Let's be realistic.

I'll tell you why so serious

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The 1950's brought us a lot of great Westerns - The Naked Spur, High Noon, Man of the West, 3:10 to Yuma, Shane, Vera Cruz and others. Unfortunately this is not one of them despite the hand of the Great Director Raoul Walsh. No it is not bad but overall this is a routine western - straightforward story - Old guy wrongly accused of murder (Walter Brennan), taken by Marshall (Kirk Douglas) for trial, chased by rich rancher (Morris Ankrum) whose son was killed, Marshall has hots for old guy's daughter (Virginia Mayo) despite all the tension between them. It does have its moments and a good cast despite all the western clichés and Kirk Douglas's clenched teeth. Enjoyable though and wrapped up in a tidy 88 minutes.

The heavy-handed script of ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE puts every possible obstacle in the way of a saintly sheriff (KIRK DOUGLAS) intent on bringing a suspected murderer to justice and away from the men who want to lynch him for killing a rancher's son.The plot gets off to a good start with a lynching interrupted by good guy Douglas, who saves the neck of WALTER BRENNAN from the hangman's noose. But the plot gets a bit too thick by the time we encounter Brennan's fiery daughter (VIRGINIA MAYO) and the bad men who want to stop Douglas and his party from reaching a town where a jury can decide Brennan's fate.Despite the gorgeous outoor scenery filmed in crisp B&W, there's a low-budget look to the night scenes filmed on indoor stage bound sets. Director Raoul Walsh keeps things moving, but the plot is so full of tiresome obstacles and shifting loyalties that the thirsty desert scenes seem to drag as the film nears its conclusion once the party has reached civilization.JOHN AGAR is decent enough as Douglas' ill-fated sidekick but it's JAMES ANDERSON as the no good son (brother of the man Brennan is supposed to have killed), who manages to steal scenes with his shifty manner as the villain of the piece. Too bad his career was cut short by his premature death at 48.VIRGINIA MAYO is improbably cast and her romance with Douglas is strictly full of clichés as they fight incessantly over his intent on bringing her father to justice. The story is pretty routine and even though the running time is brief, the film runs out of steam before the party reaches its destination in a nearby village so that the finale seems anticlimactic.It remains an average western despite the good cast.

Along The Great Divide marked Kirk Douglas's western debut. Fortunately he made several more and they were a whole lot better than this one.Douglas is a federal marshal who with his deputies John Agar and Ray Teal breaks up a lynching of Walter Brennan who is accused of rustling and killing the son of cattle baron Morris Ankrum. Douglas arrests Brennan and brings him back for trial. It's the journey back across the desert that's marked by ambush and betrayal with Brennan maintaining his innocence in the homicide. Along for the ride is Brennan's daughter, Virginia Mayo.Kirk Douglas proved to be a natural western star and he's cast well as the determined federal marshal. Unfortunately he's hampered by an extremely improbable script as is the rest of the cast. Some of the B westerns of Tim Holt or Roy Rogers make a lot more sense than this one.I won't give away the plot or the incidents involved, but Kirk should have died on the desert and Walter Brennan should have made it to Mexico.

It is a quite dated film, but that is not exactly it's problem! It is far from the best film ever. Quite out off reality. Terrible script, which lead to bad performances. Kirk Douglas manages to look credible, but the rest of the cast doesn't achieve what this great actor could in this film. This film proves that bad movies have been made since way before the 90s! Although it has good things, it is dated in almost every way, and it is full of too many flaws! Also, the film is quite predictable, but it has a good scenery and fails to deliver emotion. They make the character of Virginia Mayo very annoying too, and she fails as an actress!TERRIBLE! That forces me to give the film a 5/10, but because Kirk tried to make it better, I would actually rank it with a lower grade!