The Big Land

There is a lot about this sprawling Western that resembles SHANE.

Again, Ladd plays a quiet man who is tired of killing. Here, though, he is not a gunfighter, but rather an experienced soldier who learned to use a hand gun very well.

The real star of this film, though, isn't either hero Ladd or heroine Virginia Mayo, but Edmond O'Brien.

O'Brien's character becomes a parallel to the Stonewall character of Elisha Cook, Jr. in Shane. The similarities are more in what happens with the character than in the character.

However, unlike Stonewall, who is simply a pathetic doomed soul with little input in SHANE, O'Brien is given a chance to eat the scenery here, going from drunk to respected architect to manager of a new town to peace keeper for the town.

The story is his. We even get to see him with family. He begins at the low end of the totem pole, then rises to great achievement, only to find himself in a situation where he must make a terrible decision.

In ways, this film is superior to SHANE, and SHANE is a classic. The bad guys, however, were cloned too much after Jack Palance's Wilson, and therein lies the weakness. There are two sadistic bad men here, and their characters just aren't fresh, and too much like Wilson.

Still, it's got a lot of character, and a lot of characters who make this a top Western.

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.

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.

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.

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.