At one time the IMDb cast list did rather spoil things by telling us who the Sidewinder is, but since I wrote this review some years ago it seems to have been amended. So I'm altering what I wrote then.
There are several possibilities about who the Sidewinder is, and I had my own suspicions (which eventually proved to be correct) as soon as he appeared. Sterling Hayden was his usual wooden self in the lead role, Forrest Tucker was sufficiently rugged as the army officer, but Edgar Buchanan made an unconvincing sergeant - almost as much so as Andy Devine in "Two Rode Together".
In the opening shoot-out at his ranch, Tex seems to have a revolver that never needs reloading; I counted 17 successive shots, though six of these were fired when he was sheltering in the cattle pen; arguably he could have reloaded out of camera, but he then gallops off, firing another 11! And when the stagecoach leaves town it's picturesquely filmed from under a distinctive tree - which features again later in the coach journey after Tex has done his rescue act.
The film is redeemed by a good closing fight between the whites and the Utes, with an unusual setting for the inevitable concluding fisticuffs.
There are several possibilities about who the Sidewinder is, and I had my own suspicions (which eventually proved to be correct) as soon as he appeared. Sterling Hayden was his usual wooden self in the lead role, Forrest Tucker was sufficiently rugged as the army officer, but Edgar Buchanan made an unconvincing sergeant - almost as much so as Andy Devine in "Two Rode Together".
In the opening shoot-out at his ranch, Tex seems to have a revolver that never needs reloading; I counted 17 successive shots, though six of these were fired when he was sheltering in the cattle pen; arguably he could have reloaded out of camera, but he then gallops off, firing another 11! And when the stagecoach leaves town it's picturesquely filmed from under a distinctive tree - which features again later in the coach journey after Tex has done his rescue act.
The film is redeemed by a good closing fight between the whites and the Utes, with an unusual setting for the inevitable concluding fisticuffs.