Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Director: JOSEPH H. LEWIS. Screenplay: Ben L. Perry. Photography: Ray Rennahan. Film editors: Frank Sullivan, Stefan Arnsten. Art director: William Ferrari. Set decorator: Rudy Butler. Make-up: Sid Perell. Hair styles: Shirley Madden. Property master: Arnold Goode. Music editor: George Brand. Special effects edigtor: Carl Brainard. Assistant director: Richard Dixon. Associate producer: Carroll Sax. Producer: Frank M. Seltzer.Released through United Artists: September 1958 (USA), 14 September 1958 (Britain), 29 January 1959 (Australia). 7,200 feet. 80 minutes. (An excellent M-G-M DVD). COMMENT: This is one of those films that - influenced by TV techniques - start off with a few tantalizing action clips from the climax before the credits roll on to the screen. This device generally signals that the rest of the movie (like its TV counterpart) will be long on talk, short on action. And such is regrettably the case here. True, Lewis does occasionally manage to insert a tautly dramatic composition. True too that color ace, Ray Rennahan, proves equally adept at stylish black-and-white. But unfortunately the initially off-beat characters turn out to be as stereotyped as the formula "B"-western plot, - with a tiny dressing of more sophisticated dialogue. As the protagonist in this oft-told tale, Sterling Hayden's Swedish accent slips on and off like a mack on a showery day. It's a blessing that Cabot and Ned Young come across as a forceful pair of villains and that the girls are moderately attractive (though their parts are so small they could be scissored altogether without harming our comprehension of the plot). Aside from a clip or two of stock train footage, production values are not too miserly - by the normally humble standards of the independent western "B".

***SPOILERS***The "Sterling" actor Sterling Hayden who was promoted by his studio Paramount back in 1941 as being the most handsomest man in Hollywood is whaler George Hansen who's now back home in Prairie City Texas from the high seas after a 19 year absence in the Pacific. Only for him to find out that his dad the old salts Sven Hansen,Ted Stanhope, has been brutally gunned down the day or, give or take a day, before! Hayden/Hansen sporting a weird and almost laughable Swedish accent now decides to find his father's killer and bring him to justice. It later turns out that the elder Mr. Hansen refused to vacate his farm to the greedy and land grabbing McNeil, Sabastian Cabot, who in return had his top henchman the all dressed in black and one handed "Lefty" Johnny Crale, Ned Young, gun him down. It's not just old man Hansen's property that McNeil want's but the entire towns that he found out is swimming in "Blacak Gold" or oil. And being the all for me and screw you individual that McNeil is he not only want's a piece of the action but the entire caboodle as well!Peacful and law abiding at first Hansen in getting no cooperation from the intimidated towns people that McNeil and his goons are targeting then decides to take them on single handedly all by himself. It's not an easy task for the peace loving Hansen who ends up getting worked over and run out of town on a rail by McNeil's goons only to come back for more, beatings and abuse, of the same. It's when McNeil overplayed his hand when he has the non violent and never making trouble for anyone, even for McNeil, farmer Jose Mirada, Victor Millan, gunned down by "Lefty" Crale. That was to keep him from telling the local sheriff Stoner, Victor McVey, that it was Crale under orders from McNeil who murdered Old Man Hansen. Instead of feeling he's now off the hook, in the Seven Hansen murder, Crale gets religious and turns on his boss McNeil by shooting him for ordering him to gun Jose down as well as keeping his mouth shut about it.***SPOILERS***It's now high noon time at Prairie City with Hansen fully recovered from his injuries faces the gun slinging Crale, who murdered his dad, in the town square to not only see who's the fastest gun, or in the case of Hansen harpoon thrower, in town. Made just after the height of the "Red Scare" or "Communist Witch Hunt" era in the US the film starred two actors, Hayden & Young, who were victims of the dreaded "Communist Blacklist" as well as the man Dalton Trumbo, using an assumed name of course , who directed it.

I do not believe I watched the whole thing. I tried. I really, really tried. I tried to like something of it but let's face it. This isn't Gary Cooper and this isn't High Noon and no one is going to Yuma. What a politicized mess. tell me something I don't already know. Bad guys are bad and good guys are good and bad girls are good too. Glad we got that straight. Now let's get on to the trashing of normal everyday folks to Dalton can be happy in his red diaper. Feel better now? Good. I think this one belongs back in the drawer. Back of the drawer. If you want to watch a western, there are many better ones readily available. This one is not worth the time. Sterling is better served in his other ventures and so are the others in the cast. Even if you only have one station and this is the only thing on, read a book. Rent Sparticus. Don't bother with this waste of film and effort all around.

This strange, surreal film is unique among westerns of the era. While it contains most of the standard western clichés, every cliché has a twist. The music is bizarre and often doesn't seem to fit, but that just adds to the offbeat feel. The acting is odd but perfectly suited to the film. Hayden's take on a Swedish accent and speech patterns bounces from realistic to annoying to non-existent, but his performance is excellent, as is Cabot's. The story is riddled with moral dilemmas that give it surprising depth. Don't be fooled into thinking this is just another B western. This movie has a quality that is difficult to describe. Strangely great.