Robert Taylor is Sam Brassfield, a Wyoming cattle king who has decided the best way to preserve his ranch is to invest in his stock and fence his land. That puts him at odds with businessman Clay Matthews (Robert Middleton), who is pushing the idea of open range and a national cattle trail from Wyoming to Texas.
Brassfield figures such a trail would lead to an overstocked range. And he figures the businessman will leave with their pockets full of money as soon as that range plays out. Since he can’ win over Brassfield, Middleton tries to turn the rancher’s neighbors against him with the help of a hired gun named Vince Bodine. He also tries to win over weak-will Harry Travers, the drunken brother of the woman Brassfield hopes to marry, and President Chester Arthur during his official visit to Yellowstone National Park.
Brassfield tries to find back with logic, good will and kindness toward one neighbor who tries to kill him. But when Middleton and Boudine finally go too far, he straps on his gun. The showdown won’t be as personal as he’d like. He has the whole Teton Ranch outfit backing him.
Review:
Supposedly, the film was shot in less than two weeks, and it looks and feels more like a made-for-TV quickie than the better Taylor Westerns from a decade earlier. It actually marked Taylor’s first big screen appearance after a three-year absence, during which he was filming “The Detectives” TV series.
William Windom has one of the better roles as Harry Travers, a man who wakes up afraid every day and doesn’t start anything because then he can’t fail by not finishing what he started. Joan Caulfield plays his sister, Sharleen Travers, the love interest of the piece.
If the casting of a cattle king with a fondness for fences is slightly unusual, the portrayal of Brassfield as a man who helps nurse his enemy back to health and who raises two teenagers for a wayward sister who died years earlier harkens back to the days when the good guys all wore white hats.
Directed by:
Tay Garnett
Cast:
Robert Taylor … Sam Brassfield
Robert Loggia … Johnny Quatro
Ray Teal … Ed Winters
Joan Caulfield … Sharleen Travers
Virginia Christine … Ruth Winters
Robert Middleton … Clay Matthews
Richard Devon … Vince Bodine
Larry Gates .. President Arthur
Malcolm Atterbury … Abe Clevenger
William Windom … Harry Travers
Robert Ivers … Webb Carter
Maggie Pierce … June Carter
Woodrow Parfrey …. Stafford
Richard Tretter … Hobie Benton
John Mitchum … Tex
Runtime: 88 min.
Memorable lines:
Sam Brassfield of Abe Clevenger: “Like a lot of people in this country, he hates success.”
Ed Winters: “Seems like if a man fights for something little, he’s a hero. If he fights for something big, they call him a range hog or a cattle king.”
Johnny Quatro: “I don’t run this ranch. I don’t think I could. Lots of times, I would fight instead of wait. I talked to Ed about that once. You know what he said? He said, Johnny, the difference between Sam and you and me is that Sam knows that any fool can fight. A smart man, he fights only when he knows there’s no other way.”
Harry Travers: “I wake up every morning, scared. And if I don’t start something … well, at least I know I won’t fail finishing it.”
){kind=link}