Disturbing yet enthralling

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Although Joel McCrea, as Ross McEwen, plays a small town bank robber in NM, this is not a shoot 'em up type western. As others have noted, no bullets nor arrows are fired, nor brawls instigated. Also,there's no cattle stampede or drive. It's a remarkably peaceable story, although there are a couple of stick ups. It was shot in crisp B&W, and the mostly rocky or sandy terrain is photogenic. It was shot mostly in several NM locations, including Inscription Rock, or in Red Rock Canyon, CA.Joel is his usual laconic self. So, what does this screenplay offer that's of interest? It tells the story of an atypical bank robbery by a lone gunman, in broad daylight, with lots of people gathered in the street to welcome the new Federal marshal, Pat Garret(Charles Bickford), of Billy the Kid fame. Initially, Joel asked for a $2000.loan,but when he needed collateral to secure this, he pulled out his gun and demanded the $2000., backed by an IOU signed by Jefferson Davis. He wanted to take or send this money to his father, who needed it soon. Joel left the banker out in the desert with no horse and no shoes. He was hopping mad and slapped a $3000. reward for Joel's capture or corpse. As one companion said, "It's more profitable to catch a thief than to be a thief"(at least in this case).There's a mysterious man dressed in all black, including hat. We meet him on the train when Joel hops on after ditching his horse and saddle. This man, whom we later discover is the famous Mexican gambler Monte, takes an inordinate interest in Joel. In fact, he seems to end up wherever Joel wanders throughout the film, sometimes helping Joel. Eventually, he figures out that Joel must be the bank robber the wanted flier talks about. However, he makes no move to try to collect the $3000. reward. He even throws away the stack of reward fliers remaining for the next town on the mail buckboard. He gets a horse for Joel at one point, and agrees to win some gambling money to start Joel's payback of his 'loan'. We never do discover an apparent motivation for Monte's favoring of Joel. It appears he just decided to like him.Joel also meets a nurse, Fay,(she claims the train nurse?) on the train, who looks after his rattlesnake bite wound.(Don't know how she could help?). She also is destined to keep bumping into Joel, wherever he wanders. She too eventually guesses that he is the bank robber, but he seems like too nice a guy to be a badman. In fact, they kiss and hug a couple of times, and she rides with him for a stretch when he's trying to lose Garrett and Deputy. Joel claims he plans to pay the 'loan' back gradually. But, at a cowhand's wages, that will take years.Still trying to evade Garrett, at one point, Joel takes the saddle off his horse, sending it on it's way, and puts it on a steer to confuse Garrett. He eventually comes across a cabin containing Mexicans, who are all sick, apparently of diphtheria. He decides to stay and do what he can to help them, like feeding them. He tears strips of cloth and soak them in fuel for the lantern(probably, kerosene!), then stuff this in their mouths! Well, a doctor and nurse eventually show up and do what they can(probably, essentially nothing, as no modern antibiotics or anti-toxin was then available.) Guess who the nurse turns out to be? Yep, Fay, played by Joel's real wife: Frances Dee. Garrett wasn't fooled by Joel's steer act, and arrives at the cabin, seeing what Joel is doing to help. He acts rather friendly, but later he and Fay finally convince Joel that he should turn himself in, and probably the judge will be lenient, given his subsequent behavior.See it on YouTube

An unfairly unsung western,almost completely devoid of violence ,of fights,of your average western clichés;the subject is the second chance ,the free will,without preachy moral.A subject Delmer Daves would resume in "the last wagon" in the fifties.This is to my knowledge the only western in which bullets are used to relieve the suffering:this scene where Joel McCrea opens them to get the sulfur ,his struggle against diphtheria ,injecting more tenderness you might think possible when he talks to the sick children are among the most moving in the western genre .The female part (played by Frances Dee who has wonderful eyes) is not decorative:as a nurse,whose duty is to heal the pain,she shows Ewan the way when she calls him coward before leaving him:had the hero not met her,he would probably have ignored the dying family and gone his way.The rock gives this tale a legendary side ;Ross becomes a legend in his own time .Oddly ,the following year,Joel McCrea would play another character ("Colorado Territory" ,Raoul Walsh)whose (tragic) legendary tale is told by a priest.

Rather 'special' and moronic western.A man steals from a bank, giving an IOU (?) and then plans to pay back the money (?). He gets on a train and avoids detection by tipping his hat (?). The train nurse (the train nurse ?) befriends him and goes on the run with him.After a car chase (with horses), he ends up apparently back where he began. The nurse is captured, without arrest.Throwing the switch to vaudeville, the man rides a calf to Mexico (very special scenes) and then nurses a Mexican family ill with diptheria.He is discovered by the sheriff, leaves, and then gives himself up. It's special.

There is an incredible chemistry between McCrea and his real wife Frances Dee. They meet on a train, as McCrea is running from a posse, she takes care of his arm which was bitten by a rattlesnake and soon they are riding together among other people on a carriage and he has his arms around her. A little later they fall in each other's arms and kiss and that may seem too soon with another couple, but with them it could even have been sooner. There is this nice place (a rock?) where it is written "they passed this way" in Spanish (paso por aqui) and it seems only special people deserve to write their name there. McCrea robbed a bank and there is a high reward for his capture, but all through the film you feel he is a great guy.