Handsome, rugged Robert Mitchum creeps around this family drama as if he's ready to pounce and annihilate. Unfortunately, the film is a snowbound exercise in symbolism, an overlong, somewhat tedious one adapted from the novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Mitchum commands attention, yet his macho swagger is used to little effect. The central focus of the proceedings is a marauding wildcat in mountain terrain, and the humans--tense, angry members of an isolated clan--who are intent on capturing the beast. The diluted colors are fascinating, but the mood is depressing and the characters a bit pretentious. A misfire from director William A. Wellman, but a curious one. ** from ****