I've seen and reviewed over two dozen Audie Murphy movies here on IMDb, almost all of them Westerns, and they generally range from pretty good to run of the mill. This one falls just shy of cracking the top third tier, but I have to say, there were a lot of things in the story that just didn't make sense to me. The main one was the motivation of the deranged marshal Harry Deckett (Stephen McNally) in his pursuit of Clay Santell (Murphy). He was so over the top in trying to hunt down and kill an innocent man that it made me wonder how he ever got to be a lawman in the first place. OK, late in the story it was posited that this was his one chance for glory by bringing in a notorious outlaw, but he was just as determined to kill Janet Gifford (Felicia Farr) as part of the bargain if she got in the way.
Then there was the relationship between Santell and Janet. There was that close call at the Gifford farmhouse when the town posse just missed him, but Miss Gifford had the opportunity to blow the whistle at a time when Clay had just snuck into the house and could have been a real threat; she just didn't know. Clay proceeded to treat her pretty harshly by making her a virtual kidnap victim, leading the inept town citizens on a buckboard chase through the desert. That was actually a pretty dumb move on Santell's part, the men pursuing him were still close by and it didn't take much for them to see the pair try to make a getaway.
And what's with the brother trio led by the injured bully Ambrose (Robert Middleton)? After terrorizing Clay and Janet in the mountain cabin, Ambrose wound up taking heat for the couple when Deckett arrived even though he had no motivation to do so, getting slapped around while brothers Shad and Grover hung around doing nothing. It would have been just as easy to say 'they went thataway' and no one would have been any the wiser. I didn't get that scene at all.
And here's a good one. After paying forty dollars to Ambrose for one horse, Clay jumps the other two brothers to make his getaway after they steal his gold pouch. But later, on the trail to Paradise, they have only the one horse Janet is riding on. What happened there?
Well most of the other reviews for the picture here are generally favorable, and I don't have a problem with that. I like Audie Murphy, but most of his films weren't written for mensa candidates, and this one is a pretty good example. What did get my attention in the story was a very minor occurrence at the hotel bar in Paradise when a customer came in and ordered some 'scamper juice'. That sounds just like what I could have used while watching the movie.
Then there was the relationship between Santell and Janet. There was that close call at the Gifford farmhouse when the town posse just missed him, but Miss Gifford had the opportunity to blow the whistle at a time when Clay had just snuck into the house and could have been a real threat; she just didn't know. Clay proceeded to treat her pretty harshly by making her a virtual kidnap victim, leading the inept town citizens on a buckboard chase through the desert. That was actually a pretty dumb move on Santell's part, the men pursuing him were still close by and it didn't take much for them to see the pair try to make a getaway.
And what's with the brother trio led by the injured bully Ambrose (Robert Middleton)? After terrorizing Clay and Janet in the mountain cabin, Ambrose wound up taking heat for the couple when Deckett arrived even though he had no motivation to do so, getting slapped around while brothers Shad and Grover hung around doing nothing. It would have been just as easy to say 'they went thataway' and no one would have been any the wiser. I didn't get that scene at all.
And here's a good one. After paying forty dollars to Ambrose for one horse, Clay jumps the other two brothers to make his getaway after they steal his gold pouch. But later, on the trail to Paradise, they have only the one horse Janet is riding on. What happened there?
Well most of the other reviews for the picture here are generally favorable, and I don't have a problem with that. I like Audie Murphy, but most of his films weren't written for mensa candidates, and this one is a pretty good example. What did get my attention in the story was a very minor occurrence at the hotel bar in Paradise when a customer came in and ordered some 'scamper juice'. That sounds just like what I could have used while watching the movie.