Highly watchable Western based on a story by Thomas Thompson with screenplay by the prestigious Rod Serling ; dealing with confrontation between family members and about fights between cattlemen and homesteaders . The picture gets action Western , shootouts , wonderful outdoors and turns out to be quite entertaining with amazing visual style . This interesting movie is set in post-Civil War ; it features Steve Sinclair (Robert Taylor) , a world a world-weary , prior gunfighter , now living as a peaceful farmer , his wild younger brother Tony (John Cassavetes) , and a previous dance hall girl , Joan Blake , (Julie London) , masquerading as a lady . Tony meets the cabaret girl Joan and impulsively to marry her , returning to run the family ranch . Then , things go awry when Tony arrives on the scene with his new bride Joan Blake . Everyone there is enchanted with Joan ; however , when some settlers (Royal Dano) appear , events go wrong .
Agreeable Western packs drama about sibling squabbles , thrills , shootouts , go riding and some moving action sequences . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians , production values and pleasing results . In this case family feuds make for a really thrilling film , as it contains a thoughtful and thought-provoking script regarding to the ranch scenarios , adding ranchers confrontations , joining Western with melodrama . As well as making full of sense , intense drama and intelligence . ¨Saddle the wind¨ was hardly received its fair due and panned by some critics , as Western genre being past their peak of popularity . And the final is poignantly as well as dynamically unexpected , including an exciting duel . Good performances from Robert Taylor as obstinate ex-gunslinger , this is the best movie of Taylor's later work ; John Cassavetes as reckless as well as nutty young brother who gives a mannered but intelligent acting and Julie London as his bride who bears a dark past . Julie London catches the eye carrying out an imaginative and gorgeous acting ; besides , playing an attractive song . Large plethora of secondaries , such as Charles McGraw , Royal Dano , Richard Erdman , Ray Teal and special mention for Donald Crisp as old patriarch baron land . Colorful and glimmer cinematography by George J. Folsey , being magnificently illuminated in Cinemascope and Metrocolor , setting itself against the marvelous backdrop of the Colorado Rockies , actually filmed on location in Rosita , Colorado . Evocative as well as atmospheric musical score by the great Elmer Bernstein , along with a catching song at the beginning composed by Jay Livingstone . However , a first soundtrack was written and recorded by Jeff Alexander but had to be replaced due to extensive re-cutting .
The motion picture was professionally directed in sure visual eye by Robert Parrish providing an abundance of noisy acting , color and stirring happenings . Among his best received works was this brooding western ¨Saddle the Wind¨ (1958) . He was an Academy Award-winning film editor who also realized and acted in movies . Parrish was soon working on some of Hollywood's most prestigious films, cementing his reputation as one of the America's premier editors . Unfortunately, while many of his directorial efforts were visually impressive ,especially his war drama , ¨The Purple Plain¨ , his labour as editor was excellent . As an editor he won an Academy Award for Body and soul (1947), the 1947 Robert Rossen film that starred John Garfield as a money-grubbing, two-timing boxer on the make . Parrish also worked on All the King's Men (1949), an account of the rise and fall of a Louisiana politician that won the Academy Award for Best Picture . Parrish then moved on to direct films during the 1950s and 1960s . He realized a variety films of all kind of genres , such as melodrama : ¨Fire down below¨ , comedy : ¨The Bobo¨ , parody : ¨Casino Royale¨ , a Noir film titled ¨Cry danger¨ , a Sci-Fi picture titled ¨Journey to the far side of the sun¨ , a thriller titled ¨The Marseille Contract¨ or ¨The Destructors¨ and another strange Western called ¨A town called Bastard¨. And of course , ¨Saddle the wind¨¨ resulted to be one of his best films .
