When I received a DVD from Netflix with this film and "The Cimarron Kid" on it, I wondered why I'd placed this disk on my queue. After all, I am not a huge fan of westerns and the films appeared pretty unremarkable. However, when I noticed both films were directed by Budd Boetticher, I remembered that THIS was why I'd put these films on my list many months earlier. Boetticher was a wonderful director who managed to make his westerns better than the norm--with stories that lack many of the usual clichés.
This film is set during the war for Texas independence from Mexico in the mid-1830s. Soon after the film begins, you see a brief recreation of the Battle of the Alamo. Just before the compound is overrun, the commander has the married men draw lots--the one selected will sneak away from the fort and look after the families left behind. Glen Ford is the one chosen, but when he arrives home he learns that his family had been murdered. And, people begin to talk and think he was a coward since he left--though he was following orders. And, now that the battle is over, he's going to use all his energy tracking down the gang (dressed as Mexicans) responsible for his family's deaths. So, he infiltrates a gang...hoping to find out who is ultimately responsible.
The film is helped by having some good support for Ford. Neville Brand (one of the scariest looking heavies in film history), Victor Jory, Hugh O'Brian and Chill Wills all are available to provide nice color and good old dependable acting. And, Boetticher at the helm sure didn't hurt, either. Together, they are able to take an okay story and make it a lot better than it should have been. While it's not as good as the Boetticher/Randolph Scott collaborations, it's quite good.
By the way, they did NOT have revolvers and repeating rifles back then. The very first guns of these types were not yet available until AFTER this war and really were very rare until well into the Civil War. All too often, I have seen Hollywood mess up this detail--perhaps because it would be less exciting to see everyone stop to reload after each shot...and because reloading would take at least 30 seconds (and quite possibly more). But, unfortunately, that IS how they would have fought in the old days. And, by the way, the inexperienced women in the film managed to reload in about five seconds---something even the best soldiers never could have accomplished at the time!
This film is set during the war for Texas independence from Mexico in the mid-1830s. Soon after the film begins, you see a brief recreation of the Battle of the Alamo. Just before the compound is overrun, the commander has the married men draw lots--the one selected will sneak away from the fort and look after the families left behind. Glen Ford is the one chosen, but when he arrives home he learns that his family had been murdered. And, people begin to talk and think he was a coward since he left--though he was following orders. And, now that the battle is over, he's going to use all his energy tracking down the gang (dressed as Mexicans) responsible for his family's deaths. So, he infiltrates a gang...hoping to find out who is ultimately responsible.
The film is helped by having some good support for Ford. Neville Brand (one of the scariest looking heavies in film history), Victor Jory, Hugh O'Brian and Chill Wills all are available to provide nice color and good old dependable acting. And, Boetticher at the helm sure didn't hurt, either. Together, they are able to take an okay story and make it a lot better than it should have been. While it's not as good as the Boetticher/Randolph Scott collaborations, it's quite good.
By the way, they did NOT have revolvers and repeating rifles back then. The very first guns of these types were not yet available until AFTER this war and really were very rare until well into the Civil War. All too often, I have seen Hollywood mess up this detail--perhaps because it would be less exciting to see everyone stop to reload after each shot...and because reloading would take at least 30 seconds (and quite possibly more). But, unfortunately, that IS how they would have fought in the old days. And, by the way, the inexperienced women in the film managed to reload in about five seconds---something even the best soldiers never could have accomplished at the time!