Day of the Outlaw (1959)

Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) helped make Wyoming Territory safe for settlers.

Now he’s a rancher being squeezed out by farmers, and his chief nemesis — Hal Crane (Alan Marshal) — plans to string wire.

So Starrett heads to town to settle matters, not only over the wire, but over the wife.

Seems Crane’s pretty wife (Tina Louise as Helen Crane) has been having an affair with Starrett.

And she’s willing to move in with the cattle king, is he’ll only spare her husband, who wears a six-gun, but has never used it.

Starrett isn’t in the mood for deals. He’s about to face off with Crane.

That’s when Jack Bruhn and his gang of cutthroats burst into the Wyoming Saloon where everyone is gathered.

From that point on, Starrett and Crane find themselves on the same side, fighting to keep the gang from ravaging the town and the womenfolk.

Bruhn might be an outlaw, but he vows to make his men behave.

Only problem, he’s slowly dying from a wound, and the town leaders realize it’s only a matter of time before the town is at the mercy of his less gentlemanly comrades.

So Starrett takes matters into his own hands, promising to guide the outlaws to safety over a little-known, snow-covered mountain pass.

Review:

With a unique plot, unique setting (a cold, snow-covered town) and a decent cast, this should have been a better film.

But Starrett’s decision to “sacrifice” himself for the town makes little sense given his attitude to that point.

And Helen Crane can’t decide what she wants to do, at one moment pledging her loyalty to her husband, at the next offering herself to Starrett if he’ll let her husband live.

Gene, the best of the bad guys, is played by David Nelson, son of Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard of “Ozzie and Harriet” fame. David appeared on the show and later directed several episodes.

Posters and promos for this movie featured a scantily clad Tina Louise, flashing her impressive cleavage. But the film takes place during a Wyoming winter, and she’s never that scantily clothed in the movie.

Directed by
Andre de Toth

Cast
Robert Ryan … Blaise Starrett
Alan Marshal … Hal Crane
Tina Louise … Helen Crane
Burl Ives … Jack Bruhn
David Nelson … Gene
Lance Fuller … Pace
Venetia Stevenson … Ernine
Dabbs Greer … Doc/Veterinarian
Nehemiah Persoff … Dan (Starrett’s foreman)
Jack Lambert … Tex
Frank DeKova … Denver
Lance Fuller … Pace

Runtime: 96 min.

Memorable lines:

Dan: “Blaise, we’ve pulled over some hard hills together, and I’ve rode with you all the way. A wire fence is a poor excuse to make a widow out of Crane’s wife.”

Dan: “Excuse me Mrs. Crane. This coffee made me think how good whiskey would taste.”

Helen Crane: “You don’t have much mercy, Blaise.”
Blaise Starrett: “You wont’ find much mercy anywhere in Wyoming.”

Blaise Starrett: “You want to know the future, Mr. Crane. That’s wanting too much for any man.”

John Bruhn, of his men: “They could swallow this town whole and nobody would be alive to tell the tale.”

Paul Wexler as Vause, Lance Fuller as Pace and Jack Woody as Shorty, three of Bruhn’s men in Day of the Outlaw (1959)

Dabbs Greer as the veterinarian who operates on Jack Bruhn in Day of the Outlaw (1959)