Jim Slater's father (whom he never knew) died in the Apache ambush at Gila Valley, and Jim is searching for the one survivor, who supposedly went for help but disappeared with a lot of gold. In the process, he gets several people gunning for him, and he keeps meeting liberated woman Karyl Orton, who may be on a similar mission. Renewed Apache hostilities and an impending range war provide complications.
Direction
Sturges squeezes claustrophobia from wide open spaces.
Acting
Widmark's wounded eyes carry 84 minutes of moral ambiguity.
Writing
Everyone lies, everyone suspects, nobody trusts the floorboards.
Director
John Sturges
Richard Widmark
Jim Slater
Donna Reed
Karyl Orton
William Campbell
Johnny Cool
John McIntire
Jim Bonniwell / William Slater
Barton MacLane
Sergeant George Lake
Harry Morgan
Tony Welker
Robert J. Wilke
Jeff Welker
Jack Lambert
Benton
Roy Roberts
Major Carson
Edward Platt
Sheriff J.C. Marson
Robert Foulk
Sheriff John F. Olson
Phil Chambers
Deputy Sheriff Dobbs
Gregg Barton
Sleepy
Fred Graham
Ned McCloud
Frank Chase
Cassidy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sturges shot this between Bad Day at Black Rock and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral—his paranoid trilogy of men who can't trust their neighbors.
The 'liberated woman' marketing for Donna Reed's character was studio spin—she's actually hunting her husband's killer, making her another prisoner of masculine violence.
US
