Save your money for something good and enjoyable

One of my all time favorites.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Cowboy is directed by Delmer Daves and adapted to screenplay by Edmund H. North and Dalton Trumbo from Frank Harris' book My Reminiscences as a Cowboy. It stars Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Víctor Manuel Mendoza, Anna Kashfi, Dick York, King Donovan, Brian Donlevy and Richard Jaeckel. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Charles Lawton Junior.Based on Frank Harris' memoir, the story finds Lemmon as Harris, a Chicago hotel clerk who in an attempt to prove he is a man and impress the girl he loves, wrangles his way onto a cattle drive being led by rough and tough cowpoke Tom Reece (Ford). He soon finds that out there on the range, in amongst the dust, beef and perils of the west, that life is far from glamorous.Once you buy into Lemmon as a Western character, accepting his transference from utter greenhorn into a man of the drive, it really becomes a very good film. It's a sort of debunking of the cowpoke myths whilst playing out as a character study of two men, who are polar opposites, as they build an understanding and ultimately help each other to grow and learn. Along the way, from Chicago to the Rio Grande, there is fights, death, stampedes and tests of loyalties and manhood. The great Delmer Daves directs it without fuss or filler (how nice that the romantic arc is rightly a side issue and doesn't get in the way) and Lawton's photography brings the sprawling landscapes to life. Lead cast members are excellent, with Ford once again providing rich characterisation by way of layered acting, and Lemmon rises up to the challenge of genre work outside of what he would be known for. In support Donlevy is his usual excellent self, making what could have been a clichéd character (aging gunfighter wants to leave his past behind) interesting with emotional depth, and Mendoza as the Ramrod is good foil for Ford. There's some quibbles, such as Dick York hard to take seriously, Jaeckel and Strother Martin (uncredited) wasted and some of the humour doesn't come off. But this is a very enjoyable film, one that thrives on having some character depth and actually something worthy to say. 7.5/10

Cowboy (1958) is one of a series of outstanding westerns directed by Delmer Daves that includes the classic 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and the dramatically scenic Jubal (1956). Too bad his body of western work has failed to receive the recognition it deserves. Here he's concerned with de-romanticizing the myth of the trail drive, showing how harsh conditions breed harsh men. Lemmon is well chosen as the cowboy wannabe, worming his way into the rowdy Glenn Ford's trail drive. There he discovers the routine brutalities that help explain behavior as a tenderfoot, he couldn't understand. But in the process he has some civilizing lessons of his own that manage to take hold among the rough cowboy crowd.And whoever thought up that snake twirling episode deserves an award for sheer originality. I've seen nothing like it in years of viewing. Plus the deadly consequences of that witless cowboy fun is put on tragic display in a way that cleverly revises decades of cowboy mythology. To me, it's the movie's brilliant centerpiece. Still, the film is filled with exciting and unusual action, such as the cattle car that could crush a tank, or the pin-the-ring on the angry bull that's more like a test of manhood than a game.No, this is certainly no cliché western. Ford and Lemmon are excellent, especially the latter who's certainly extended out of his usual mild-mannered character. Daves directs with flair and some well-timed tinges of humor. All in all, however, I'm still not sure how to take the movie's overall message even though it appears to have one in mind.

Cowboy (1958) Glenn Ford, Jack Lemon, Brian Donlevy, King Donovan, Richard Jaeckel, Dick York, Victor Mendoza. A young starry eyed bell boy Harris/Lemon in a fancy Chicago hotel idolizes the violent and hard living trail hands who storm into the hotel where he works. The "boss" gets to drinking and gambling and ends up borrowing money from the young man, who gets a sworn promise that he now owns half of the assets of Ford/Reese. When Harris shows up at the rail yard ready to go with them back to Texas, Reese gets nasty and tells him to get lost. But Harris is stubborn and Reese relents. His Ramrod, Mendoza says "he must be telling the truth or you would have killed him by now." A favorite western. Parts are cliché, but so many details of life on the trail are shown as hard and unsentimental of humans or animals, that it is difficult to watch at times. Ford at his hard-as-rock best, and Lemon as his befuddled but good guy best too; some great scenes together. The cattle drive is a classic theme and this one is on a par with Red River and the Wayne/Clift pairing, IMHO. Always a pleasure when the pros are in charge. 9/10

"Cowboy" examines the relationship between partners in a herd, the older statesman and highly principled Ford clashing on moral and physical grounds with the younger, disrespectful, hot headed Lemmon. During a tumultuous droving journey, the two men gain a mutual respect for one another, their generational differences merging through shared experiences with marauding Indians, troublesome hired hands, and the pitfalls of controlling a thousand head of cattle.Donlevy is effective as a seasoned hired hand, eager to hang up his gun and forge a retirement nest egg, but his untimely end is denied the screen time it deserves. Reliable supporting actor Jaeckel is at his ruthless best, here taking umbrage with another drover's provocation leading to a protracted fisticuffs ending only when Lemmon intervenes moments before Jaeckel knifes his opponent. There's something sinister, maybe even psychopathic about Jaeckel's crazy eyes. A young Dick York also appears in a reasonably prominent supporting role, and in spite of his chaffs and sneer, it remains difficult to divorce him from his future 'Darren Stevens' alter ego from "Bewitched".Grand cast in a low-key western drama, the mediocre action punctuating shallow soliloquy's and sermons on honour, tradition and loyalty. Ford is consciously more aggressive than is usual persona, his steely-eyed determination more than matching Lemmon's youthful ambition. But despite some interesting moments, the plot peaks don't soar high enough to build momentum. Even the penultimate climax in which Lemmon and Ford risk life and limb to stabilise the herd on the train, lacks suspense. It may well be a tough life with perils more realistic than gunslingers and Apaches, but director Daves doesn't adequately convey this on the screen. Not a bad film at all, just unremarkable, run-of-the-mill western fare.