A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

An unfairly unsung western,almost completely devoid of violence ,of fights,of your average western clichés;the subject is the second chance ,the free will,without preachy moral.A subject Delmer Daves would resume in "the last wagon" in the fifties.This is to my knowledge the only western in which bullets are used to relieve the suffering:this scene where Joel McCrea opens them to get the sulfur ,his struggle against diphtheria ,injecting more tenderness you might think possible when he talks to the sick children are among the most moving in the western genre .The female part (played by Frances Dee who has wonderful eyes) is not decorative:as a nurse,whose duty is to heal the pain,she shows Ewan the way when she calls him coward before leaving him:had the hero not met her,he would probably have ignored the dying family and gone his way.The rock gives this tale a legendary side ;Ross becomes a legend in his own time .Oddly ,the following year,Joel McCrea would play another character ("Colorado Territory" ,Raoul Walsh)whose (tragic) legendary tale is told by a priest.

This western starring Joel McCrea is just plain bizarre. The film begins with a big celebration in a western town and Pat Garrett (the guy who captured Billy the Kid) was making a speech. At the same time, and here's where it gets weird, McCrea is robbing (of sorts) a bank in town. He initially asks for a loan but then pulls out a gun and demands exactly $2000! Huh?! Naturally, the banker is mad and gets a posse to look for McCrea--who has made a getaway in to the desert. However, he is bitten by a snake and makes his way to a nearby train where a nurse just happens to be available to treat him. Then, despite not knowing him at all, the woman hides McCrea and swears he MUST be innocent (which, incidentally, he ISN'T).This is all very bizarre. Why steal $2000 and insist it's a loan? Why conveniently have a rattlesnake bite him AND conveniently have a nurse nearby who then falls for him? And, why would a woman with a young child suddenly risk everything for a man she doesn't even know?! None of this makes much sense though at least McCrea played nice cowboys and his acting in this sub-par film was pretty good. Forgettable and weird.UPDATE: I rarely do this, but I decided to give this film another chance. Well, the second time around I appreciated it a lot more. Sure, the plot makes little sense at the beginning. I guess I just wasn't in a very good mood when I first saw it--the second time it worked better for me--and got better towards the end. Still not a great film--but worth seeing.

There is an incredible chemistry between McCrea and his real wife Frances Dee. They meet on a train, as McCrea is running from a posse, she takes care of his arm which was bitten by a rattlesnake and soon they are riding together among other people on a carriage and he has his arms around her. A little later they fall in each other's arms and kiss and that may seem too soon with another couple, but with them it could even have been sooner. There is this nice place (a rock?) where it is written "they passed this way" in Spanish (paso por aqui) and it seems only special people deserve to write their name there. McCrea robbed a bank and there is a high reward for his capture, but all through the film you feel he is a great guy.

That's a tone which suits the film's unflappable star, Joel McCrea, fairly well. McCrea is a Good Samaritan bandit on the run.He meets up with his real-life wife, Frances Dee. This is the last time they would appear on screen together. Here she gives one of her least expressionless performances. Her acting may not be of the first calibre, or even the second, but she still looks wonderful for someone on, or quickly approaching, the seasoned side of 40.William Conrad plays a baritonal lawman here. Was this before or after he was radio's Marshal Matt Dillon in "Gunsmoke"?"Four Faces West" is not without its problems. The entire story has an air of nebulous implausibility which betrays its Saturday Evening Post origins.But, while the movie generates little excitement, it's still a pleasant enough way to spend a siesta some lazy Sunday afternoon.