Let's be realistic.

Disturbing yet enthralling

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Never having met a genre he couldn't master, director Robert Wise graduates from the Val Lewton academy with honors thanks to a magical fantasy outing with Curse of the Cat People, getting one of the greatest performances of the career from Boris Karloff in The Body Snatcher, then applying his evolving talents behind the camera to the mean film noir Born to Kill with Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor (not to mention, helping to "assist" in the troubled production of The Magnificent Ambersons, which had Orson Welles' work raped of nearly an hour and destroyed without his input, and Wise directing additional footage at RKO studios' urging). In the Robert Mitchum oater, Blood on the Moon, Wise and director of photography Nicholas Musuraca make sure the film is viewed as dark and even a bit foreboding (notice early scenes where Mitchum is interrupted of his rest by a cattle herd moving through and a cowboy not realizing he was camping thereabouts, or Mitchum hiding amongst the darkened alleys of the town for which the characters frequent as Preston's gunmen are out to find him), with a strong sense of rising and accumulating tensions and anxiety (homesteaders are not quite happy with cattleman's land grazing herd, Preston wanting to capitalize on that while also using an Indian agent to utilize the army to enforce a mandate on getting the cows off of reservation land or else risk losing them, Mitchum coming to terms with how separate factions within a territory are fractured thanks to Preston, his own friend from the past, almost exclusively).Robert Preston gets a plum antagonist role as a manipulative scoundrel who will use his devious charm to turn the daughter of his rival cattleman against him, his influential voice to entrap the homesteaders into feeling accosted by the cattleman's "intrusive herding", and cunning to swindle cattle cheap by using resources (the army, his greedy gunmen to stir up the herd, and friendship with Mitchum to use his shooting abilities, as well as a middle man to negotiate the buy and sell of the cattle since the cattleman would never sell to Preston) available to him through various means.Phyllis Thaxton (Ma Kent in the Christopher Reeve Superman of 1978) is the cattleman's daughter seduced by Preston, Barbara Bel Geddes (Dallas, TV show) the other daughter who falls in love with Mitchum when his conscience convinces him to remove himself from Preston, and Walter Brennan as a homesteader who loses his son in the herd stampede orchestrated by Preston all co-star. Charles McGraw (of The Narrow Margin) has a minor part as another homesteader, with Frank Faylen (of "Dobie Gillis") as the corrupt Indian agent (working in cahoots with Preston over robbing the cattleman of the proper price for the herd, hoping to make a handsome profit with the army) and Tom Tully (as the cattleman, Lufton) round out the cast of recognizable faces you might see turn up on westerns and television during occasionally. The noirish look and feel of this western gives it a distinctive edge over westerns you might see with Randolph Scott around the same time or later (not discounting Scott's work with Boetticher, mind you). Also included is a marvelous round of fisticuffs between Mitchum and Preston in a saloon, just literally bringing the house down, and a shadowy gunfight at the end that mirrors the shootouts of gangster films just a decade or so (and during this period still with the detective/crime movies being released) in alleys or city streets. I saw quite a similarity between the dark-and-moody standoff in Blood in the Moon and about two decades later in the underrated and terrific Monte Hellman western, Ride in the Whirlwind.It's no surprise that Mitchum successfully carries the film, as he was just about three years removed from his star-making turn in The Story of GI Joe and one year after Out of the Past, considered a top three film noir classic. Bel Geddes matches him as the feisty love interest. Her ballsy gun-to-gun standoff towards the beginning is a real beaut. Mitchum having to tell Brennan his son's dead and, in turn, Brennan contemplating so much loss and little gain since listening to Preston is another key scene. Again, the mood lighting and use of shadow applied to this western certainly gives it a look that stands it apart from other westerns. A gem worth checking out.

