• He’d go on to make another 20 features (he directed about 120 overall) but as of right now this is the latest dated archiveable film for Raul Walsh
  • 10 years after he’d head to the desert for Bogart’s breakout role in High Sierra Walsh is back in the desert – Sierra here and the Mojave shot on location
  • 88 minutes, tight film with simple premise- black and white
  • Walter Brennan in support—he’s such a strong actor, this is a complex character here- he’s be the likeable Brennan from Rio Bravo one minute and then flips a switch to his darker My Darling Clementine role in a blink
  • Kirk Douglas plays the marshal in a western, he has a checkered past, forced with tough moral choices- this could be a Boetticher film with Randolph Scott or a Anthony Mann film with Jimmy Stewart
Douglas and Walter Brennan dueling back and forth here- the film isn’t peppered with these shots but a very nice one here
  • In great form- Douglas loses his temper (he’s just about as good as any actor in cinema history at this) at the 33 minute mark
  • Walsh is a fantastic director of action- kinetic chase scenes and a strong stalking scene through the desert rocks at the 40 minute mark
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1951