Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Can you believe traveling across the desert and the wildness, all of these guys were packed light without any logistic stuff. We didn't see the bounty hunter and his group of travelers with packed horse to provide them with anything, food and water didn't seem a big problem at all, nor the chasing group of the murderer's brother showed any worries about their chows and drinking water. When the Indians decided to attack, they just foolishly circling around the shambled wreck with lances, allowing the defending whites shot them like shooting in the fish barrel or in a shooting gallery; I mean WTF?! They decided to attack but just circling around for their white enemy to shoot them down one by one? Ware the Indians really that so stupid? How could it possible the prisoner would get a rifle if he was handcuffed to a wagon wheel? Was it the director's decision to allow such stupid arrangement in order to set up the next scene, he was cheated out by the other guy telling him his rifle got no bullets in it. Another stupid scenario wrote up by the screenplay writer?The guy saved his life and asked for a favor to allow him to bring in the murderer in order to get an amnesty, but the guy simply refused. How selfish and ungrateful a person could be, you tell me. Yes, all the development of this film was simply one-way, one-direction predictable. Old Western films were all alike. They just wanted simple-minded audience to watch them without using their I.Q., basic logic, a least entry level reasoning. Watch too much and too many of these kinds of brainless films, you'd become more and more simple minded.By the way, the repeated soundtrack is so annoying, a typical pain to the hearing as always in the western movies.

This is taut Western, filled with good phrasing and a good story, with a slight twist at the end. Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) captures Billy John (James Best) for the bounty on his head. The twist is concerning Billy John's brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef) which I won't give away. Brigade meets up with Sam Boone (Pernell Roberts) and Whit (James Coburn) at a stage line swing station that belongs to Mr. & Mrs Lane. Mr. Lane is absent, killed by Indians, and the story basically is of Brigade taking Billy John to justice and Mrs Lane (Karen Steele) to safety, while a war party is after them and Frank and company are out to free Billy John.It's once again a simple old school Western, this one not being quite as good as "The Tall T". Katherine Steele is just a little too much eye candy that seems a bit out of place for the time period. As is customary for many western heroines of the 50's she's got a hairdo that could only be possible in a hair salon with the equipment they had in the 50's. James Best plays a part he was born for, that of the young smart-aleck killer, Pernell Roberts gives a standout performance, and Coburn plays Robert's thin as a rail sidekick Whit, in probably his first film role. Roberts and Whit play minor outlaws that are caught up in the events.Lee Van Cleef is not as effective as he could have been, but in this, as in other of his pre-Leone speaking roles, he comes off as either a hot head or a two bit outlaw. His speech and his body movements are way way too fast, but that's direction, and it seems that that was the way he was typecast for most of the fifties. Zinnerman saw his look in High Noon and kept him silent and menacing. In this film he does something so despicable that there should have been way way more buildup to to the climax, but that is of course looking at the Western with Leone colored glasses. Now this despicable act that you never actually see really doesn't work since it's thrown out way too far towards the climax. This would work better if the scenario of events was shown leading up to the act via flashbacks, giving the audience some shockers. Too late to make a long story short, the film should have been emphasizing Van Cleef as much as Scott, but that's just not Boetticher's style. To summarize, this is a great cheapie budget Western, and although the outdoor locations alone are a major part of the film, the only structures you see are the stage swing station and corrals and some abandoned ruins. More money was probably spent on stock and wranglers than art design. Again we get cowboy lore on the treatment of horses, and good Western slang. Scott is good as the man looking for revenge, and the irony involving the male characters is excellent. Scott is a good man doing a bad thing; Roberts and Coburn have done some bad things and are looking to go "good"/straight.

Bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) captures a criminal notorious for shooting men in the back, Billy Jack (James Best; Dukes of Hazzard), due to hang in Santa Cruz. Billy's older, protective brother, Frank (Lee Van Cleef), and a posse, are following after them. Ben stops by a swing station near a tribe of dangerous Mescaleros, finding two men on the lam from the law, Boone (Pernell Roberts; Trapper John, M.D. & Bonanza) and his young, impressionable pal, Wit (debuting James Coburn) and the station master's wife, Carrie (Karen Steele). Carrie's husband went out to catch runaway horses and hasn't returned, most certain to have encountered the Mescaleros. When an attempted trade between the tribe and Brigade for Carrie goes awry (the horse to be traded for her is Carrie's husband's; Brigade was hoping to deny a trade amicably, but her reaction of horror ruined it), the group will have to fend off the Mescaleros within the ruins of a former station. Knowing Frank and his boys are not far behind (and not in any hurry), riding out in the open without hiding their tracks, Brigade has his own reasons for being so lackadaisical and gradual in the trip back to Santa Cruz. Frank reasons why and knows that Brigade will be waiting for him…at the hanging tree. Lean (72 minutes) oater from the great western director Budd Boetticher, once again working with Scott (…at his most austere, with a character not mincing words or immune to his traveling companions intentions for Billy), has superb casting and a satisfying conclusion that doesn't end as you might expect…it seems as if Boone and Brigade will gunfight in a draw over Billy, but the whole bounty situation is more about Frank for the bounty hunter than the captured prisoner. The hanging tree is symbolic for both Brigade and Frank, with it a fitting finale between these two to settle their differences. Boone and Wit see an opportunity by taking in Billy…amnesty to those with records who bring Billy into Santa Cruz.There are plenty of conversations between Boone and Wit regarding what to do about Brigade so they can earn freedom from looking over their shoulders for "tin stars" (Wit's line about "working the plow, not being good with chickens but being able to slop pigs with the best of them" is a howler); my favorite dialogue scenes, however, involve Boone lusting over Carrie, engrossed by her beauty (Pernell has this look on his face while she's brushing her hair that is pure gold, and how he goes on and on about her to Coburn is quite amusing). Pernell realizing Scott may not force them into a draw over Billy is a hoot (he is exhilarated and rather overly excited). The complications in the plot are held to a bare minimum, primarily concerning the mystery involving Brigade's beef with Frank revealed towards the end when the bounty hunter opens up to Carrie because she understands his pain involving loss under terrible, violent circumstances. The hanging tree on fire is quite a cool visual to close the film as Brigade looks on with obvious sadness at what his conflict with Frank cost him. Good use of California locations to emphasize hot, rough terrain that our heroes must endure while encountering the tribe and Frank's gang. Perhaps a disappointment will be how quickly the Frank and Brigade gunfight starts and ends, but Billy's hanging from a rope adds quite a spin to this shootout when the gunfire spooks the horse leaving him to dangle until the smoke clears. I thought Frank's men tucking tail and riding off when it appears they're in trouble was hilarious…it spoke volumes about how Frank's presence gave them their only real courage, and once he's removed from the equation they're investment in this cause flees about as fast as they skedaddle.

If you are not particularly a Western movie fan, but are a film buff who feels an obligation to visit all genres, there are some Directors that epitomize and rise above the pack. It is with these Artisans you can savior that which is the best of an admitted overload of mediocrity and banality.The Westerns of Directors...Budd Boetticher, Anthony Mann, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and if you want to get into the more mainstream, John Ford.Here we have one of seven films that Boetticher did with Randolph Scott and with the always excellent writer Burt Kennedy's curt, colorful dialog. Speaking of colorful. This one was filmed in Cinemascope and the stylistic inclusion of landscape as character is on display here in all it's encompassing beauty. There is nary a close-up in this film and there is no need. It is so well framed the characters are developed by their words, position, and posture. As always the Director delivers style as well as substance and populates the movie with interesting multi dimensional characters and the cast is outstanding. This is primal as well as evolutionary and humorous as well as deadly serious. A rich and elegant film that is a parade of people through a place within a time when there was an individual and not a collective code of honor.