. Ryan distances himself and mounts his horse as if he's going to ride away. One shoots his horse, which falls down. Later, Ryan mounts another horse and starts back where they came from. One gang member picks up his rifle and aims at Ryan, as he passes by. But he holds his shot, then falters and collapses on the snow! He wasn't wounded, so I assume he passed out from exhaustion. Strangely, the other gang member didn't try to stop or join Ryan. What happened to the 2 pack horses that had previously turned around to go back where they came from? What happened to the gold? Was it mainly in saddlebags, or were the pack animals carrying it? When Ryan returns to the settlement, he finds that gang member Nelson, the mildest mannered one, had somehow walked through the deep snow all the way back to the settlement, after his horse had keeled over. Amazing! Was Ryan now prepared to renew his feud with sodbuster Hal Crane over putting up barbed wire fencing? Their duel in the saloon was interrupted by the arrival of Ives' gang......At one point, Ryan told Hal's wife that he felt he was no different than the gang members, only they didn't pretend to be anything else. Was Ryan's suggestion that the gang take this perilous route across the mountain a veiled suicide mission? See it at YouTube

TheLittleSongbird From veteran director Andre De Toth comes an underrated and mighty fine winter western. It is a little too short perhaps and there are parts that could have been better paced, but these are minor problems really because Day of the Outlaw is actually very good. For one thing, it is strikingly photographed in stark black and white, and the snowy landscapes are nothing less than magnificent. The score is also a really nice touch, dramatic, beautiful and dramatic, and Day of the Outlaw is also well scripted, nuanced and powerful yet with an essence of bitterness. And in terms of effective scenes the climatic gunfight in the snow is quite remarkable to say the least. The story is evocative and engrossing, the direction is excellent and the acting is adept with Robert Ryan rugged and heroic, Burl Ives brilliant as ever and Tina Louise both alluring and appealing. Overall, underrated with a lot to recommend it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Robert J. Maxwell It's the Wild West and there is a small valley town in the middle of a vast range of snowy mountains. Robert Ryan is the rancher who lives outside of town, a loner with no friends, and a past liaison with Tina Louise, now married to one of the townspeople. The townspeople either run the few shops or they're farmers. The farmers have been annoying Ryan, what with their staking out claims and stringing up barbed wire. Ryan rides into town to settle things with one of the more provocative squatters, calling him a "pig-bellied farmer." Now, if all this reminds you of "Shane," it ought to. "Shane" unquestionably provided the model for the first half hour of this movie. The name of Ryan's character is even Starett, pronounced "Start", as it is in "Shane." Then the "Shane" template is thrown out, the feud forgotten, as a half dozen raggedy ex-soldiers who are being pursued by the U. S. Cavalry for some miscreant act ride into town, collect all the guns, and take over. Well, as a kind of curtain call for the "Shane" plot, there is a brutal fist fight that pits Ryan against perennial villain Jack Lambert. As in "Shane," Ryan manages to deck Lambert but then is set upon by the rest of the gang.There follows almost an hour of the gang ruling the town. The men want booze and women, as men are wont to do, but their captain, Burl Ives, keeps them in check while he has his bullet wound tended to. There is also a young gang member who has never killed anyone and tries to be gentle with the townsmen and women folk.Burl Ives intends to kill everyone in town before leaving but Ryan saves them by agreeing to lead the gang to safety through the mountains. No point spelling it all out. You can probably guess most of the rest.The best thing about the movie is its location shooting in the Cascade Range of Oregon. A shame it was shot in black and white. Most of these inexpensive Westerns are shot in sunny California, in Corriganville or some other place set aside for just such enterprises. Usually one senses the caterer's table and the principals' trailers just off camera. But here the men and horses struggle through unblemished banks of snow. Probably it was a tough shoot.Ryan does his usual professional job. He was a strange actor. His features, depending on how they were used, could be menacing or not, and his dry voice could be full of evil or sympathetic. In "On Dangerous Ground" he displays his ability to play on both ends of the spectrum, and in "The Professionals" he's the tender-minded horse wrangler. Burl Ives was evidently a nice guy but I always found him slightly embarrassing on screen. The man always seemed to show through the role. I always hear "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" in the back of my mind.The director, Andre de Toth, was a workmanlike mediocrity with one or two of the more memorable noirs to his credit. Wardrobe, Make Up, and Set Dressing are perfunctory. The indoor sets do not look lived in. The clutter of everyday living is absent. Nobody even bothered to fill up the shelves of the saloon with bottles. And the ladies' hair styles don't even nod towards the period.Ryan's character's name is Blaise Star. We never see it in print during the story and I kept thinking it must be "Blaze." I wonder if the writers would have called him "Blaise" if they'd been thinking of Blaise Pascal, philosopher, theologian, co-inventor of the calculus. They'd have shied away in fright. It would be worse than calling him "Chester" or "Montmorency" or "Governeur." You know, I checked all this out. There was never a cowboy in history named Wade, Cole, Matt, or Clay. They all had names like "Isaac" and "Zealous" and "Ulysses." If I were you, I'd watch this if there were nothing else on. There were times when I had to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks.

elf-65 This is a strange one: superb performances and realistic action set in a wonderfully harsh and beautiful setting, yet let down by plodding, uninspired direction. The sub-plot/romance concerning young Gene and the blonde girl reminded me of "3.10 to Yuma" for some reason, and then I felt a bit disappointed when I compared the two films. The camera work is a bit dull, with only wide shots, and a variety of mid-shots. De Toth never really seems interested in his characters or his story. And, like one of the other reviewers, I was a bit worried about the horses. Still, the location sequences are great, and a wonderful juxtaposition with a more typically dusty Western setting. The gloomy tone of the film, combined with the setting, gives it an intriguingly noir edge.Not bad, but this could have been so much more powerful.But, hey - I could watch Robert Ryan in anything!