There are few actresses of the caliber of Greer Garson, and it's difficult to believe that she only made a couple of dozen pictures. This was her first after leaving MGM, and it was 5 years before her next film in which she played Eleanor Roosevelt. This was not one of her best films, but she's that rare actor that one almost always marvels at her performance, even when the script is not the best.
That's not to say that this is a bad film. It's pretty decent. Her co-star is Dana Andrews, a fine actor. His role here is not very positive -- he's playing a fellow doctor (Garson, a female doctor) who doesn't believe in female doctors and thinks women belong under a man's thumb. Of course they fall in love, though Andrews' role was over-done...I'd blame the director...and his constant switch between love and anger is rather tedious. Along the way there are a number of sub-plots: Garson's brother is a raffish soldier in love with Andrew's daughter...and eventually he's a bank robber who gets shot. Oh yes, and there's a guest appearance (so to speak) by Billy The Kid (played by Nick Adams).
The daughter of Andrews is played by Lois Smith, who mellowed nicely in her later years, and is pretty decent here, also. Cameron Mitchell plays her romantic interest / solider, and I have little more use for him here than I do in most any other film he appears in. Walter Hampden is good as the old priest. The remaining cast do their jobs, but little more.
Ironically, the film begins on a dusty wagon road into Santa Fe, and although actually filmed in Arizona, the area does look a lot like the land around the Forked Lightning Ranch where Greer Garson eventually lived and retired with her third husband in 1967...on the way to Santa Fe.
This is hardly a classic western, or even a classic Greer Garson film. But it's pretty good. And Garson is as beautiful, and sassy, and that intriguing blend of refined and spicy that made her so alluring.
It's well worth watching, though probably only once.
That's not to say that this is a bad film. It's pretty decent. Her co-star is Dana Andrews, a fine actor. His role here is not very positive -- he's playing a fellow doctor (Garson, a female doctor) who doesn't believe in female doctors and thinks women belong under a man's thumb. Of course they fall in love, though Andrews' role was over-done...I'd blame the director...and his constant switch between love and anger is rather tedious. Along the way there are a number of sub-plots: Garson's brother is a raffish soldier in love with Andrew's daughter...and eventually he's a bank robber who gets shot. Oh yes, and there's a guest appearance (so to speak) by Billy The Kid (played by Nick Adams).
The daughter of Andrews is played by Lois Smith, who mellowed nicely in her later years, and is pretty decent here, also. Cameron Mitchell plays her romantic interest / solider, and I have little more use for him here than I do in most any other film he appears in. Walter Hampden is good as the old priest. The remaining cast do their jobs, but little more.
Ironically, the film begins on a dusty wagon road into Santa Fe, and although actually filmed in Arizona, the area does look a lot like the land around the Forked Lightning Ranch where Greer Garson eventually lived and retired with her third husband in 1967...on the way to Santa Fe.
This is hardly a classic western, or even a classic Greer Garson film. But it's pretty good. And Garson is as beautiful, and sassy, and that intriguing blend of refined and spicy that made her so alluring.
It's well worth watching, though probably only once.