Director Stuart Gilmore

This is pretty much standard western fare  the baddie wears black, the fallible hero with a conscience, the love triangle, and the final showdown, finished off with the heroes riding off into the sunset! There are many more cliched settings I could nominate, but it is unnecessary.

Basically the story goes as follows  The Virginian, a cattle herder (McRae) comes into Medicine Bow and meets an old buddy Steve (Tufts) from the past. They both happen to clap eyes on the new school maam Molly Wood (Britton) at the same time and vie for her affections. The lady clearly knows the one she wants (Steve), but as it turns out he’s an irresponsible young turk and comes under the evil influence of Trampas (Dunlevy). Steve becomes involved with Trampass rustling business and is subsequently caught by the The Virginian who is leading the posse in chase of the villains. An outcome of the arrest is that Steve dies and our hero is momentarily sent to Coventry by Molly; but in the end, love wins through, and after the final showdown with Trampas, Molly and the Virginian live happily ever after. Anyone who knows the film will realise that I have left out a couple of important plot details, but I think that it would be unfair to divulge the only really interesting plot twist in this film.

In the main the film stands up pretty well  this is, after all, standard western pulp  but its missing something Its not the cliched plot, rather that the film lacks charisma, a charismatic entity or credibility to carry the whole thing through. I have seen a couple of films in which I enjoyed Joel McRaes acting (although I cant think of one at present!), but he lacks that little something that a John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart could add to a movie. The rest of the performances are quite okay, as is McRae in reality.

THE EXTRAS

Very little to either commend or condemn the film here. There is only a theatrical trailer, apart from language, subtitle and scene selection menus

CONCLUSION

This is pretty much standard western fare  the baddie wears black, the fallible hero with a conscience, the love triangle, and the final showdown, finished off with the hero/es riding off into the sunset! In the main the film stands up pretty well  this is, after all, standard western pulp  but its missing something