VividSimon Simply Perfect

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

ma-cortes Stand-out Western marvelously performed by an all-star-cast and stunningly directed . Whenever it becomes known how good he is with guns, ex-gunfighter George (Glenn Ford) and his wife Dora (Jeanne Crain) must flee the Cross Creek little town in fear of all the gunslingers who might want to challenge him , but villagers swear to hide his secret and support him . Some bandits (Broderick Crawford, John Dehner , Noah Beery Jr.) pass through and decide to spend that day . Citizens ask the unexperienced storekeeper to rid the little town of bandits when a vicious gang of freebooters arrives in town . George carries out protecting people who ran like rabbits when the going got roguish . He has to take a stand when a gang of nasty outlaws takes over his town . Meanwhile , the outlaws are pursued by a motley posse . What happens in the next few minutes makes one of the most dramatic climaxes of any story you've ever seen! .This excellent , meaty Western contains interesting plot , intrigue , thrills , shootouts and results to be quite entertaining . Outstanding Western balances action , suspense and drama . It's a classical recounting about an unexperienced shopkeeper , general merchandise's owner , a peace-loving who is really an expert shooter and surrounded by cowards and frightening people ; being probably one of the best Western in the fifties and sixties . The highlights of the film are the climatic showdowns , the twisted surprise at church and , of course, the final gundown . The traditional story and exciting screenplay was well written by Frank D. Gilroy though clichés run through-out , the enjoyable tale is enhanced for interesting moments developed among main characters and especially on the relationship between Glenn Ford and his wife Jeanne Crain . Magnificently performed by Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford , they are awesome experts in the art of conjuring sensational acting , here are reunited in this atypical but thought-provoking western with a lot of reflection , distinguished moments and dramatical attitudes , in addition a multitude of entertaining situations . Top-notch plethora of secondary actors playing vicious, sadistic sociopaths who take advantage of the frightened townspeople such as Broderick Crawford , John Dhener, Noah Beery as well as villagers perfectly performed by Rhys Williams as Tibbs , Virginia Gregg as Rose , Chubby Johnson as Frank , John Doucette as Ben , Leif Erickson as as Lou and special appearance by Russ Tamblyn as Eric playing a spectacular as well as amusing dance number . Atmospheric cinematography in Black and White is superbly caught by cameraman cameraman George Folsey , though being necessary a correct remastering . Thrilling as well as lively musical score by Andre Previn .This is another superbly powerful Western being compellingly directed by Russell Rouse . He was an expert screenwriter as the classic D.O.A. filmmaking occasionally for cinema all kind of genres as Caper films such as ¨The Caper of the Golden Bulls¨, Dramas as ¨The Oscar¨, Noir cinema such as ¨Wicked Woman¨, ¨New York Confidential¨ , ¨The Well¨ , ¨The thief¨ and another Western titled ¨Thunder in the sun¨. Well worth watching and it will appeal to Glenn Ford fans .

vincentlynch-moonoi There was a time when Westerns pretty much ruled the movie screens. And many (perhaps even most) were pretty forgettable. There were occasional great Westerns (e.g., "Rio Bravo"), and others that were at least significantly above average. This is one that is quite above average.I have to get one gripe off my shoulders first, though. Russ Tamblyn. Fine performer particularly remembered for "West Side Story". But even at a barn dance, his dancing here was really out of place...despite being very good. Whose bright idea was this??? As I was watching this film, it occurred to me that it is almost the reverse of "High Noon". Here, Glenn Ford is reluctantly forced into a confrontation by a gun fighter who always seeks out those faster that he. And where are the people who are pushing our hero into a confrontation? In a church.Except for a gunfight at the beginning of the film, and the one climaxing the film, this is more a psychological Western. Why is Glenn Ford so gun shy when he's clearly the fasted gun alive? The cast here really is very good. Glenn Ford was a dependable leading man. Perhaps just under the level of actors like Cary Grant and Clark Gable. But he rarely let us down in any role, and he certainly didn't here. He carries the film and is why it's better than the average 1950s Western. Jeanne Crain is always a pleasure to watch, and she balances the need to be a forceful wife who will not tolerate her husband's addiction to guns, without being an unreasonable nag. Broderick Crawford is the primary villain here...the role he was best at. This film followed on the heels of his success in the syndicated television series "Highway Patrol". As a couple of our reviewers pointed out, he seems a bit chubby to be so fast on the draw, but he knows how to be menacing. As mentioned earlier, Russ Tamblyn is fine here, but totally out of place in the plot. Allyn Joslyn (whom I usually remember as one of the bad angels in "The Horn Blows At Midnight") is the loud mouth here, and is quite good at it. John Dehner is fine as another of the bad guy trio. I was a little sad to see one of my favorite character actors as the third bad guy, and he was rather wasted here -- Noah Beery, Jr.If you've become wary of Westerns, as I have, I recommend this one to you. It's clearly above average and has a good story with more drama than the typical shoot-em-up cowboy flick.

