This grand Western in the tradition of ¨Red River¨ and ¨High Noon¨ contains a thought-provoking screenplay , emotion , violence , go riding , double crosses , shoot’em up and results to be quite enjoyable .It’s a classic recounting about an upright man seeking justice and attempting to detain killers . The public likes big Westerns and here to satisfy them is a big adventure , starring a big box office favorites of the 50s , Joel McCrea , with the kind of high pitched excitement that pay off . The traditional story and exciting screenplay by Herb Meadow and and Don Martin based on the story written by specialist Louis L’Amour . Photographed in Ansco Color by Pathe , being necessary a good remastering because of the copy of film is worn-out . Top-notch Joel McCrea as a relentless judge who seeks justice and magnificent John McIntire as a proud baron land . Support cast is frankly excellent such as Kevin McCarthy as Tom Bannerman , John Carradine as Col. Buck Streeter , Nancy Gates as Caroline Webb and Emile Meyer as Sheriff Nat Bell .
This is another superbly powerful triumph from producers Leonard and Robert Goldstein who brought other Westerns as ¨The duel of Silver Creek¨, ¨The Battle at Apache Pass¨, ¨The Great Sioux Uprising¨, and ¨The good guys and the bad guys¨. It is probably one of the best Western in the fifties and sixties . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Jacques Tourneur . Jacques was an expert on Noir cinema such as the classic ¨Out of the past¨ , terror cinema such as ¨Cat people¨ , ¨Leopard man¨, ¨I walked with a Zombie¨, ¨Night of demon¨ and adventures as ¨Flame and the arrow¨ , ¨City under the sea¨ . In Western genre he made 5 films : The masterpiece titled ¨Canyon passage¨(1946) , ¨Star in my Crown¨(1950) also with Joel McCrea , ¨Wichita¨(1955) with Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp formerly to OK Corral duel and ¨Great day in the morning¨ with Robert Stack dealing with facing Union and Confederation . He finally directed episodes of ¨Norhwest passage¨ (1958) titled Frontier Rangers , Fury River and Mission of danger . ¨Stranger on horseback¨ rating : Well worth watching and it will appeal to Joel McCrea fans .
