As 50's and 60's westerns go, this movie has better acting and better screen writing than most. In fact there are some great scenes and lines. I very much enjoyed Brian Keith's character and thought he was very believable.
Karl Malden does a creditable job as the bad guy and Susan Pleshette was captivating.
The plot was pretty typical of a western, shallow & thin in many ways, as it was just another revenge story reworked with some good lines. But still it held my attention.
Where I struggled with the film was with casting Steve McQueen as a teenager. Not only for a brief shot, like is seen in many movies and TV shows, but for much of the movie. When he first appears and is identified as a teenager, I thought, "You've got to be kidding me!" He looks like he is about 40 years old. So I look it up on the web and find that he is really 36, but he isn't a well-preserved 36.
Then Brian Keith appears as the wily, experienced older trader who proceeds to mentor McQueen (Max Sand). To my eyes, Keith and McQueen look like they are almost the same age. Keith is actually 45, but looks pretty good for 45, while McQueen looks older than his 36 years. At most they look about 5 years apart in age.
Well, I was never able to overcome this during the film. Over and over again Keith is teaching "the kid" how to survive in life. Completely unbelievable. So even though McQueen does a good job of pretending to be a rash, naive, untrained teenager, it just doesn't fly.
Karl Malden does a creditable job as the bad guy and Susan Pleshette was captivating.
The plot was pretty typical of a western, shallow & thin in many ways, as it was just another revenge story reworked with some good lines. But still it held my attention.
Where I struggled with the film was with casting Steve McQueen as a teenager. Not only for a brief shot, like is seen in many movies and TV shows, but for much of the movie. When he first appears and is identified as a teenager, I thought, "You've got to be kidding me!" He looks like he is about 40 years old. So I look it up on the web and find that he is really 36, but he isn't a well-preserved 36.
Then Brian Keith appears as the wily, experienced older trader who proceeds to mentor McQueen (Max Sand). To my eyes, Keith and McQueen look like they are almost the same age. Keith is actually 45, but looks pretty good for 45, while McQueen looks older than his 36 years. At most they look about 5 years apart in age.
Well, I was never able to overcome this during the film. Over and over again Keith is teaching "the kid" how to survive in life. Completely unbelievable. So even though McQueen does a good job of pretending to be a rash, naive, untrained teenager, it just doesn't fly.