Robert J. Maxwell There have been any number of movies about gunslingers who have hung up their guns and forsworn violence, only to be reluctantly dragged back into the game. Some have been good and some, like "Shane", have been very good.I don't know of any movie other than this one that paints a fast draw as a disease. With Glenn Ford, peaceable storekeeper in a one-horse town, it's pathological, an obsession that breaks out and overcomes him every four years or so, much to the distress of his wife, Jeanne Craine.He's the fastest gun in the West, see. And he KNOWS he is. Yet here he is, locked away with the cracker barrels, selling dresses to ladies who complain that he's ordered the wrong color. It makes him edgy. The good people of the town of Cross Creek don't know of his latent status so they're puzzled by his increasing irritability. I mean, the poor guy has done his best to settle down but he suffers from what the German ethologists called "Funktionslust," the pleasure one takes from doing what one does best. He can help himself no more than Peter Lorre could keep away from little girls in "M." Yep, he's a sick man alright.Help is on the way. Three no-goodniks, led by the growling and bejowled Broderick Crawford, ride on into Cross Creek shortly after Ford has given up his pose as the peaceable storekeeper, had a couple of shots of whiskey, and demonstrated his uncanny skill with a six gun. Crawford has just killed a man in another town. He had no reason to, other than that he'd heard the man was fast, and Crawford takes pride in being the fastest gun in the West.A lot of movies seem to take pride in debunking the myth of the fastest slinger of six shooters. In John Wayne's last movie, "The Shootist," it wasn't being the fastest draw that enabled you to survive. But this movie doesn't debunk the myth. It IS the myth! It places the entire fantasy right in your lap, as a gift. The fastest draw wins. It's a fabrication of the kind most of us outgrow after the age of fourteen.Of course nothing was ever so simple, however much we like to think it was. As an adult, I doubt that very many lives depended upon the speed of the draw, anymore than they did with the swords the preceded the guns. A good guess is that a greater willingness to kill kept one alive.The metaphor here is a sporting contest. It's presented as an event in the Special Olympics For Imbeciles. But the idea of the fast draw contest is so endearing for some of us that actual contests have been staged. Not with real bullets of course, but with supreme accuracy in measurement. A man enters a circle, facing a light bulb. When the bulb goes on, the man draws a six gun and fires, and a photographic device measures the time it take him, as in a horse race. These contests were held within the last twenty years or so. What was going through the minds of the contestants as they played this game? Did they dream of living in the Old West, of being Glenn Ford, outdrawing others, and putting notches on their pistol grips while the dead bodies were still warm? Ford is his usual reliable self in a silly role. Jeanne Craine is still beautiful but her beauty is almost hidden behind a mask of 1956 make up. But what a supporting cast! From top to bottom, it's studded with recognizable names and faces, sometimes almost in cameo roles.They needed all the help they could get to put over this impossible and dangerous fantasy. As mythos, this goes beyond raising Lazarus, somewhere into the neighborhood of Atlantis and Mole People.

info-16951 Although excellent, this is NOT the best western ever made. No western is. It's simply a matter of taste. (De gustibus....) I must say, however, that this movie would have been more interesting if Ford and Crawford had switched roles. (Or if the kid had shot Crawford in the back, just before he drew.) That being said, to my taste The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence was the best western because of John Wayne's restrained portrayal of his tragic character. But I don't expect anyone else to agree. I must say that I absolutely detest spaghetti westerns. Spain never quite convinces, and the Spaniards/Italians certainly don't.