Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

ksf-2 An interesting story. the film begins with the town-folk hanging a man. Anderson (MacMurray) gives the eulogy at the dead man's service, and throws in some lines about the deceased staying with us, even if he's dead. The ex-girlfriend "Rela" shows up, with her new beau, Wes' brother Tom. then old friend Cole (Ward Bond) shows up with a caper in mind. Then the troubles begin! Can they hold it together long enough to pull the job and get away ? It's actually quite good.. not " Double Indemnity" great, but still pretty darn good. a bit one dimensional, but good, for a western. and some great film locations as well.. if you haven't been to Corriganville (now a county park ), check it out. fun and historic. Directed by Roy Rowland, distant relative of LB Mayer. Story by Niven Busch, who had been oscar nominated for "Old Chicago" back in 1938. Also wrote many novels, and the screenplay for one of my favorites "Postman". This is worth seeing, even if only because it's one of the four film that Stanwyck and MacMurray made together.

mark.waltz A romantic comedy/drama, a dangerous film noir, and a soap opera about adultery rounded out three of the four films that Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray made together. The first, "Remember the Night", is a sleeper that has gained prominence in its reputation. "Double Indemnity" is of course one of the all time great thrillers, and "There's Always Tomorrow" is an acceptable, if predictable, women's picture. In the case of "The Moonighter" (a film I have been trying to track down for years), the 3-D western (lacking that element on DVD) is a slight disappointment, mainly because the script is so shoddy and the lead male character isn't somebody you really root for.In "Remember the Night", MacMurray was a D.A. who prosecuted Stanwyck for shoplifting but took her home for the holidays. Here, it is almost the opposite. He's a cattle rustler due to be hanged, but by a strange twist of fate, another man is hanged in his place. The one thing I can give the script credit for is showing conscience in MacMurray's reaction to the removal of the wrong man and his viewing the corpse being shot down from the tree where he was meant to swing. Former girlfriend Stanwyck shows up to claim the corpse with his brother (William Ching) whom she has fallen in love with and instantly knows that he is really alive. Their reunion is tense, especially when he reluctant involves Ching in a bank robbery he has planned with old co-conspirator Ward Bond. Of course, things don't go well for Ching, so Stanwyck vows revenge against her old lover.This is where Stanwyck obtains a sheriff's badge, determined to bring MacMurray and Bond back. She's really handy with a gun (as shown in the confrontation with the really bad Bond), but she's not wearing waterproof boots which make her slide down the side of a huge waterfall. It's an incredibly tense moment and appears that Stanwyck performed the stunt herself. In print, everything seems fine, and structurally, the film isn't bad. But MacMurray's amoral character, even with guilt over the poor man's place on the tree instead of him, is certainly guilty of villainous behavior, so there's no way you want to see him have a happy ending, especially after MacMurray and Bond do what typical co-conspirators in a robbery do and try to betray each other.There's really no point to the 3-D filming, especially since the movie is in black and white and would look extremely flat for the majority of the running time. There are some tense moments, and the action sequences are well shot, but the dialog and the unbelievability of many of the things going on takes away its credibility. Stanwyck, as always, brings out the many layers of her character and delivers a believable performance, but MacMurray isn't worthy of her affections. The ending left me very cold, lacking the "Double Indemnity" type finale I had hoped for. Out of nowhere comes an unnecessary intermission! The only thing this is missing is a Frankie Laine song, but Stanwyck got that for her Mexican adventure, "Blowing Wild".

Dick Yates I cringed when I watched this movie recently on TCM.Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Ward Bond were all fine actors, but in this turkey and with the scripts they had to work with it was downright embarrassing to see their acting performances.The movie started off promising, but within about 15 minutes it quickly deteriorated into a mishmash of puzzling dialogue between the actors and plot twists that didn't make any sense. I couldn't really understand the relationship between MacMurray and his brother, who he just kind of left out there in left field during the bank robbery.Ward Bond played an ingratiating role as a baddie. He just looked uncomfortable during his scenes. Overall a terrible waste of some fine actors talents.

MartinHafer The first 15 minutes of this Western are exciting and different. I was thrilled as it looked like this film was actually a break from the usual dull cowboy film. Sadly, as the film progressed, it only morphed into a rather typical film--losing all the promise and great plot at the beginning.The film begins with Fred MacMurray in jail for cattle rustling (i.e., "moonlighting"). However, the "good citizens" of the town don't want to wait for justice to take its course and attack the jail. They want to string up MacMurray, though the people don't know what he looks like. This is a SERIOUS problem, as one of the deputies had locked himself into the cell to protect himself from the mob. The mob mistakenly thought the deputy was the criminal (an odd mistake, granted) and string him up instead. MacMurray later returns to the town and one by one starts exacting revenge in the name of the dead man. Most of the killings are pretty cool and I loved this angle.Then, however, inexplicably, after Fred gets hurt, the entire plot changes. Why do this when the initial plot is so good?! All thoughts about revenge on the town vanish and the plot changes to a rather dull film about Fred and his old fiancée, played by Barbara Stanwyck. In addition to this not making any sense, what makes even less sense is when Fred's brother (always a good and law abiding citizen) decides to join Fred in a life of crime. The motivation for this just hadn't been established and seemed bizarre. If this isn't bad enough, Barbara later becomes sort of an action-hero and has a show-down with the ultra-bad guy (Ward Bond)--and SHE wins!! Then, in the end, Fred has a sudden change of heart and decides to turn himself in and go straight!! What happened to the writing and the common sense?! What started as a great film quickly degenerated into a confusing and unconvincing mess--most of which seem unmotivated and disconnected. Not a shining moment in the career of either of the stars of this film. It only manages a score as high as 4 because at least it started well.