This is a western without Indians, gun draws, foul language or sex. It is squeaky clean as one would expect of a film from Robert Wise, "The Sound of Music" director. Even the clothes of the lead actor James Cagney are clean.
Morality, which set the tone to early Hollywood westerns, is emphasized here: the hero gets the girl, the interlopers who attempt to pull them apart are the losers. The anti-hero, warts and all, is not allowed to appear as an anti-hero--Wise transforms him into the traditional hero at the end. Had Wise retained the Cagney character's build-up as a misfit to the end, he would have made a great film. I guess the Studio bosses and Wise preferred a conventional end to a dramatic, unusual one. How interesting it would be to see the outcome of Peterson boy's anger (doused by his mother) towards the hero--but Wise chose to close the story than drag it on.
Wise, who went on to make "The Sound of Music", chose Miklos Rozsa to provide the music. The Hungarian musician is a legend. Yet I was surprised that several bars of music were repetition of Rozsa's work in "Quo Vadis", "Ben Hur" and "King of Kings" or very similar variants.
The squeaky clean film has beautiful blue skies and white clouds that produce a picture-postcard effect(the stamp of Robert Surtees)--rarely repeated in westerns made towards the end of the century.
Irene Papas is a talented and mesmerizing actress. Her films with Michael Caccoyannis bear testimony to her remarkable abilities. Wise allows Cagney to do what he wants, but seems to have reined in Papas in her first Hollywood film. Papas is great to watch when she plays impetuous and tortured characters in other movies. Even in this tepid role, Papas imbues her character with strength and vitality. Papas and Cagney dominate the film, relegating even Lee van Cleef (playing a good guy) to the periphery.
Morality, which set the tone to early Hollywood westerns, is emphasized here: the hero gets the girl, the interlopers who attempt to pull them apart are the losers. The anti-hero, warts and all, is not allowed to appear as an anti-hero--Wise transforms him into the traditional hero at the end. Had Wise retained the Cagney character's build-up as a misfit to the end, he would have made a great film. I guess the Studio bosses and Wise preferred a conventional end to a dramatic, unusual one. How interesting it would be to see the outcome of Peterson boy's anger (doused by his mother) towards the hero--but Wise chose to close the story than drag it on.
Wise, who went on to make "The Sound of Music", chose Miklos Rozsa to provide the music. The Hungarian musician is a legend. Yet I was surprised that several bars of music were repetition of Rozsa's work in "Quo Vadis", "Ben Hur" and "King of Kings" or very similar variants.
The squeaky clean film has beautiful blue skies and white clouds that produce a picture-postcard effect(the stamp of Robert Surtees)--rarely repeated in westerns made towards the end of the century.
Irene Papas is a talented and mesmerizing actress. Her films with Michael Caccoyannis bear testimony to her remarkable abilities. Wise allows Cagney to do what he wants, but seems to have reined in Papas in her first Hollywood film. Papas is great to watch when she plays impetuous and tortured characters in other movies. Even in this tepid role, Papas imbues her character with strength and vitality. Papas and Cagney dominate the film, relegating even Lee van Cleef (playing a good guy) to the periphery.