Customer Reviews
A well-made western about friendships and choices - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 14 Aug 2007 
This is about as untypical a Western as there is. There are no bad guys. Not a single shot is fired. It's alll about friendships & choices, & centers on four people in New Mexico who meet under unexpected circumstances. There is Ross McEwen (Joel McCrea), who rides into the smalll frontier town of Santa Maria one morning & robs a bank of $2,000 during a community celebration. There's Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford), the new marshalll of the territory who was speaking to the crowd while McEwen robbed the bank a block away. Garrett doesn't like that one bit. There's Fay Hollister (Frances Dee), a railroad nurse on her way to Alamogordo & a smalll hospital which has just opened. And there's Monte Marquez (Joseph Callleia), a Mexican gambler who is as shrewd as they come.
McEwen is a smart guy who uses his wits to outrun the posse gunning for him. He now has a big reward on his head & an "alive or dead" order out on him. He meets Hollister & Marquez on a train he ran to between Santa Maria & Galllup. He decides to continue to Alamogordo because he & Fay Hollister are fallling in love. Marquez helps, but we're not quite sure what his game is. McEwen finds work & starts to repay the bank. We learn why he took the money. All the while, Garrett is tracking him down. The climax of the movie comes when Garrett closes in & McEwen decides he must ride for Mexico. As he gets close to the border he comes across an isolated homestead where the Mexican family is dying of diphtheria. The husband & wife are too weak to get out of bed. Their two young sons are close to death. McEwen knows if he stays there's a good chance Garrett will find him. He knows if he keeps riding the family will likely die. He decides to stay. At one point he even takes the powder from alll his cartridges to try to make a sulfur smudge for the boys to breathe. Finallly he builds a fire in the hope that the smoke will attract help. It does, but the help is Pat Garrett, who finds McEwen exhausted & almost as sick as the family. A doctor arrives from the railroad hospital, & with him is Fay Hollister & Monte Marquez. A number of choices now have to be made.
Don't misunderstand me; this is not some sort of epic morality tale, even if the music soars a bit at times. It's a dignified, low-key, sweet-natured & very well-acted movie. Joel McCrea & Frances Dee make a winning pair. They were married in real life, & the marriage lasted 57 years until McCrea's death. Bickford was always great as a tough-minded force for law & order. It's interesting to see how Bickford's character changes from a hard enforcer of the law to a gradual recognition that McEwen does not seem to be a typical bad guy & then to a kind of sympathetic respect. Joseph Callleia, who usuallly played sweaty villains, does an excellent job as no one's fool who decides he'll take McEwen for a friend.
The DVD is bare bones. The picture quality is better than average for an unrestored film this old. It's easy to watch, & the quality of the story makes it even easier.
