Everybody's mentioned the *High Noon* ripoff, but the silly ending is even worse.
Once he has the bad guys disarmed, why doesn't he just toss them in jail? They've committed multiple felonies, including assaulting a federal judge. Letting them go is a ludicrous decision which makes sense only as a movie contrivance.
Then, why does he immediately go back to his house? He has to figure they'll come after him, since he's been so dumb as to let them go. Is he offering himself up as bait, hoping they'll come after him so he can kill them? Well, it's a good thing they don't sneak up and shoot him through the windows at close range. Again, he does it only because it's necessary to set up the final gunfight, not because it makes any kind of sense.
And then they have MacMurray kill Robert Middleton off camera, which is apparently an attempt to gin up suspense (which one will walk out of the house?), but the actual result is an anti-climax, because we know it will be MacMurray. They go to such ridiculous lengths to set up the final showdown and then they don't even show it? Idiocy! In fact, writing this has made me realize just how stupid it was. I'm going to lower my rating from 6 to 5.
Once he has the bad guys disarmed, why doesn't he just toss them in jail? They've committed multiple felonies, including assaulting a federal judge. Letting them go is a ludicrous decision which makes sense only as a movie contrivance.
Then, why does he immediately go back to his house? He has to figure they'll come after him, since he's been so dumb as to let them go. Is he offering himself up as bait, hoping they'll come after him so he can kill them? Well, it's a good thing they don't sneak up and shoot him through the windows at close range. Again, he does it only because it's necessary to set up the final gunfight, not because it makes any kind of sense.
And then they have MacMurray kill Robert Middleton off camera, which is apparently an attempt to gin up suspense (which one will walk out of the house?), but the actual result is an anti-climax, because we know it will be MacMurray. They go to such ridiculous lengths to set up the final showdown and then they don't even show it? Idiocy! In fact, writing this has made me realize just how stupid it was. I'm going to lower my rating from 6 to 5.