Such a frustrating disappointment

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Not as Good as the Boetticher-Scott Films, This One Inevitably Draws Comparison as it is Rich in Conflict and Moral Regards. There are Some Attractions in this Above Average Western. Technicolor, Randolph Scott, and Lee Marvin are the Highlights. Surfacing from the Simplistic Yet Classic Tale of Greed and Men of Varying Scruples, are Some Rich Side-Characters from Familiar Character Actors.Donna Reed is the Love Interest and Only in Hollywood is it Required She Falls in Love with the Honorable Soldier in an A Day and A Night. The Romance is Quick and Not Really Believable and is the Movies Shortcoming.Overall, Worth a Watch Because it is Better than the Standard Stuff of Westerns in the Fifties, A Decade that Saw a Plethora of Pictures Set in the Wild Frontier. Fans of Scott Should Like it and Western Movie Fans can Add this to a Checklist of the Better Ones.

The only feature filmmaking effort for writer / director Roy Huggins (who went on to create the TV series 'The Fugitive' and 'The Rockford Files') stars Western icon Randolph Scott. Scott plays Confederate major Matt Stewart, who carries out a mission to rob a gold shipment. After all is said and done and a number of men have died, Stewart and the survivors learn that the Civil War is actually over. Content to hold on to the gold for now, they are pursued by a single- minded "posse" and are forced to hole up in a stagecoach way station. Conflicts run high inside the station in addition to the threat waiting outside.Huggins's film is a beautifully shot Technicolor Western that serves as a solid example of the genre. It clocks in at a reasonable 82 minutes, and the story by Huggins is absorbing every step of the way. Scott excels at playing a level headed protagonist, and he leads a strong cast. Donna Reed is lovely and appealing in the role of a Union Army nurse whose skills will come in handy. Claude Jarman Jr. is likewise endearing as Jamie, a junior member of Stewarts' gang. Lee Marvin is lots of fun as Rolf, a volatile type. Richard Denning is perfect in the role of Lee Kemper, who turns out to be a real weasel. Likewise impressive are Frank Faylen, Glenn Langan, Jeanette Nolan, Clem Bevans, and Ray Teal. Scotts' efficient, authoritative performance is the glue that holds everything together.Yakima Canutt stages all of the excellent action. Of particular interest is the final showdown between our "heroes" and their antagonists, which takes place during a thunderstorm. The sequence leading up to that, of the way station being set ablaze, is similarly intense and exciting.A commercial and critical favourite on Scotts' resume, "Hangman's Knot" is good, straightforward fun.Eight out of 10.

I was kind of torn as to whether to give this movie a 6 or a 7. After all, while entertaining and well done compared to most westerns, it also suffers a bit from a claustrophobic feel as well as a lot of similarity to other films--even other Randolph Scott films. I'll give it a 7, simply because even a mediocre Scott film is better than the norm.The film starts with Scott leading a raiding party of Confederates on a Union gold shipment. The problem is that they don't realize that the war is over--and that by killing these troops and taking the gold that they might be viewed as crooks, not men serving their country. Instead of returning the gold and surrendering (which probably would have kept them from a hanging), they decide to keep the gold and make a run for it. Scott says he's keeping the gold and plans on using it to rebuild the South, but the rest of the gang isn't so strongly inclined. However, before the whole thing degenerates into an all-out brawl for the money, an outside force intervenes. Various posses are looking for them once the dead soldiers are found and one group that corners them isn't particularly interested in bringing anyone to justice--they just want to steal the gold and kill everyone to get rid of witnesses--forcing the ex-Confederates to strongly bond together--except for a problematic guy played by Lee Marvin--a very typical 1950s role for him.The film benefits from excellent acting all around and despite some very familiar story elements and clichés, is quite entertaining. HOWEVER, there is one seriously bad problem and one smaller one with the film. First, the really bad. In a fight between Marvin and Scott, you can very, very clearly see that they are stuntmen and this might just be the worst non-deliberate example I've seen (I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA's is worse, but clearly meant to be as white guy with a mustache doubles for a black woman). They obviously are not Marvin or Scott--it's not even close. The other smaller problem are some story elements that, if you think about them, make no sense. Why did Scott and his men hold up the wagon? This made no sense, nor did Donna Reed suddenly falling for Scott at the end (an obvious cliché). Regardless, Scott fans will love this and non-western lovers will probably find it all tolerable at best.

Some of Randolph Scott's Westerns are shown regularly on British TV, but I hadn't seen this one before, and it lived up to my expectations. The colour was good, the cast strong and the plot better than for most Westerns of this period. Lee Marvin was strong in an early role, and Claud Jarman jnr was also good (I wonder why his film career seemed to peter out?) I suppose a pedant might nitpick at the Union cavalrymen's uniforms appearing to be standard wardrobe issue, rather than the sort one might expect to see Civil War men wear. As a heavy, Guinn Williams was cast contrary to his usually semi-comic type, but over the years he hadn't lost his curious way of firing a revolver - almost as if he were tossing bullets out of its muzzle with a flick of his wrist.The jarring note was the obligatory romance for Westerns of this period, this time between 54-year-old Scott (in the beginning of the film at least almost looking his age) and 32-year-old Donna Reed (as delightful as ever).