Thanks for the memories!

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Fantastic!

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Copyright 1957 by Emirau Productions. Presented by Regal Films and released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: September 1957. U.K. release: January 1958. Australian release: around June 1958 at a guess (the actual date was not recorded). 6,940 feet. 77 minutes. Cut to 6,080 feet or 68 minutes in Australia.SYNOPSIS: The story revolves around a prim Boston schoolteacher, who goes West to teach in a small town, and a tough U.S. Cavalryman. Miss Gray is the teacher and Mr Morrow is the whisky-drinking soldier and they are thrown together when Miss Gray finds the little town completely wiped out by Apaches. Morrow had escaped the rampaging Indians because he was in jail drunk the night of the attack. How the two face hardships together and the efforts of Miss Gray to change Morrow's character provide the drama and romance in Eric Norden's screenplay.VIEWERS' GUIDE: The Australian censor says both versions are not suitable for children, the British Board says the full-length picture is okay for all.COMMENT: This somewhat unusual story (reminiscent of "The African Queen") is rather slow in the telling. (We are now stuck with the full version. As usual, all copies of the Australian print seem to have disappeared). It's none too well acted either. But what makes one hanker for the Oz cut is that the opening and closing sequences are quite suspenseful. A great deal of the picture was obviously lensed on location, and these sequences are reasonably exciting too. It's the rest of the movie (to which presumably the shears were taken down under) that's pretty hard slogging.

A Boston school marm out West meets the sole survivor of an Indian massacre, a drunk in jail. Alcoholic former cavalryman Hack Williams is arrested for killing an Indian, something he did not do. The townspeople, fearful of Apache reprisals, plan to hang Williams in hopes of heading off an attack. But the attack comes and Hack, locked in his jail cell, is the only survivor as a massacre occurs. Into the scene of carnage arrives schoolteacher Nora Haynes. Together she and Williams must find a way to reach safety before another Indian attack. But the pair are by no means well-matched, and their trip alone across the desert is not destined to be an easy one. This is a fine Western with a very fine cast.Try it. You'll like it!

I think there is a real problem here with what could have been a real 'sleeper' - a modest, but potentially good, film. That problem is the continuity. This movie has a thrown together look, with scenes that don't match, and with dialog that is sometimes spoken as if some climax is about to happen, but never does.I loved Jeff Morrow in this - he seems to be in a completely different (and better) picture than most of the rest of the cast. Colleen Gray is very pretty, but why is she all dolled up and coiffed in a 1950s beehive-type hairdo if she's out in the Wild West? In typical Hollywood style, no matter what befalls her, her lipstick never smears.The actors are called upon to suffer many hardships, and one minute they are walking in the desert, and the next they are walking next to a stream near some woods, and how they got there is never accounted for. I couldn't keep track of when they had a wagon and horse, and when they didn't. Events sometimes seem to unfold backwards.That isn't the actors fault. It's annoying, but it shouldn't detract from the performances, and the kernel of a good story that just never develops properly. It should lead the viewer to speculate about how this movie could have been a bit better. Maybe someone will remake it some day.

i have not seen this film for over 40 years, at least. i loved it then and long to see if my memories of it have held up over the years. the main character was sleeping off a drunk in the jail house when the indians attack and left him the sole survivor. his journey has him meet the female lead, for a person of my age there was some "mushy stuff" but there was a few scenes that were erotic and may even hold up, today. if there is any way to see this film again, i am waiting to find out.