ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Gary R. Peterson Wow--Randolph Scott playing a bastard first frame to last. No wonder the movie received such scathing reviews from Scott fans. I liked the film but didn't like Scott's character either--he's self-deluded, stiff-necked, and consumed with a seething hatred that costs his best friend his life. Bart Allison is thoroughly despicable and loathsome, and it's a testimony to Scott's talents that he could play such a character so effectively and evoke such emotions from his audience.It is also a testimony to Scott's confidence as an actor and to his generosity that he played a secondary character. Noah Beery, Jr. as affable sidekick Sam steals all their scenes together (as he would frequently do to James Garner two decades later on THE ROCKFORD FILES). John Archer, as Doc John Storrow is arguably the real protagonist of the picture, certainly the catalyst who capitalizes on the situation and unleashes and channels all the pent-up emotion simmering in the chests of the townsmen. Thinking back, it's surprising how static a character Bart Allison was, holed up in the livery stable for the bulk of the film, crouching at a window, while Beery and Archer were dynamic and charismatic. And Beery and Archer prove themselves up to the task and carry the picture.Right behind them were a cast comprised of familiar faces to all fans of the genre, among them Ray Teal as Morley, a cowed-into-submission rancher with his faithful hands (among whom is one-time Western star Bob Steele who merits neither a line nor a screen credit); James Westerfield as Otis, the bartender; Andrew Duggan as Swede, the sheriff in Tate's pocket; Guy Wilkinson as Abe the stable owner; and Vaughn Taylor as an increasingly intoxicated barber who inadvertently puts the match to the powder keg by smashing the bottle of whiskey hidden in the self-righteous reverend's coat pocket. It was upon that cruel act of humiliation, exposing a man's secret weakness, that Doc Storrow seized. He pried open the crack and got the men to admit that they too had a hidden vice--cowardice--and had sacrificed their self-respect out of fear of Tate and his bullying thugs.Like a bellows on a flickering flame was the cowardly shooting in the back of the unarmed Sam by the vengeful deputy Spanish. Breaking the promise to allow safe passage coupled with shooting a man in the back tapped into something deep within these men of the West, a violation of the Code that held their society, such as it was, intact. Ray Teal as Morley really shines in this scene as his men systematically dismantle Swede's band of bushwhackers stationed around the stable, leveling the field to just Swede and Allison. And once Swede is dispatched, it comes down to Tate and Allison.Victoria French as Tate's paramour Ruby proves that you only hurt the one you love, or in order to save you I had to shoot you. She takes a tremendous risk in winging Tate to short circuit the shootout, but her love was sincere, even if Tate only saw her as a plaything. French was a much more appealing character than Karen Steele's Lucy, an early sufferer of resting bitch face wholly lacking in charm. It's obvious why Tate was drawn to this woman who was as cold, calculating, and ambitious as himself.It's a rare Western that ends with the villain of the piece riding off in a carriage with a beautiful woman while the hero gets drunk and unruly at the bar. DECISION AT SUNDOWN was a convention-defying film, and I suspect that is why it receives more bad reviews than good. Randolph Scott playing against type no doubt ruffled feathers, mine included. I wanted to see him play the hero in a clearly defined good guy vs. bad guy scenario, but Scott played out that script in the 1940s and early '50s and was ready to stretch as an actor. This film's scenario--unlikable character rides into town, cleans it up, then rides out again--would be the template for so many 1960's Westerns, both foreign and domestic. It was a Western ahead of its time and one well worth watching.

talisencrw This may not be as strong as other Scott/Boetticher Westerns, such as 'Buchanan Rides Alone' or 'The Tall T', but it's very strong, and would make a great double bill with 'High Noon'--another fine flick about someone being brave enough to stand against the tide of local cowardice, and get things done in cleaning up the town's garbage.This is very unique in that Scott's character, Bart Allison, is determined for revenge, three years in the making, for the bad guy seducing his wife (who ended up killing herself in disgrace). He seemed to think his wife had the moral fiber not to do that sort of thing willingly--unfortunately, the entire town, even his best friend, seems to know otherwise.A great look at the lengths some will go to right wrongs they come across in life. Allison's dismay at the community for allowing another wrong to happen, midway through the picture, is something that haunts and stays with you, long after the film concludes. I would have given this a higher rating, aside from an obvious, amateurish mistake that happens around ten minutes into the film, when one of the women talks, but an arm from one of the actors completely occludes her mouth, straight through her entire spiel. It's a minor thing, perhaps, but I'm very surprised no one caught it by the time it was released, especially a director of Boetticher's stature.

