Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

"Ride the Man Down" was one of Republic Pictures "A" prestige westerns of the period in Trucolor of course. It has a larger than normal cast of familiar faces.Big time cattle rancher Phil Evarts (Stanley Andrews) perishes in a winter snow storm leaving his ranch, Hatchet to his brother John (James Bell) and his daughter Celia (Ella Raines). Foreman Will Ballard (Rod Cameron) tries to keep the ranch together. You see, the ranch is composed of several pockets of free grazing land that neighboring ranchers covet .Rival ranchers Bide Marriner (Brian Donlevy), Sam Danfelser (Forrest Tucker), Harv Garrison (Douglas Kennedy), Ray Cavanaugh (Paul Fix) and Kennedy (Jack LaRue) plan to move onto Hatchet land with their cattle. Danfelser is engaged to Celia Everts while Ballard is romancing Lottie Priest (Barbara Britton) daughter of storekeeper Lowell Priest (Taylor Holmes). Sheriff Joe Keen (J. Carroll Naish appears to be sitting on the fence between the two sides. John Evarts is murdered and the ranch falls to Celia. Sam Danfelser hopes that now he will be able to control Hatchet.Saloon owner Red Courteen (Jim Davis) also has an interest. He convinces Priest to invest in Garrison's herd. Ballard meanwhile continues his efforts to save Hatchet with only crusty old Ike Adams (Chill Wills), the ranch cook Chris (Chris Pin Martin) and two young rawhiders Mel and Jim Young (Al Caudebec, Royden Clark) to help him.Danfelser becomes jealous of Ballard and sides with the other ranchers led by Marriner. Ballard meanwhile, has shifted his attentions from Lottie to Celia. The other ranchers pursue Ballard forcing him to hide out. Finally there is a showdown between Ballard and Danfelser and.........................................................................Competently directed by Republic's in house director Joe Kane, the film has plenty of action and excellent performances from the principles. Donlevy is given top billing over Cameron probably because of his name value. Also in the large cast are western regulars Roy Barcroft, Harry Woods Marshall Reed, Harry Cheshire and Claire Carleton.

Several offerings of this film are available on YouTube, and I'm surprised that so far there are only two reviews here on IMDB - and these sum up RTMD very well indeed.The cast includes many well-known and not so-well-known actors from 1950s Westerns, all of whom acquit themselves well.As has been suggested, there was a lot of plot crammed into 90 minutes, and the number of characters' names was such that I had to concentrate to work out who was who. And there were quite a few localities named.The fight between Rod Cameron and Forrest Tucker was one of the most impressive I've seen in films of this period, and Ella Raines as Celia Evarts acquitted herself very well against the roughs who invaded her home.The final shoot-out in the dark seemed short, almost to the point of being anticlimactic.But overall a good Western.

For a B western Ride The Man Down packs a lot of plot in its 90+ minute running time. It's a range war western, but it's complicated by the fact that several of the characters are really working their own agendas. It opens with the death during a blizzard of the death of a man who owned a large cattle spread.He must have been a most strong and charismatic man holding his range together where boundaries apparently are not fixed things. His daughter and heir Ella Raines has lost a lot of her hands and relies now on foreman Rod Cameron to protect her interests. Cameron himself has ridden roughshod in the past over a lot of people to keep that land for his late employer.Cameron's chief antagonist is Brian Donlevy, but Cameron has a lot of other enemies that only now are coming out because they think the local Ponderosa can't defend its interests any longer.Besides those mentioned Ride The Man Down as an impressive cast list of familiar players like Forrest Tucker, Barbara Britton, Chill Wills, Taylor Holmes, Paul Fix, Roy Barcroft, Jim Davis, J. Carrol Naish, and Douglas Kennedy. All perform with the usual professional polish you would expect from this group. They all look western comfortable in their parts. Most have been in lots of westerns before others can adapt anywhere.Ride The Man Down is a most adult western for a studio that churned out horse operas by the dozens every week for its Saturday afternoon kids. They watched their cowboys on television now and Republic now did its westerns for their parents. This one pretty good.

Ride the Man Down lasts 90 minutes but so much happens that probably 30 minutes more were needed. The story is about a huge ranch that when the owner dies in a blizzard, becomes prey to a lot of other cattlemen, since the laws about the property of land in that region were not very precise. Rod Cameron is Will Ballard, the man who tries to keep the ranch together. Ella Raines is Celia, the woman who will inherit the ranch and who is engaged to Forrest Tucker (Sam), a man that from the start you can see is no good. No good either is the father of Lottie (Barbara Britton) who is Cameron's fiancée. Bide Marriner (Brian Donlevy) and Red Courteen (Jim Davis) are the most significant candidates to invade the ranch. The real trouble starts when Ray Cavanaugh (Paul Fix) kills John Evarts (James Bell) who was managing the ranch shooting him on his back. As there is non stop action in this western, it keeps you interested, my only criticism would be for the final shootout that takes place at night in the dark. Shootouts in the dark might lower the film's budget but they take away what could be one of the best moments. Anyhow, I really enjoyed this film.