Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Blistering performances.

Interesting, but all too predictable story of a young man, out of control, who is taken under the wing by his dead father's best friend. The solution to his problems in this western is to get a wife.Buddy Ebsen shines here as the guy who searches for Keir Dullea. Lois Nettleton becomes the bride. She brings to the marriage a young son. Widowed, her character is totally not allowed to be developed here.Naturally, there are cattle rustlers who take advantage of the situation and a scene where the young boy's life is put in danger when a fire breaks out, started by the crooks, in the area where he is sleeping.The ending, naturally when things calm down, is poignant and comical as Ebsen shows that it's never too late to find love.

This movie was on TCM so I tried it out. Its the story of Will Lane, an older man who travels to Montana to seek Lee Carey, the son of an old friend. The reason Lane does this is to try to make Carey into a responsible man, apparently a promise he made to Carey's deceased father. Carey turns out to be fond of drinking, women and gambling, so in order for Lane to calm him down he travels to find him a mail order bride. From there, we'll see whether Carey is tamed. This is a basic western, with drama and light comedy. Buddy Ebsen as Lane is fine, and the film is easy to watch. Its nothing special but I still didn't mind it. I'm not particularly fond of Westerns, and this does not rank anywhere near John Wayne's best but its not bad. I was never a big fan of Mr. Ebsen's TV work, but this is a decent film. A curious bit of casting is Jimmy Mathers, Jerry's brother, as the bride's son. He is in a very small role but it was interesting anyway (I didn't know he had a brother). So, if you like westerns or are just looking to pass the time, I think its watchable. Go ahead, its worth it.

Many movies deserve their obscurity, and none more than this formula Western. Direction, editing, writing-- all are uninspired, especially the occasional attempts at humor.But the casting is atrocious. Desperately bad. They've all done good work in other roles, but in this… So clean-cut he almost squeaks, Keir Dullea is at no point convincing as a gambling, carousing womanizer.Buddy Ebsen adds nothing new—not one glance, not one inflection-- to the tiresomely familiar role of the wise, slow-spoken, solitary old-timer.In the eponymous role, Lois Nettleton stares soulfully toward Ebsen, Dullea, or the near distance. That's about it. Refreshing though it is to see a rather plain actress as a star, she finds no way to redeem—with humor, with spirit-- a woman who did not advertise for a husband (her boss did, played by a wry Marie Windsor), and who has almost no curiosity about her sight-unseen future mate and his home. In fact, objectively, her non-reaction is almost criminally irresponsible for a widow with a child.If ever a film deserved to be in the background of some other activity (including sleep), it's this one.

Old fashioned western comedy with an interesting cast. Keir "2001" Dullea plays a wild young man and Buddy "Barnaby Jones" Ebsen plays a friend of his dead father who should learn him how to behave. Warren Oates and a very young William Smith play his bad friends.