A good psychological western,featuring one of Glenn Ford's best performances : if looks could kill,his certainly would ;and kill he does,and since the first sequence ,when the Civil War has just come to an end , he pretends he did not see the last confederates ' white flag and ordered to shoot them all ;and the viewer knows from the start he is mentally disturbed : he writes a diary in which he confesses he knows he 's insane and cannot control the beast in him. During the sequences of the great fire,he really looks like a devil out of Hell,with fiery eyes .
There's also an interesting look at the fate of the men who gave the best years of their lives in the Civil War and found themself despoiled of their lands by a wealthy man who did not fight but shrewdly used the power of law, supported (reluctantly ?) by commander-turned judge Ford .Holden plays one of his former officers ,who 's now the town marshall , and eventually rebels against him and becomes a righter of wrongs ;there also a love rivalry for a beautiful lady : this female character is the deus ex machina who discovers the secret diary.
There's also an interesting look at the fate of the men who gave the best years of their lives in the Civil War and found themself despoiled of their lands by a wealthy man who did not fight but shrewdly used the power of law, supported (reluctantly ?) by commander-turned judge Ford .Holden plays one of his former officers ,who 's now the town marshall , and eventually rebels against him and becomes a righter of wrongs ;there also a love rivalry for a beautiful lady : this female character is the deus ex machina who discovers the secret diary.