One of those Westerns in which the townspeople come to wish they hadn't hired a gunslinger to do their dirty work. I had suspected that the version I saw on TV had been edited to squeeze into programme schedules, but this website gives the running time as 92 minutes and the TV slot (including commercials) was 105 minutes. One moment Matt Weaver has stormed into the night, furious that in his absence his home has been sold, the next he's become a feared outcast who's killed a man, instantly becoming such a threat to the townspeople that they have to hire a gunman. OK, the town has lost many of its men to the Civil War, but surely its citizens could muster enough courage and guns to do the job themselves? Brynner produces a sinister screen presence and dominates the cast, many of are low key. And several plot elements are understated; racism there may be in the town, but this is only evident when the hotel owner suggests that d'Estaing might be better suited seeking a room in the Mexican quarter; there's been many a better portrayal of a corrupt town boss than Pat Hingle's; and the lady to whom d'Estaing returns her pawned jewelry looks a bit too elegant to be down to her last dress.
d'Estaing's drunken rampage through the town came as a shock; the place must have been typical of many of the postbellum period, and its racism, venality and corruption as portrayed in the film didn't seem to justify a hired assassin's rage. It would have been better had d'Estaing been exposed to more overt racism than a patronising suggestion that he finds accommodation in a Mexican establishment.
No great surprises in the ending, but again it wasn't convincing when the Anglo-Americans united with the Mexicans in a gesture of respect.
Take away Brynner and this would have been an extremely average Western.
d'Estaing's drunken rampage through the town came as a shock; the place must have been typical of many of the postbellum period, and its racism, venality and corruption as portrayed in the film didn't seem to justify a hired assassin's rage. It would have been better had d'Estaing been exposed to more overt racism than a patronising suggestion that he finds accommodation in a Mexican establishment.
No great surprises in the ending, but again it wasn't convincing when the Anglo-Americans united with the Mexicans in a gesture of respect.
Take away Brynner and this would have been an extremely average Western.