***SPOILERS*** Winging south through the open prairie rain soaked and saddle sored Jim Garry, Robert Mitchum, gets himself in the middle of a bloody conflict between cattlemen and homesteaders. This fighting is all being manipulated by Garry's friend who had hired him as a gunslinger to clean up things in the area the double-crossing Tate Riling, Robert Preston.Riling has gotten the homesteaders all fired up against cattleman John Lufton,Tom Tully, in conning them in him being on their side. Riling is actually planning to with the help of the US Government take away land that Tully uses as grazing for his some 2,500 head of cattle. Working behind the scenes with government contractor Jack Pindalest, Frank Faylen, who provides the beef for the local Indian reservation Riling plans to force Lupton to sell him his cattle at bargain basement prices, and split the profits with him, before the deadline by the US Government runs out and it has the military sizes his cattle for noncompliance!It's takes a while for Garry to realize that he's being used by Riling before throwing his lot in with Lufton in stopping his, together with Pindalest, maniacal plan from being thrown into effect. Meanwhile in covering all the bases the back stabbing and snake in the grass Riling is having an affair with Lufton's older daughter Carol, Phyllis Thaxter, in him trying to get her to turn against her father in promising Carol that what he's doing, stealing her dad's cattle, is really in her's and her father's best interest. Garry himself has since gotten romantically involved with Lufton's younger daughter Amy, Barbara Bel Geddes, after she almost shot him in her mistaking Garry for being one of Riling's gunsling hit-men.***SPOILERS*** Garry with the help of one of Riling's disgruntled former homesteaders supporters Kris Barden, Walter Brennan, who's son Fred, George Cooper, was killed in one of Riling's raids on Lufton's cattle plans to put to an end to both Riling and Pindalest's devious plan in a violent shoo-out in Braden's cabin at the conclusion of the movie. Garry who was previously attacked and badly wounded by one of Pindalest Indian goons by getting knifed in the chest finally gets his big chance to have it out with Riling Pindalest and their men at Barden's barricaded cabin in the woods in sub-freezing temperatures. Garry barley able to stand up from the freezing cold and the knife would he suffered, and also having a touch of pneumonia, ends it all by putting both Riling and Pindalest, together with their plans in taking over Lufton's cattle, out of commission!

