An American western directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring Maureen O'Hara and Chill Wills.
A trio of cowboys enter a small town, intent on robbing the bank. They are beaten to the punch by other bank robbers and a local woman's son is accidentally killed in the ensuing gunfight. The cowboy who shot the boy accompanies the mother to the boy's father's hometown, with bank robbers in tow. They cross Apache country to the deserted town where a final conflict takes place.
This was a pretty standard western. The plot was just complex enough to hold my attention. The characters were stereotypical, but fit the genre and roles quite well. The video was rather straight forward, without much to really comment on. There were some nice sunset scenes, but there were also bad scenes where the screen turned almost completely black because of low light and underexposure. The audio was appropriate. I could hear all of the dialogue well and the music stayed out of the way. Overall, regular western. I rate it o.k.
An American western directed by Carl K. Hittleman, starring Chill Wills and Sterling Holloway.
A group of settlers become separated from their wagon caravan and stranded when a wheel breaks. The wagon is carrying a load of guns for a man who does not want them left behind and a pregnant woman. Tensions among the group increase as time passes, supplies dwindle and repairs slowly take place. When indians find the stranded wagon, there are misunderstandings which lead to conflict.
This was alright, I guess. The plot and characters were clearly presented and the acting was not too bad. Camera-work was straightforward and standard, but clearly depicted the scenes. There were some crossfade/dissolve edits to show time passing as the settlers worked to fix their wagon. The pace was medium with some fluctuation up in action scenes, but not much slowing down in the less eventful sections. The audio and video were what I have come to expect from the mid '50s. Overall, this is as standard as a western gets. I would use this as a prime example of my o.k. rating. You may want to watch it or skip it.
