Fred MacMurray plays Wes Anderson, a cowpoke “inpatient for money,” in his own words. He’s thrown in jail for moonlighting — stealing cattle by moonlight. But when riders from a local ranch show up, they lynch the wrong man.
Wes organizes the man’s funeral as though the man in the coffin is Wes Anderson. He even says the eulogy. Then he sets out to get even. He winds up wounded and back in his hometown, where an ex-lover named Rela (Barbara Stanwyck) has agreed to marry his hard-working brother Tom (William Ching).
But Tom suspects Rela still loves Wes, and Wes wants Rela back. When Cole Gardner shows up, hoping to convince Wes to rob the local bank — the very one where Tom works — things get more complicated.
Review:
Put Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Ward Bond together, and you’d think you’d have the makings of a very entertaining Western. Well, the premise here is interesting, but things fall apart to the point where this becomes one of the weakest of the several Westerns MacMurray made in the 1950s.
Perhaps those involved got carried away with the 3D effects and figured that would make up for a plot that unravels as the implausible twists pile up. Like when Rela demands to be deputized and a sheriff hands her his badge.
There is an usual rescue scene involving a water near the end of the film. There’s also an incredibly sappy ending.
Directed by:
Roy Rowland
Cast:
Barbara Stanwyck … Rela
Fred MacMurray … Wes Anderson
Ward Bond … Cole Gardner
William Ching … Tom Anderson
John Dierkes … Sheriff Davis
Morris Ankrum … Alexander Prince
Jack Elam … Slim, Strawboss
Charles Halton … Clem Usqubaugh
Norman Leavitt … Tidy
Sam Flint … Mr. Mott
Myra Marsh … Mrs. Anderson
William Kerwin … Tony
Runtime: 77 min.
Memorable lines::
Wes Anderson, giving his own eulogy: “It’s hard for me to think of Wes Anderson as being dead. … If ever a ghost can ride and shoot, that’s what the ghost of Wes Anderson will do. Maybe he’ll look to get even with the men who strung him up. I figure he’d want to do that. But more than that, maybe he’ll look to even the score with al the lynchers in the world.”
Rela: “What happened, Wes? What changed you?”
Wes Anderson: “I got wise to myself, that’s all.”
Rla: “You don’t seem very wise to me. Have you learned anything, with all that wisdom, that helps you to live like a human being.”
Wes: “Like a human being. I’d rather live like that cat and get shot off a rock. I’d rather run in the hills with the hounds after me. I know what people are like now, Rela.”
Rela: “What kind of crazy thinking is that?”
Wes: “I saw a man die for me. I saw him hang. They took him by mistake for me. I saw what happened. That’s what I’m talking about, human beings … I’m probably the only man alive who saw himself hang.”
Wes Anderson: “Sure you don’t want more venison?”
Rela: “If I ate another bite, I think I’d grow antlers.”
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