Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Michael Morrison Watching Burt Lancaster's early efforts (such as "The Rose Tattoo") might make one wonder why he was allowed to continue. Watching his later portrayals, one knows exactly why.Probably his looks, especially his physique, gave him his chance, but Burt Lancaster just got better and better as an actor."Vengeance Valley" is a good example.He was surrounded by good to very good actors but he didn't have to take second place to any, not even Ray Collins.Since a very large portion of his film roles was in westerns, probably no one should be surprised at how good a cowboy he was, but it is still a pleasurable surprise to see him horseback, in fights, drawing his pistol.He portrays the proper emotions, to the right degree.Besides the excellent Lancaster, every cast member seems perfect. I have to admit I did not recognize Hugh O'Brian behind his whiskers and surly manner -- meaning he was so good, he was submerged in his character.Big studio westerns were often overdone, with too much plot and too little action. "Vengeance Valley," though, shows what those studios could have done, much more often.There are several versions available on YouTube so you can watch it. And I hope you do.

moonspinner55 Feckless cowboy, married but also semi-secretly the father of an infant born to an unwed neighbor girl, allows his foster-brother to take the rap when the vengeful brother of the tight-lipped lass comes to town packing heat. Oater opens with a laughably clichéd narration by a Jimmy Stewart sound-alike informing us this is a yarn about "cow country and cow punchers, cattle, and men. Worn leather, saddles, blisters and branding irons!" Unfortunately, it turns out to be a rather wan, dim horse-opera, with Robert Walker's rotter one-dimensionally written and portrayed (he whips a horse that won't let him ride, a signal to us that his wife--who only has one Sunday dress--is miserable at home). Burt Lancaster, occasionally unshaven and cat-like in his movements, broods sexily and is the only reason to watch the picture. *1/2 from ****

sol **SPOILERS** Coming back from a 1,000 mile cattle drive Owen Daybright, Burt Lanaster, and his step brother Lee Strobie, Robert Walker, are socked to find out the the local and unmarried saloon waitress Lily Fasken, Sally Forrest,has given birth to a baby boy. The big thing about all this is that Lily's brother Dick, Hugh O'Brian, has showed up at the Strobie house when Lily is now being cared for by Lee's wife Jen, Joanne Dru, to find out who his sister baby's daddy is and make him pay either by arranging a shotgun wedding for him or using the shotgun, if he refuses, to blast him to kingdom come!Because Owen is so concerned for Lily and her infant son that he goes so far as giving her $500.00 to take care of things that Dick interprets that act of kindness as an admittance of guilt in him being the person who knocked her up! Seeing that he's no match for the much bigger stronger as faster, on the draw, Owen Dick calls for help in getting his big brother Hub, John Ireland, to come over and help him out in taking on Owen. What the two violent and airhead Fasken brothers totally overlook is the obvious! It wasn't the honest and gentlemanly Owen who put their sister Lily in the "family way" but Owen's sneaky and lying step-brother Lee!The noble and straight shooting Owen ends up taking a number of beating from the Fasken boys, as well as giving them back as good as he takes, throughout the entire film even though he knows that it was Lee who's their sisters baby's father that he's accused of being. Lee in return for Owen's generosity, in keeping the truth about his relationship with Lily secret, ends up setting up Owen to be gunned down by the Fasken brothers as well as trying to swindle the Strobie Ranch right from under his dad's Arch Strobie, Ray Collins, nose! What a rat fink and low-life piece of horse manure he turned out to be!**SPOILER ALERT*** All this malicious shenanigans on Lee's part backfires on him with his bumbling partners in crime, in trying to murder Owen, the Fasken Brothers screwing up as usual his master-plan in getting themselves killed by Owen and the sheriff's posse who came to his rescue. As for Lee he meets his end, and his maker, at the end of his brother's .42 revolver when he challenged Owen to draw on him thinking that he, in practicing day and night for years, would easily outdraw him. Owen in the end did what was right like he did throughout the entire film by telling, out of hearing range from the movie audience, the dead Lee's wife Jen, who in fact had no use for him when he was alive, the truth about her unfaithful husbands infidelity! Which I suspect she knew about all along!

tavm Vengeance Valley is pretty good for a western starring Burt Lancaster and Robert Walker as brothers, one of whom adopted, whose rivalry leads to betrayal later on. Also liked the women played by Joanne Dru and Sally Forrest and Hugh O'Brian and John Ireland as the brothers of Forrest who want to kill the man who impregnated their sister. Lots of good scenes of cattle rustling and some exciting fight scenes come every now and then but there's plenty of good drama concerning the characters too. The Technicolor stands out in this location-shot picture. Loved the narration by Carleton Carpenter as Hewie. Worthy entry for any old movie western fan.