Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

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

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

classicsoncall Here's a Randolph Scott Western with a very perplexing ending. The character of Laurie Bidwell Isham (Joan Leslie) was so inconsistent it managed to spoil what could have been an effective story. OK, she married Will Isham (Alexander Knox) for his wealth and ambition after throwing over Owen Merritt (Scott), the laid back rancher. Having second thoughts about the whole thing made sense, but after she planned to run off with Owen and then opted to stay with the heel, that just ripped it. For the writers, it seemed like a necessary angle for Scott's character to close the deal with Nan Melotte (Ellen Drew), but it should have been handled a lot more cleverly. Oh well.Otherwise the story moved along at a nice pace and delivered it's share of action and suspense. One thing that seems virtually impossible to me though, and it's happened in a handful of Westerns I've seen, is how easily one can disengage the hitch on a runaway wagon the way Owen did in this one. It's often done with railroad cars as well, and I bet if you tried it yourself you'd strike out a hundred out of a hundred times because of the pressure forces at work.I saw John Russell's name in the opening credits and darn if I didn't recognize him when he showed up as the taciturn henchman Hugh Clagg. The picture staged a fairly impressive one on one between Russell and Scott, that had to be carried outside after the cabin they were in fell apart. Seriously, you have to see it for yourself. They had a nice tumble down the hillside as well, but I had to wonder why Clagg's horse would have been waiting for him where he landed to make a getaway. Just like I wondered how Owen and Nan managed to drive their wagon up the mountain in the first place. If there was a clear trail to that cabin, why didn't Clagg use it to get there? But tell you what, Randolph Scott didn't let me down in the wardrobe department. He donned his trademark all black outfit for the final showdown with the baddies, complementing it with a nice bandanna flourish. Bad guy Isham didn't make it to the end of the picture, so you're left to wonder whether Laurie wound up selling out to Merritt after he closes with Nan in a clinch. And steenkin' badges aside, Alfonso Bedoya fulfills his picture long wish to get a new hat.

Spikeopath Man in the Saddle is directed by Andre De Toth and adapted to screenplay by Kenneth Gamet from the novel written by Ernest Haycox. It stars Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie, John Russell, Ellen Drew, Alexander Knox, Richard Rober and Guinn Williams. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr.More known and rightly lauded for the series of Western films he made with Budd Boetticher, it often gets forgotten that Randolph Scott also had a long working relationship with Andre De Toth. Man in the Saddle was the first of six Western films the two men would make together, and it's a pretty impressive start.Sometimes you see words such as routine and standard attributed to a lot of Westerns from the 1950s, and Man in the Saddle is one such film that's unfairly tarred with that brush. Not that the narrative drive is out of the ordinary, the plot essentially sees Randy as a peaceful farmer forced to get nasty when evil land baron flexes his muscles, but the zest of the action, the stunt work, the colour photography (Lone Pine as always a Mecca for Western fans) and Scott, mark this out as a thoroughly entertaining production.Characterisations carry a bit more psychological smarts than your average "B" Western of the era. There's a four way tug-of-love-war operating that is clearly going to spell misery, pain and death for somebody, a capitalist slant that bites hard with its egotistical bully boy overtones, while the obsessive behaviour of the principal players adds another dark cloud over this part of the West. Then there is the action scenes, of which De Toth once again shows himself to be a darn fine purveyor of such directional skills.And so, we get an ace runaway blazing wagon sequence, a stampede, a quite brilliant gunfight in a darkened saloon, a mano-mano fist fight that literally brings the house down – and then continues down a steep ravine, and the closing shoot-out played out during a dust storm doesn't lack for adrenaline rushes. Scott is once again a bastion of Western coolness, more so when he throws off the bright attire he wears for the first half of film, to then switch to black clothes that signifies he's going all bad ass on those who have caused him grief.Undervalued for sure, both as a Scott picture and as a Western movie in general. Don't believe the routine and standard scare mongers, there's good craft here and it's a whole bunch of Oater fun. 7.5/10

398 I saw Man In the Saddle decades ago and rewatched it recently. It is at once memorable and yet well below average. Memorable because instead of the usual revenge plot or greed-driven villainy, the two main villains are men obsessed with women who are indifferent to them and who finally explode into shocking violence which lingers after everything else about the film is forgotten. Well below average because of an underdeveloped script, flaccid direction, miscasting, and indifferent performances.The miscasting begins with the star. Randolph Scott was 53 when this movie was made and while the leathery old dog might still be able to turn a few bonnets, he does seem a bit long in the tooth to find himself being chased by two women young enough to be his daughters. The implications of the plot may have bothered Scott. I saw Man In the Saddle back to back with Riding Shotgun and his torpid performance here is a night and day contrast with his forceful effort in the more traditional Shotgun. The two leading ladies, Ellen Drew and Joan Leslie, were third-stringers from the forties whose careers faded with their youth. Drew gets by in an undemanding part which requires little more than looking longingly in the direction of Scott now and then, but Leslie is woefully out of her depth. Laurie Bidwell Isham is an icy, calculating woman who shucks Scott, the love of her life, to enter into a business marriage with the wealthy Will Isham, well played by Alexander Knox. She coldly rebuffs the repressed Isham's fumbling intimations of affection, leaving no doubt that one clause in their marriage contract was separate bedrooms. She also tosses her father out of her wedding reception and her life as he reminds her all too forcefully that she came from the wrong side of the pasture. The echoes of the wedding bells have barely faded before she is secretly riding under the stars back to Scott. This role required an actress of the depth of a Patricia Neal. It got Leslie rehashing her chirpy ingenue performances of the war years.Alexander Knox as Will Isham and John Russell as Hugh Clagg, the two spurned lovers, are the movie's only real assets. Isham goes sour, but he has a better side and one gets the impression an affectionate Laurie might have brought it out. When Laurie offers to go away with him at the climax, he abandons all plans for revenge or power and briskly agrees, only to be almost immediately shot down by his own hired gun. Russell is intense in the redundant role of a man hopelessly obsessed with Drew. I think he is miscast. He is twenty years younger than Scott, is strikingly handsome, and has an engaging smile. He should have switched roles with Richard Rober, pallid as a foppish gunslinger. Russell would have made a much more menacing killer. Rober's ordinary looks and bland personality might have convinced as the rejected suitor. The movie only really comes alive when Isham or Clagg boil over into outbursts of violence. The rest is slow soap-opera complications and heavy-handed comedy relief, punctuated by a few ordinary action scenes. The final shootout between Scott and Rober is forgettable. Andre De Toth proves himself a limited director. The script meanders along various tangents, but leaves the pivotal character of Isham somewhat underdeveloped and the perhaps even more pivotal character of Laurie totally undeveloped. She marries a man she doesn't love for his money and when he is killed at least partially because of her behavior, she ends up with the money. Is that all? A better script would have fleshed out this role and possibly fished for some irony in the ending.All in all, there might have been a good movie underneath all the dross struggling to get out, but it never made it. As is, seeing and hearing a young Ernie Ford sing is a nostalgic treat. Otherwise, at best a time filler for a rainy day.

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.