The Man Called Noon

Despite the fact that Stephen Boyd starred in a couple of the most famous films ever made, he really was a singularly mediocre actor and that is pretty clearly illustrated in this hotch-potch of a western. Here he ("Rimes") finds himself assisting the forgetful "Noon" (Richard Crenna) to track down who he is, where he is from and just how, exactly, he found himself in this amnesiac state. During moments of lucidity, "Noon" recalls a cache of gold - so the two, along with the feisty "Fan" (Rosanna Schiaffino) set off to find it before nasty "Judge Niland" (Farley Granger) and his slightly do-lally pal "Peg" (Patty Shepard) do them all in. Peter Collinson has done an OK job with this. These multi-national efforts were never as good on screen as they might have looked on paper. Crenna is efficient, though not spectacular and there is some nice cinematography to accompany a jaunty score from Luis Bacalov. Nothing new here and not a film I could say I shall ever watch again.