Tall Man Riding

Not many westerns feature two girls in the feminine lead. Here it's Peggie Castle (Reva) and Dorothy Malone (Corinne), each playing a good girl. Now you know the manly Scott (Madden) will end up with one of the two but which one. It's a non-formula screenplay with a couple of interesting twists. Okay, Scott, heck-bent on revenge, is not exactly new, but the rest remains an interesting variation on land ownership, along with shifting alliances and an Oklahoma style land-rush.

Scott is his usual uncompromising self, showing again why his cowboy career endured into his sixties. (Here he's 57! but trim and agile as ever). Then too, Baragrey (Pearlo) makes a sleekly calculating rival and saloon owner. I just wish Warner's had hired a more imaginative director than the thoroughly pedestrian Selander; his list of "shoot-it fast and under-budget" Westerns looks to run to nearly 100 or so. Maybe that's why Paul Richards (Peso Kid) doesn't get to project his usual amount of quirky evil. There's one really eye-catching and acrobatic brawl. However the showdown shoot-out amounts to a flatly staged disappointment.

Anyhow, it's a good cast in one of Scott's entertaining mid-level westerns.