The Hard Man (1957)

Guy Madison is Steve Burden, a Texas Ranger with a reputation for bringing them back dead.

He’s sent out after an old buddy who’s accused of murder and, sure enough, kills him when he refuses to come along peaceably.

Burden spends the rest of the film searching for the truth. Was his former friend really a murderer, or was he framed?

The answers lie in the town of El Solita, where Rice Martin (Lorne Greene) and hired gun John Rodman (Rudy Bond) make the rules.

The one thing Martin doesn’t do a very good job of controlling is his wife, Fern (Valerie French).

She was having an affair with that old friend accused of murder and she’s willing to give herself to Burden if he’ll help free her from her brutal, possessive husband.

Guy Madison as Steve Burden, a former Texas Ranger who killed a friend accused of murder and now wonders if he was framed in The Hard Man (1957)

Lorne Greene as Rice Martin, a man used to controlling everything in El Solitio with the help of his hired guns in The Hard Man (1957)

Review:

Worth watching, but certainly not the most entertaining of Madison’s Western films. Both of the big showdowns, Burden against Rodman and Burden against Rice Martin are imaginatively done.

The best role probably falls to Valerie French, as the woman who has grown to despise her husband, but isn’t about to leave him without first getting her big payday.

Lorne Greene is unconvincing as the villain in what marked his first Western and one of his earliest film roles. To that point, he had performed mostly on TV shows. Two years later, he would land the role of Ben Cartwright on Bonanza, a role he’d continue to play into the 1970s.

Valerie French as Fern Martin, the wife who’s grown to hate her controlling husband in The Hard Man (1957)

Rickie Sorenson as Larry Thompson, the boy whose father was killed by Rice Martin’s henchmen in The Hard Man (1957)

Directed by:
George Sherman

Cast:
Guy Madison … Steve Burden
Lorne Greene … Rice Martin
Valerie French … Fern Martin
Rudy Bond … John Rodman
Barry Atwater … George Dennison
Robert Burton … Sim Hacker
Rickie Sorenson … Larry Thompson
Travor Bardette … Mitch Willis
Renata Vanni … Juanita

Runtime: 80 min.

Rudy Bond as John Rodman, Rice Martin’s hired gun and a man eager to show how deadly he is in The Hard Man (1957)

Trevor Bardette as Mitch WIllis, the town drunk willing to sell information for another drink in The Hard Man (1957)

Memorable lines:

Rice Martin to Steve Burden: “She isn’t much of a wife, Burden, but she’s mine. And what’s mine, I keep.”

Lawyer: “Maybe you don’t worry enough.”
Rice Martin: “Know anyone big enough to make me worry?”

Rice Martin to his wife: “Do you have to hide in the dark like a cat?”
Fern: “I like the dark. It hides the things I don’t want to see.”

Lorne Green as Rice Martin, plotting with business associate George Dennison (Barry Atwater) on ways to ride El Solito of Steve Burden in The Hard Man (1957)

Robert Burton as Sim Hacker, the aging sheriff who lures Burden to El Solito because of his fast gun in The Hard Man (1957)

Lorne Greene as Rice Martin, trying to tighten his grip on a cheating wife named Fern (Valerie French) in The Hard Man (1957)

Guy Madison as Steve Burden, wondering which man in the saloon is the hired killer in The Hard Man (1957)