Available on Dual Format Blu-Ray/ DVD now.
In this pristine widescreen presentation of one of the transitional Westerns, Jimmy Stewart, fresh from Hitchcock’s Rear Window, plays Will Lockhart, an undercover army officer. Stewart always seemed more relaxed as an actor in Westerns than in present-day stories. No matter, he’s always watchable. From the first sight of the burnt-out cavalry regiment it’s clear that this is a story of revenge. When he harvests supplies at the salt lagoons Lockhart and his men are approached by Vic Hansbro, a hot-blooded ranch foreman, spoiling for a fight. The wagons are burnt and mules are shot in a spectacularly nasty act.
Clearly this is not traditional Western territory. Lockhart won’t just walk away, becoming all the more determined to find out who is selling repeating rifles to the Apache and risking an all-out ‘Indian war’.
The shadowy interiors contrast with the ultra-bright New Mexico exteriors. The airy location shooting is something of a Mann hallmark and the superb use of CinemaScope emphasises the precipitous setting. Finally Lockhart meets his match in arrogant paterfamilias Alex Waggoman (Donald Crisp). Lockhart also hitches up with old ma Kate Canaday (Aline MacMahon) who sees through the shady Waggoman men. There is considerable macho bristling between Lockhart and the cattle baron, his boy (Alex Nicol), and sadistic foreman and surrogate son Vic (Arthur Kennedy), whose treachery and bad blood are motivated by greed as much as ‘daddy issues’. At the story’s high point (when Lockhart attracts the sadistic attention of Vic) even the Waggoman hired hands hang their heads in shame.
The lush score (George Duning) is used sparingly. And despite some midpoint longueurs the film canters home and remains in the memory for its psychological depths not seen in many Westerns hitherto. Even the ending is unexpected, lacking the trite sentimentality that blights many a cowboy tale. The ever-enthusiastic Kim Newman appears in the extras and there is a vivid and enjoyable commentary track by critic Adrian Martin.