Nonureva Really Surprised!

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Edison Witt The first must-see film of the year.

alan-pratt Progress on the railroad has pretty much ground to a halt as the workers spend most of their time drinking rotgut in Dan Duryea's boozer.The leading citizens of the town request military help and tough soldier, Payne, is appointed as a sort of temporary marshal. Trouble is, he's an old mate of Duryea so it looks as though there's going to be a conflict of interests.This is an above average Universal western: the two main protagonists play off each other well and there is excellent support from a very large cast of familiar westerners (many uncredited). Special mentions must go to Lee Van Cleef as a menacing, trigger happy bad guy (was he ever anything else?), Mari Blanchard as a saloon girl with a heart of gold (was she ever anything else?) and James Griffith, cast against type in a humorous role, as a bumbling ineffectual lawman.Action scenes are well staged - particularly those on the trains - the photography is first class and the Technicolor beautiful as always.Oh, and as an added bonus for B western fans, there's a title song over the opening credits rumbled out by the ever popular Rex Allen....

MartinHafer A very common and rather clichéd plots for old westerns is the notion of someone trying to stop the railroad. While there really wasn't a historical basis, too many films were about a supposed overt or covert effort to stop progress. In most all of them, however, the reason why the baddies are doing this is pretty obvious...but in this one I really couldn't see why Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is doing this...and it's a major weakness of the film.The man sent to help get the railroad built is an Army Sergeant, Jeff Harder (John Payne) and through most of the film, he makes very little progress thanks to Shanessy and a rather stupid town that tolerates Shanessy's antics. It all leads up to a murder conviction, a jail escape and train chase. None of it's bad...none of it's outstanding in any way. A standard and rather clichéd film.By the way, late in the film a lady is shot from about 8-10 feet away with what is probably a .45 Colt cartridge. Amazingly, she survived...a miracle and a half!

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Jesse Hibbs directed some westerns like this one, "Ride Clear of Diablo" and "The Spoilers" which achieved a rare overall perfection, considering what they were aiming at, a public wanting to see a B Technicolor production. Besides Hibb's direction there are the good performances by John Payne and Dan Duryea. Mari Blanchard is not as good here as she was in "Destry" , made in the same year. The intelligent screenplay by D.D. Beauchamp and Joseph Hoffman, even makes a point about the political importance of women, in situations where they are braver than men. Dan Duryea is Jim Shanessy, a man who is making money counting on the spending of the railroad workers, and in consequence, trying to make them slow down so they can stay longer where he has his establishments. Jeff Harder (John Payne), his old time friend is set in charge of cleaning up the place. When he arrives, the town leaders, which are expecting hundreds of soldiers , and do not absorb his friendship with Shanessy have a reaction that reminds us of "Destry Rides Again" and "Destry". There are excellent scenes of Harder using his fists and fighting skills. Rex Allen sing the main theme song.

revdrcac John Payne stars in this 1954 sagebrush saga, which also features several western favorites as co-stars. The railroad sends a representative to get to the bottom of a gang's attempts to disrupt the rail-lines.The film is well-paced and Payne is a good choice to play the lead role. Dan Duryea steals many of the scenes he appears in and the great Lee Van Cleef was fine in his all too brief supporting role.Payne appeared in a number of Westerns in the '40's and '50's, but was never able to reach the same success as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or Glenn Ford had in the genre. This film was a good example of his work and should be enjoyed by die-hard Western movie fans........