The Big Land

I remind this Gordon Douglas' western not because of Alan Ladd's presence - the good guy, as usual - but because of the villain character, which is also here as usual Anthony Caruso - nearly a cliché.... But I love this kind of role, as was Jack Palance in SHANE vs the same Alan Ladd. No real surprise here, despite the Gordon Douglas's flawless directing. The latest was a true professional anyway...Useless to say that I highly prefered Alan Ladd in ONE FOOT IN HEL, where his charater was so complex and ambivalent.... So, this western deserves to be seen, especially if you are a western buff, you can't miss it; I only gave my opinion, tha's all.

The more I see of Alan Ladd the more I come to regard him as the male Kay Francis; a good actor who made a cargo ship full of mediocre to crappy movies. This is yet another, a fifties western from Gordon Douglas that, aside from early intimations of a homo erotic relationship between Ladd and Edmund O'Brien that is snuffed out the moment curvaceous Virginia Mayo arrives on the scene, is at best a "Shane" with tired blood. Give it a C.

PS...This is the second time that Edmund O'Brien has played a possibly, if not plausibly, closeted character in a Gordon Douglas film. The first was "Between Midnight And Dawn", made in 1950, in which O'Brien's cop had an unusually strong interest in keeping his partner away from marriage to Gale Storm.

Director Gordon Douglas, one of Warners' more versatile directors, teamed previously Ladd on 'The Iron Mistress', 'McConnell Story' and 'Santiago'...

Alan Ladd has the familiar assignment of a man of action who has seen enough of killing in the late war... He brings it off in his smoothest style...

Here, he is a six-shooter with no alternative, in a tale about cattlemen and wheat growers, who join forces in building a railroad near their land in an attempt to crush the activities of ruthless cattle-buyers... Ladd is forced to take action against Anthony Caruso and his henchman before settling down to marry the lovely Mayo and rebuild the new town...

Virginia Mayo gives the film its few moments of sensitivity in the scene where she takes out on Ladd her grief over her brother's execution...

Edmond O'Brien is cast as an educated man turned alcoholic... He is a wanderer disgusted by his cowardice, and gunned down when he makes a hopeless attempt to stand up to a heavy, bad man...

Despite a few pretentious moments, 'The Big Land' is, on the whole, an undistinguished star Western..

Too many good points already listed. Good redemption movie about beef, wasted time and sleeping past 5AM. Easy to believe business could ever be so simple. Easy to see how Alan Ladd became so popular.

When Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) rides home to Texas after the Civil War, he finds another enemy to battle: Brog, a corrupt cattle buyer who forces honest ranchers into financial ruin. Morgan thinks he can thwart Brog by building a town at a new rail spur where cattlemen can safely bring their herds to market. But Brog and his henchmen set out to destroy the town and it may take a gun-blazing showdown to vanquish him.

Familiar yet well-made western with some good characterisations that stars Alan Ladd and Edmond O'Brien, who does some scene chewing as Edmond O'Brien as an alcoholic architect with the know-how to construct the town. Virginia plays his sister who is engaged to another man but falls for Ladd. A unique feature is the town construction element, which isn't covered much in westerns. Can be a bit slow in spots, a bit talky, however it's pleasant viewing and ends with an exciting cattle stampede sequence.