On the whole, an interesting western, with better character development than most, and a less predictable story and ending than most. Their Georgian farm burned by Yankee troops, ex-Confederate soldier Mitch Garrett(Alan Ladd) and pregnant wife Ellie are relocating to the far West. When Ellie becomes ill, somehow relating to her imminent birthing, they stop in an AZ town to provide her with a room in which to recuperate and give birth. The town doctor(Seltzer) is called and instructs Mitch to get some medicine from the general store (in the middle of the night!)as soon as possible. But Mitch lacks the $1.87 the medicine costs, thus pulls a gun on the sleepy proprietor, after grabbing the medicine, which the proprietor had to formulate. The sheriff, amazingly, responds to a distress call and Mitch is detained a while for questioning. Eventually, it's agreed to take the medicine to his wife, but they are too late. She just died. Mitch becomes unhinged, blaming the several men involved in delaying the delivery of the medicine for Ellie's death. Well, it's difficult to imagine a medicine of this era so potent that it could have made a difference in the course of Ellie's illness, if given, say, only an hour before her death. This is a significant reality weakness in the screen play. Conveniently, the nature of her illness is not discussed. It's clear from certain aspects of the rest of the story that MITCH, ALTHOUGH GENUINELY AGGREIVED OVER HIS WIFE'S SUDDEN DEATH, IS ALSO USING THIS INCIDENT AS AN EXCUSE TO AUGMENT HIS RAGE AGAINST YANKEES, IN GENERAL, FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS HOME AND SOUTHERN WAY OF LIFE. He thinks of most everyone in this town as hated Yankees, except for fellow Yankee-hating ex-Confederate soldier Dan(Don Murray), whose Shenandoah farm was also destroyed by Yankee troops. Thus, while appearing on the surface to have forgiven those he blames for his wife's death, he hatches a plan to kill them all, along with pulling off a mega bank robbery to both financially devastate this town, while providing himself with seed money to reestablish himself financially. To help him achieve these goals, he gradually acquires a small group of accomplices, beginning with boozy drifter Dan, whose main role will be to make 'liquid firestuff'(an incendiary bomb, made of kerosene, with a percussion cap, in a glass bottle to blow up or fire several town buildings, as a diversion during the bank robbery. Next, he acquires Sir Henry Ives(Dan 0'Herlihy) : a pick-pocketing traveling foppish aristocrat, who carries a concealed Derringer, used during the robbery. Beautiful saloon girl Julie(Dolores Michaels), with an attitude, blackmails Mitch for a 1/5 share of the bank take, to finance her anticipated relocation in the East, to start a more conventional life. Finally, handsome Stu(Barry Cole) impresses Mitch with his gunslinger skills , in a bizarre town-sponsored lethal gun duel contest. Later, while leaving during the holdup, Stu points a gun at Mitch at close range says "So long, Mitch" and pulls the trigger. Incredibly, he only hits Mitch in the left arm, instead of the chest! This mistake will come back to haunt him, as later Mitch returns 'the favor'. Now hiding behind his sheriff badge(having disposed of the prior sheriff out in the boonies), Mitch hatches an elaborate plan to achieve his goals, including the death of several of his accomplices. His original plan was to spare Dan and Julie(who now is pretending to be Mitch's wife, although only for stage purposes, relating to the bank holdup). But Dan unexpectedly discovers Mitch's planned deaths of partners Sir Harry and Stu, now blamed for the robbery, despite lacking the money. Thus, Mitch decides that Dan(and probably Julie too) have to be silenced, as well, and he will gladly take their share of the stolen money..........I leave the concluding part of the film for you to see. However, I will add that Dan and Julie, both feeling adrift, gradually develop a romantic relationship: something Mitch is incapable of, in his post-Ellie state of mind. Their scenes together help soften the otherwise grim last portion of the film. Although, on the surface, uncommonly desirable as a woman, Julie reveals an abused past, beginning with her alcoholic father and his buddies, that makes her feel unworthy of deserving real love. Is Dan a good risk as a potential husband, being a very recently reformed drunk? Or is Julie fated for a repeat of her father in Dan? Unfortunately, we don't find out. Incidentally, Don Murray and the recently divorced Dolores reportedly developed a real romantic relationship for a spell.
Yes, Alan Ladd, never a very energetic -acting leading man, comes off as looking
lethargic and puffy-faced late in his film career, due to alcoholism. He would die just a couple years later of acute poisoning by a combination of alcohol and drugs, having apparently tried to end it all just the year after this film, with a bullet in the chest. Difficult
for me to understand his popularity, even back in his glory days. For one thing, I never liked his unusual voice. I would have preferred Jimmy Stewart or Kirk Douglas, for example, in his role. However, Ladd's presence in the lead role doesn't really negate the interest of this film. I have a similar attitude toward "Guns of Timberline", also released in '60,, also costarring Ladd, and which I also find an interesting off beat western. Aaron Spelling wrote the screenplays for both of these films, and soon became a major creator or producer of many popular TV series..........In regard to Ladd's villainous role in this film, earlier in his career, he remarked "I know what's good for me. I can't play black or grey. I can't be a villain or anything close to one. I have to play white" . Until this film, Ladd never played a villain, and this film was a failure at the box office. Guess he was right........Several complain about Don Murray's sometimes 'overacting'. I didn't find this objectionable, and it helped compensate for Ladd's sometimes 'underacting'....Larry Gates is good as the friendly, sympathetic, doctor. ....
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