The story of a man apart who brought faith to a youth , love to a woman, justice to land . At the beginning takes place a trilling start when a man called Matt Dow (James Cagney) and his newcomer pal Davey Bishop (John Derek) are mistaken as two train robbers . Dow , who has a few secrets of his own , clears his name and ends up as the new sheriff and he appoints Davey as his deputy . Matt romances a foreign woman named Helga Swenson (Viveca Lindfors) and settles in to a peaceful existence only to find that the boy grows restive . The boy is crippled by a bullet provoking his fury and bitter slide into badness .
This odd little film seems to be an offbeat Western , though also packs conventional scenes . It contains a superficially conventional script , drama , snappy scenes , action , thrills and shootouts . The characters are well constructed , the talks are fluid , concise and expressive and address special attention to gestures , glances and movements ; however , some excessive familiar touches cannot overcome a little boring screenplay . It lacks the baroque , bizarre excesses of Johnny Guitar , Nicholas Ray's first Western . At the end takes place the usual dispute between protagonists , James Cagney and John Derek , both of them share a mythical confrontation . Good acting by James Gagney as an ex-con becoming sheriff who tries to curb his own anger at the injustices he has suffered ; this is the second of three westerns that Cagney made , his first western was "The Oklahoma Kid" (1939) and his third and final one was "Tribute To A Bad Man" (1956). His embittered young as well as antagonistic companion was middlingly played by John Derek . The support cast is pretty good , being magnificent played by a group of splendid secondaries such as Ray Teal , Ernest Borgnine , Denver Pyle , Grant Whiters , Jack Lambert and final film of Jean Hersholt. Colorful cinematography by Daniel L Fapp , though rereleased in black-and-white and an alright remastering being necessary . Producers acknowledge with thanks the cooperation of the department of Interior National Park Service for the scenes photographed in the Aztec ruins , National Monument Aztec , New Mexico .
The motion picture was professionally directed by Nicholas Ray , though some moments results to be tiring and slow-moving . Nicholas has a sensitive handling of actors and provides an exact compositional sense . Ray is a classic director , his films deal with a deep description of civilized societies , he believes that corruption is an essential part of it , that society punishes sincerity , innocence and love, vengeance and greed determine the behavior of people. Other ordinary themes is the gulf between generations : the older and the youngest . Nicholas Ray is concerned adolescence and youth, to which he devotes a later work , just like "Rebel without a Cause", 1955 . He denounces violence in American society and shows the rough face of frustration and sexual repression . As the great and stylish filmmaker Nicholas Ray working at the peak of his powers in Knock on Any Door with Humphrey Bogart and again John Derek . Other successes of this master filmmaker shooting all kinds of genres are the followings : Wartime such as Flying Leathernecks , Bitter victory , Noir : Party Girl , Wetern : Johnny Guitar , The True Story of Jesse James , Adventure : The Savage Innocents , Wind Across the Everglades and the epics : 55 Days at Peking ,Kings of Kings .
