One of Raoul Walsh's lesser efforts, this biopic of a gun loving, un-reconstructed Confederate from Texas (gee, sounds like your typical Greg Abbott voter) is, aside from Julia Adams' unexpectedly good performance, just kind of your standard western. Perhaps my biggest beef (appropriate diction for a cowboy movie) is that it assembles a fine cast of character actors...John McIntyre (in a dual role), Hugh O'Brian, Dennis Weaver, Lee Van Cleef... and proceeds to do absolutely nothing interesting or surprising with them. Rock Hudson, as usual, is decent but I wearied of his eternally outraged "I'm innocent, I tell you!" vibe. And the "A man can change, can't he?" cliche is given a thorough workout. I guess for these story sins one should finger scenarist Bernard Gordon along with Walsh. Solid C.
Review of The Lawless Breed
