Former gunslinger Steve Sinclair (Taylor), is now a peaceful rancher, but things go wrong when his wild brother Tony (Cassavetes) arrives with his new gun--and his new fiancée, former saloon... Read allFormer gunslinger Steve Sinclair (Taylor), is now a peaceful rancher, but things go wrong when his wild brother Tony (Cassavetes) arrives with his new gun--and his new fiancée, former saloon girl Joan Blake (London).Former gunslinger Steve Sinclair (Taylor), is now a peaceful rancher, but things go wrong when his wild brother Tony (Cassavetes) arrives with his new gun--and his new fiancée, former saloon girl Joan Blake (London).
- Joe
- (uncredited)
- Barfly
- (uncredited)
- Cowboy
- (uncredited)
- Manuelo
- (uncredited)
- Cowboy
- (uncredited)
- Jamie
- (uncredited)
- Barfly
- (uncredited)
- Mary Ellison
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Robert Parrish
- John Sturges(uncredited)
- Writers
- Rod Serling
- Thomas Thompson
- Daniel Fuchs(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA first score was written and recorded by Jeff Alexander but had to be replaced due to extensive re-cutting.
- GoofsWhen Tony Sinclair and Dallas Hanson confront Clay Ellison and burn the wagon, the shot alternates between a facing shot of Clay, and a rear view. In each shot, Clay is holding the shotgun. In the facing shots, he holds it across his body with the barrel held high, yet in each of the rear shots it is held horizontally at arms length. There is no apparent movement of the gun, however.
- Quotes
Steve Sinclair: I tried to bend that kid a certain way. I tried to shape him. He was some kind of tough leather that I had to make soft. But he didn't soften any. He wasn't made that way. He was just rotten leather and he came up hard.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Swinging Sixties: Movie Marathon (2019)
- SoundtracksSaddle the Wind
By Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
Sung by Julie London (uncredited)
[Played over opening title card and credits; later sung by Joan to Tony in the house]
To his credit, Cassavetes shoots for veracity, for a naturalism that brings humanity to a character that could've easily become a cardboard cutout of a psycho. In some ways, he is elevating the worn out clichés of the script, bringing some real life to them. But other aspects of his performance are flat absurd. For example, he periodically attempts some sort of ridiculous "western" accent, then just as quickly he'll drop it; sometimes this happens within a single line of dialog. You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can't take the Brooklyn out of the boy, and I never bought for an instant that he was a tough western ranch kid with lingering Confederate sympathies. And his mood swings, as he goes rapidly from giggling to brooding, are hyper and overdone.
Meanwhile, Taylor is all classic Hollywood "strong & silent type" understatement, bordering on wooden and inexpressive. Their scenes together are oil and water. It brought me out of the story, into awareness that I was watching two actors who shouldn't be sharing the stage together. Their aesthetics are just too different.
In the plus column, supporting character actor Royal Dano is amazing in this movie, utterly convincing as a squatter with lingering Civil War resentments and a legal claim on a piece of land that puts him in direct conflict with the area ranchers. There are some brutal, squirm-inducing, standout scenes where Cassavetes terrorizes Dano. These are really subversive in a way, as Cassavetes' character takes on a role usually reserved for Indians, nameless "Others" who are utterly inhuman and dispensable.
I was also pleasantly surprised at Julie London's performance. She has a few key scenes early in the film and does a fine job, but she's underutilized; her character is sketched quickly, then left underdeveloped as her story thread is largely dropped.
Overall, this could've been a lot better, but it holds some interest for those with a particular love for the sub-genre. And Cassavetes fans will find much to like about his performance, at least for curiosity's sake.
- RoughneckPaycheck
- Apr 14, 2011
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,479,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 24 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1