What makes it different from others?

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.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

When I started watching this the only thing I knew about it was that it was a western; I didn't even know who was in it. That didn't matter as the opening scenes had me hooked; Wes Tancred, the films protagonist, has decided to go his own way because his one time friend is now just a murderer, the man's wife asks to come with him but is rebuffed so when the two men get into a gunfight she says Wes shot her unarmed husband in the back; it is a lie of course, in fact he drew first. By the time Wes is released from jail and given the reward for killing a wanted man he is famed as 'the man who shot his friend in the back'; there is even a song being sung about his cowardice. With nothing else to do he heads out of town and when he gets to a remote outpost takes on the name John Bailey. He isn't there long before a group of bandits turn up and kill the man running it; Wes manages to shoot them but is left looking after the man's son. He takes the boy on to the town of Table Rock as his uncle is the sheriff there. It seems a nice enough town but the people are scared because a cattle drive is on its way though and this has led to trouble in previous years. The sheriff, keen to avoid trouble, lets the drovers come into town on the condition that they don't cause any trouble... they do and a farmer is killed. The sheriff has to decide whether to stand up to the killers or accept their story that it was a fair fight when he knows it wasn't. His ultimate decision will lead to him facing personal demons to protect the town and Wes admitting who he really is and having to face another old friend in a gun fight.I was surprised how much I enjoyed this considering that there was only one actor I'd heard of in the film and he only had a small role. Richard Egan did a good enough job as Wes Tancred although I thought Cameron Mitchell was better as the sheriff doing his best despite being terrified of the drovers after an incident where he was severely beaten by some in a previous year. DeForest 'Dr McCoy' Kelley buts in a nice turn as the gunslinger who shoots it out with Wes at the end but unfortunately his role was fairly small. The action was good enough although people more familiar with modern films may be surprised that nobody sheds a drop of blood even when fatally shot! I'm not sure I'd recommend going out of your way to see this but if it is on television is passes an hour and a half well enough if you enjoy westerns.

TENSION AT TABLE ROCK is a underrated Western starring the taciturn and fleshy Richard Egan as Wes Tancred, a man thought by society to have shot his best friend in the back (an event celebrated by an ubiquitous ballad through much of the film). The song of course is incorrect, as the audience knows full well from watching the opening scenes. But such miscomprehension is central to a film frequently concerned with people being what they are not, or at the least not what they are expected to be. Just as Tancred is not the "black-hearted, white-livered, backbitin' sidewinder" murderer as the infamous lyrics say, so Sheriff Miller (Camron Mitchell) is no longer the fearless lawman he was after his beating; his wife Lorna (Dorothy Malone)is no floozy as the audience initially suspects; and even the gunfighter Jim Brek, finally brought in to dispatch the lawman turns out to be an affable enough, if still dangerous, fellow.Malone's casting as Lorna is on one level ideal; the actress made such a success as an unstable nymphomaniac in Sirk's marvellous WRITTEN ON THE WIND made the same year, and in that light it's the unaccustomed restraint between her character, wife of a weak male and the strong Tancred (who clearly is infatuated with her) which is one of TABLE ROCK's more interesting elements. Having said that, an early appearance by Angie Dickinson in the film, 3 years before her memorable role in RIO BRAVO makes one wonder what she would have brought to the main female part.In one of the film's key scenes, Miller returns home early to overhear his wife treating Tancred's head flesh wound - a moment of relative intimacy, ripe for a liaison, but which never materialises. (In a quietly Freudian moment he moves Tancred's hat off the back of the door revealing a peg beneath). As she says to her patient admiringly: "You're really the man Jody thinks you are" Miller reflects upon his own shortcomings. The irony is, of course, that Tancred is in fact really a man that *nobody* thinks he is, and someone who can only be be admired, loved and respected without a damaging reputation in place. From this perspective the film can be seen as the interesting antithesis to such works as Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, where one is invited to believe the legend of the West, and not the truth.Charles Marque Warren's direction is up to the job, although it is buoyed considerably by a fine score by Dmitri Tiomkin - another reason why the film should be better known. It may be that Warren (who made a number of Westerns, and co-wrote the fine DAY OF THE EVIL GUN) is ripe for reappraisal. Cameron Mitchell is also good in his difficult role which would probably have suited a slightly older actor. Egan's performance is subdued but fairly subtle as he plays a man who internalises a lot of his moral decisions, and this is surely one of his best works. The young Jody is played by Billy Chapin who made such an impression in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, but at times here his experience, largely among older, more violent males, recalls the world of TV's THE RIFLEMAN notably during his early scenes with Tancred and his natural father. It's these moments too, set as they are in a Fargo way station, a world threatened by the arrival of thugs with their own agenda, which might reflect the narrative influence of the celebrated Randolph Scott cycle made with Budd Boetticher, made around this time.Trivia note: the film contains characters called Kirk and Scotty, while DeForrest Kelley (Brek) played McCoy in Star Trek.

Not to be confused with "Bad Day At Black Rock", but just about as good especially considering it was made when RKO was really struggling. It's deliberately paced and quite absorbing with fine performances from Richard Egan (a lumbering, mostly humorless actor who nevertheless had dramatic weight) as a guilt-ridden gunman, and Cameron Mitchell as a physically and emotionally scarred sheriff who wrestles with his cowardice. (I'd even go so far as saying Mitchell gives a great performance - he does some real interesting things with the character.) The highlights for me were the courtroom scene, where Egan gives a moving little speech on how a man is through when he deceives himself (it's a real turning point for both characters) and a showdown at the end that plays out in an understated but completely satisfying way. I also liked the psychological intimidation tactic of the cattle drivers mimicking in unison the footsteps of various townspeople as they walk along. The one real flaw would have to be the way the same cattle drivers are so antagonistic towards the folks in town. Rowdy and reckless, sure, but their hostility seems unmotivated and certainly counter-intuitive.

As a director, Warren(Little Big Horn,1951) was either very hot or cold. He's hot here. The tension rises as the town braces for the insurgence of rowdy, often deadly cattlemen and copes with a sheriff who doubts his courage. Egan is superb as the man who has killed a blood-thirsty outlaw, now turned legend. There is enough action on hand to satisfy all and a rousing score by Dimitri Tiomken. One of the good ones.