Who could have been a better choice for doing a western re-make of High Sierra than the original director of High Sierra, Raoul Walsh. He pretty well followed the plot line of High Sierra and had every character in there, but the dog who was an alleged jinx.
It could have been a better film and the trouble is with the miscasting of Joel McCrea. McCrea in my opinion was the solidest of western heroes, at his best when he's playing straight as an arrow good guys. Wes McQueen is not a straightforward good guy at all here and McCrea just can't get a handle on the character. You want to see McCrea at his heroic best, look at stuff like Union Pacific, Four Faces West, or The Virginian to name a few. I think Randolph Scott or Dick Powell would have been better casting here.
That being said it's not a bad film, but it could have been better. The women here are Virginia Mayo and Dorothy Malone playing the parts that Ida Lupino and Joan Leslie did in High Sierra. Mayo is the tough as nails broad in this just like Lupino. Malone's character is far from the innocent that Joan Leslie portrayed. It was another rung up the ladder for Malone to that Oscar she got for Written on the Wind.
The rest of the cast is populated with such veterans as Henry Hull, Basil Ruysdael, Harry Woods, Monte Blue, John Archer, and James Mitchell, stalwarts one and all. Frank Puglia plays a Franciscan Friar who winds up the real "winner" in this film.
The ending is different than High Sierra and I think Walsh took some inspiration from Duel in the Sun. I won't say more.
It could have been a better film and the trouble is with the miscasting of Joel McCrea. McCrea in my opinion was the solidest of western heroes, at his best when he's playing straight as an arrow good guys. Wes McQueen is not a straightforward good guy at all here and McCrea just can't get a handle on the character. You want to see McCrea at his heroic best, look at stuff like Union Pacific, Four Faces West, or The Virginian to name a few. I think Randolph Scott or Dick Powell would have been better casting here.
That being said it's not a bad film, but it could have been better. The women here are Virginia Mayo and Dorothy Malone playing the parts that Ida Lupino and Joan Leslie did in High Sierra. Mayo is the tough as nails broad in this just like Lupino. Malone's character is far from the innocent that Joan Leslie portrayed. It was another rung up the ladder for Malone to that Oscar she got for Written on the Wind.
The rest of the cast is populated with such veterans as Henry Hull, Basil Ruysdael, Harry Woods, Monte Blue, John Archer, and James Mitchell, stalwarts one and all. Frank Puglia plays a Franciscan Friar who winds up the real "winner" in this film.
The ending is different than High Sierra and I think Walsh took some inspiration from Duel in the Sun. I won't say more.