This is an excellent film noir Western. "Range war" Westerns aren't my favorite sub-genre, but this is the best one I've seen. I gave it an eight out of ten IMDb ranking. It scored 18 points in my ranking system, which is very high. I'll use this review to compare it favorably to "Shane", a film it shares a number of plot elements with. Like Shane, Jim Geary is a drifter/gunfighter who winds up in the middle of a range war. However, Geary's role is a little like Jack Wilson's, the character Jack Palance played in "Shane" i.e. Geary's the hired heat brought in to drive off the homesteaders (in this case, the "good" rancher). While Shane's conflicts are mostly internal, Geary's are both internal and external i.e. he defects from the "bad" side to the "good" side. One of my main criticisms of "Shane" is that it is too boring. The difference in Geary's role is one of the reasons that "Blood on the Moon" is more interesting, well paced and exciting. Robert Mitchum is just fantastic in this. Unlike Alan Ladd, he looks the part of a charismatic tough guy. More importantly, though, the script acknowledges that his character has a legitimately bad past. Do we ever for a minute think that Shane was a bad guy once upon a time? This is the implausible myth of the "poor gunfighter", which as far as I know, was first presented as Jimmy Ringo in "The Gunfighter". Jim Geary is more Will Munny than Jimmy Ringo. Robert Preston's devilish charisma is on full display in his characterization of the heavy, Tate Riling. Emile Meyer was good as the heavy in "Shane", but his character can't compare to the color and complexity of Riling. In fact, Riling's not even the evil rancher, but a third party adventurer who is playing the ranchers and homesteaders off against each other. Again, this leads to more complicated and clever plot developments than in "Shane". There are two romantic subplots in "Blood on the Moon", both of which take place with well developed (in terms of plot) female characters who are not gratuitous sex objects. Compare to "Shane", where there is no romance outside of the Starret's ten year wedding anniversary.Range war Westerns often get stuck out on the prairie and don't take enough advantage of Western landscapes. George Stevens solved this brilliantly by setting his movie at the base of the Grand Tetons. Still, the movie gets stuck going back and forth from the Starret ranch to the town. "Blood on the Moon" matches "Shane" by setting the story in the foothills of the Sedona mountains in Arizona, but avoids "Shane's" problems by moving the story around aggressively. There several cattle drives, two different towns and most importantly, a thrilling chase into the snow covered Sedona mountains. This is the only black and white movie I've awarded the maximum points in my landscape category. Wise weaved important historical texture into his film by setting it next to an Indian reservation. The government Indian agent is a key player in the plot and they even work an Indian character in, something difficult to do in a "Range War" Western. I've criticized "Shane" for the lack of Indian themes, not because every Western should have Indian themes, but because a movie that was intended to be the "archetypal" Western and is reputed by many to be the best Western of all time, should have at least made an effort. "Blood on the Moon" demonstrates that it can be done in a range war context. That's it for the "Shane" comparisons. Some other things I liked: Walter Brennan is excellent in this. It's kind of funny, people of my generation only knew him as a comedic buffoon. From my point of view, he's always very effective in these early movies, when he mostly played against that type. It's one of the reasons John Wayne is so good in "The Searchers" and "Red River". Those are the only Westerns where he didn't play "John Wayne". There's a fabulous scene where Mitchum faces down two of Riling's henchman. It's great because there's no gunfire involved. He marches across the street, calls them out and they chicken out. These are the kind of scenes that can make a movie (And not to rag on "Shane" too much, the same can be said for the Elijah Cook Jr.'s gripping murder scene in that movie). I appreciate the fact that there isn't an uncomfortable age gap between Mitchum and Bel Geddes. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is a rarity. Not my cup of tea exactly, but I should point out there is an excellent fist fight between Mitchum and Preston. There are several of great lines. Again these are the types of things that can make movies. "I've seen dogs that wouldn't claim you for a son, Tate." "No law says a man has to go by the wagon road" "I always wanted to shoot one of you. He was the handiest." "We could've licked them you and me, but you always had a conscience breathing down your neck." I don't have much to say on the negative side. Riling's henchman were poorly drawn, especially in comparison to "Shane's" Jack Wilson. It could have used some relief from the tension, maybe some music or comedy, but I guess that was the whole point of the film noir genre - to wind you up as much as possible. It's a bit dated, but far less stiff and corny than most movies from that era (including "Shane"). In that sense, it was way ahead of its time.

I never heard of this film til it played as part of a Robert Mitchum retrospective at the National Film Theatre in London. Almost 60 years on the cast list looked tasty to say the least with seven names - in addition to top-billed Mitchum - in the public domain; Charles McGraw, not long off The Killers, Barbara Bel Geddes, long before Dallas and arguably still better known as the daughter of Theatre Set Designer Norman, Walter Brennan, who needed no introduction, Frank Faylen, the sadistic male nurse in The Lost Weekend and the much nicer small-town mensch in It's A Wonderful Life, Robert Preston still a decade away from Harold Hill in The Music Man with Tom Tully and Phyllis Thaxter making up the numbers. Alas, most of them were wasting their time. I looked in vain for any 'signature' scenes given that it was Robert Wise on bullhorn. By this time he'd made around a half dozen films and had still to find a style. The story is our old friend the range war and Mitchum must have thought it was barely a cut above the Hopalong Cassidy oaters on which he'd cut his teeth. There are no new twists - if you don't count the unbelievable scene when Mitchum accuses Preston of sleeping with Thaxter to gain information about her father's plans to move his cattle. This is perfectly true but how did Mitchum KNOW? We've seen or heard nothing to indicate how he discovered it. On balance not a lot to be said for this.