Spikeopath Bart Allison and Sam, his trusty companion, ride into Sundown looking for a guy named Tate Kimbrough. It appears that Kimbrough had a dalliance with Allison's wife some years earlier, an affair that led to the suicide of the erstwhile Mrs Allison. With revenge and hatred eating away at him, Allison will not rest until he gets his man, but his very being here in Sundown will be the catalyst for not only himself, but also every other resident of this dusky town.Randolph Scott {Bart Allison} and director Budd Boetticher made seven very interesting, and intelligent Westerns together, each man seemingly using each one as a muse of sorts. This particular entry on their wonderful resume's is a fine testament to their winning formula, because Decision At Sundown offers up something different outside of your standard Western fare. The plot structure is for sure very basic, the man out for revenge, and the town in the grip of less than honourable men, but here our main protagonist really isn't thinking with his head. He is driven by rage and an affair of the heart, he in fact doesn't care if he lives or dies, just as long as he gets his man!. Also of interest is the effect on the town of Sundown that Allison has, it certainly lent me to think about some so called supernatural Westerns that would surface later on down the line, whilst the ending here doesn't resort to any sort of cop out formula's, it's poignant and begs for a further train of thought.Scott is first rate as Allison, grey hair personifying the wisdom that he has lost due to his blind thirst for revenge, with a devilment glint evident in both of his eyes. Scott does an excellent line in rage and grief stricken acting, so no doubt in my mind that Randy Scott was a wonderful actor in this splendid of Western genres. Backing Scott up is Noah Beery Jr {Sam} and John Archer as Dr. John Storrow, but of the rest of the cast I personally couldn't lend too much praise for, with the main negative of note being that the villains of the piece barely get out of grumpy only territory, John Carroll {Kimbrough} and Andrew Duggan as crooked Sheriff Swede Hansen really should have gone for a more twirling moustache type villainy than the underplayed ones we actually get.But underplayed villains be damned, this is still a hugely enjoyable picture, and one that definitely holds up on a repeat viewing. 7/10

Igenlode Wordsmith "Decision at Sundown" (a doubtless deliberately misleading title -- "Sundown" turns out to be not a time but a place) is an off-beat Western that uses genre conventions to keep the audience guessing right from the hold-up at the start; nice to see the 'bad girl' survive to get the man, for example! Nothing is quite as certain as it seems, including the question of whether moral certainty is actually a good thing...I'd recently heard that Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher were a good combination to look out for, and watched this film on that basis simply because I happened to notice it in the TV listings two or three minutes before it was scheduled to start: I had other plans for the afternoon and mentally reserved the option to switch off and abandon the film if it didn't hold my interest. But it soon displayed a sure hand at sketching in characters and letting slip vital, concise bits of information to question what we thought we already knew -- the basic plot strains plausibility a little (the script clearly feels the need to acknowledge and justify this, and, to do it justice, it does do a valiant job at providing the necessary character rationales), but it's very watchable. By the end we're not quite sure *whose* side we ought to be on -- I for one didn't find the belated semi-legal righteousness of the townsfolk terribly attractive, although I think this was probably the line intended by the script -- as unexpected characters admit weakness and the expectations of the genre no longer seem to offer a satisfactory outcome.I was actually reminded of "Terror in a Texas Town", another unexpected Western, although on the face of it the two have little in common. Leonard Maltin complains that this film is too wordy, and perhaps the doctor's philosophising is the one element that tends to be overdone rather than understated: but the film isn't about galloping cowboys and quick-draw shootouts (although it briefly has both) but about the psychological strains that culminate in the decision of the title. It is certainly worth watching, and veers on the edge of being very good indeed. My gut instinct, after a few hours' rumination, is that it just fails on the latter, but it's an honourable failure.