Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Paynbob
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Marlburian
The first 30 minutes of this film are very gritty, with Wes Steele in trouble from the start, discovering the stage with its murdered passengers and then becoming a fugitive trapped in a town. Then the film tapers off a bit, and it's a little hard to accept that Nadine comes to trust him so quickly.I'm conscious of my own pedantry, but have to note that Milland here joins Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott in playing a middle-aged Westerner who has little trouble in attracting a much younger woman - he was 50 when the film was released. And if being the notorious Wes Steele is such a handicap, why not assume a false name - it would have been difficult for the authorities to disprove a false identity. (Richard Egan in "Tension at Table Rock" was another notorious Wes - Tancred in this case and in the ballad that accompanied the film - who diligently signed his real name in hotel registers, only for the clerk to react in distaste.) The "Time Out" review describes Milland's direction as "sometimes a little too ponderously deliberate, but - like the performances - eminently watchable", and I agree with this. The plot made a pleasant change from the run-of-the-mill Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s.
KyleFurr2
I was surprised about how good this was since Ray Milland didn't star in hardly any westerns and this was the only western he directed. Milland plays a gunfighter who's horse dies in the desert and starts to walk when he comes across a carriage full of dead people and he takes a horse and goes into the nearest town. As soon as gets into town, Milland shoots a deputy who thought he was the killer and the whole town is after him. Milland winds up hiding in the basement of the sheriff and his daughter and the daughter winds up falling in love with him. Ward Bond plays the sheriff who was sick and when he wakes up doesn't know what's going on. It's a good western that isn't very well known.
silverscreen888
"A Man Alone", adroitly directed by Ray Milland, starred himself as a gunfighter who happens upon a stage robbery, where several people have been slain, while he has been stranded in the desert. He takes one of the horses he finds, and heads to town to report the crime. He is instead accused of the crime himself. He flees and hides in the town's bank. There, he overhears the gang responsible for the deaths talking over the robbery. Another banker is shot in the back, and again Wes (Milland) is made to look guilty of the murder. He stumbles into the sheriff's cellar during a sandstorm,still trying to evade capture; and the next morning, while he is trying to leave, he is confronted by the sheriffs daughter, Nadine. He can't leave; and they become unwilling companions. The sheriff (Ward Bond) is sick with yellow fever. He finds her asleep, exhausted by taking care of her father, and puts her to bed. Their whole relationship changes; she knows he is a good man; but when the sheriff wake he feels he must go. She wants him to stay, they embrace and from then on the situation changes, again. The sheriff wants security for his daughter; and he has sold his soul to the bad element in town to get it. he confronts Raymond Burr, the real killer; they fight and he is wounded. He stumbles back to the house, where he passes out. Nadine, by now in love with him, fetches the doctor to help him. The sheriff finds him there and is livid, saying that he has compromised their home. Days pass; in the meanwhile, seeing what he has become by his own fear, the sheriff decides to let Wes, the gunfighter, go free. The townsmen still thinking that Wes is the murderer go after the sheriff when he has done so; but Wes returns to save the day. This is a tense, dramatic film with good dialogue and a fine silent portion at the film's outset that is superior storytelling with a camera. This film represents an unusual achievement by Milland both as actor and director. The production is in color which is well-used and unobtrusive; cinematography was done by Lionel Linton. The screenplay by John Tucker Battle I find to be taut and well-fashioned; the music by Victor Young served the story-line very well. Art direction was by Walter E. Keller, costumes by Adele Palmer and the important set decorations were supplied by Fay Babcock and John McCarthy, Jr. Among the other actors in this fine cast who made an unusual impression were Raymond Burr as the nefarious banker, Mary Murphy as Nadine, Ward Bond as the embittered sheriff, Grandon Rhodes and Lee Van Cleef, powerful Arthur Space as the doctor, Thomas Browne Henry as the newspaper man, Douglas Spencer, Alan Hale Jr. as the luckless acting sheriff. and Minerva Urecal. This is a tense film, from start to finish; and the pace was never neglected. Much of its action takes place in darkness or shadows, heightening its power on the mind of the viewer. The underlying theme in a semi-wilderness noir situation (where the central character cannot rely on the law to aid him) is strongly demonstrated, namely "to do what is important and be prepared to admit a mistake". This is a narrative about men and women alone on the frontier in a dangerous situation where the only certainties are to be found in one's own courage, character and self-reliant judgment. By my standards, it is a well-directed and very good and unusual story.
alexandre michel liberman (tmwest)
Milland, besides acting also directed this western with excellent results. His role is of the gunfighter who hides in Barbara Steele's house where she lives with her father, the sheriff(Ward Bond).The relationship of this trio is the high point of the film, Steele the repressed daughter, Bond the father who will do everything to make sure she will never be poor and Milland the man who comes to liberate her. Raymond Burr is the corrupt boss who rules the town and Lee Van Cleef is a mean guy who works for him. Things get so desperate for Milland that is hard to think how he is going to get out of it. He was a witness to all the dirt and murder that went on, so they must kill him.
