Stranger on Horseback (1955)

Strong and Moving!

Admirable film.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This excellent , meaty Western contains interesting plot ,thrills , brawls , shoot'em up and is quite entertaining . This outstanding Tourneur Western balances action , suspense and drama . During the early days when civilisation was pushing its frontiers farther and farther West, there roamed a special creed of men , neither outlaws nor officers of the law, yet more feared than either ; then there appears a circuit judge in the old west and he attempts to bring a suspected killer to justice .¨The stranger judge¨ arrives in a town and the powerful owner gives him 12 hours to live . The judge runs afoul of the killer's rich cattle baron father in the process . The judge meets a motley group of characters : ¨The wildcat¨ (Miroslava) , when she couldn't outshoot a man she used other weapons ; ¨The killer¨(Kevin McCarthy) , a kid who liked to play with lives ; ¨The land baron¨ (John McIntire) the owned the town , hardware , lock , livestock and gun barrel ; ¨The Colonel¨(John Carradine) , he liked his cigars for him and his killings done for him .This grand Western in the tradition of ¨Red River¨ and ¨High Noon¨ contains a thought-provoking screenplay , emotion , violence , go riding , double crosses , shoot'em up and results to be quite enjoyable .It's a classic recounting about an upright man seeking justice and attempting to detain killers . The public likes big Westerns and here to satisfy them is a big adventure , starring a big box office favorites of the 50s , Joel McCrea , with the kind of high pitched excitement that pay off . The traditional story and exciting screenplay by Herb Meadow and and Don Martin based on the story written by specialist Louis L'Amour . Photographed in Ansco Color by Pathe , being necessary a good remastering because of the copy of film is worn-out . Top-notch Joel McCrea as a relentless judge who seeks justice and magnificent John McIntire as a proud baron land . Support cast is frankly excellent such as Kevin McCarthy as Tom Bannerman , John Carradine as Col. Buck Streeter , Nancy Gates as Caroline Webb and Emile Meyer as Sheriff Nat Bell .This is another superbly powerful triumph from producers Leonard and Robert Goldstein who brought other Westerns as ¨The duel of Silver Creek¨, ¨The Battle at Apache Pass¨, ¨The Great Sioux Uprising¨, and ¨The good guys and the bad guys¨. It is probably one of the best Western in the fifties and sixties . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Jacques Tourneur . Jacques was an expert on Noir cinema such as the classic ¨Out of the past¨ , terror cinema such as ¨Cat people¨ , ¨Leopard man¨, ¨I walked with a Zombie¨, ¨Night of demon¨ and adventures as ¨Flame and the arrow¨ , ¨City under the sea¨ . In Western genre he made 5 films : The masterpiece titled ¨Canyon passage¨(1946) , ¨Star in my Crown¨(1950) also with Joel McCrea , ¨Wichita¨(1955) with Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp formerly to OK Corral duel and ¨Great day in the morning¨ with Robert Stack dealing with facing Union and Confederation . He finally directed episodes of ¨Norhwest passage¨ (1958) titled Frontier Rangers , Fury River and Mission of danger . ¨Stranger on horseback¨ rating : Well worth watching and it will appeal to Joel McCrea fans .

Stranger on Horseback (1955) ** (out of 4) Judge Thorne (Joel McCrea) arrives in a small town ran by Josiah Bannerman (John McIntire) and finds that the man pretty much owns everything and makes sure that everything is under his control. This doesn't sit too well with the Judge because he wants to bring the man's son (Kevin McCarthy) to trial for the murder of an innocent man but the Judge doesn't find too many people willing to stand with him. STRANGER ON HORSEBACK isn't a masterpiece and it's not even a good film but it's a decent little "B" Western that has an attractive cast even if the story itself is just a second-rate mix of HIGH NOON and 3:10 TO YUMA. Considering the talent involved I can't help but label this a minor disappointment because not only do you have McCrea doing a role he was born to play but you have the highly underrated Tourneur calling the shots. The most surprising thing is that there's not a single shot that will remind you of anything Tourneur had done in his career. Usually the director had a certain eye for style but none of that is to be seen here and that's a real shame because a little more spark is exactly what the familiar story needed. The story itself is pretty familiar stuff that you could trace back to the Westerns of the 1930s. A good man comes into a corrupt town and must try to battle the owner for what's right. The familiar story leads up to a finale that I won't ruin but I must admit that I found it rather weak. I don't mind too much the way the Judge character goes about doing his business but what the McIntire character does just seemed way too far-fetched and I thought it pretty much made the entire movie pointless. What makes the film worth sitting through is the terrific cast with McCrea leading the way as the good guy. Along with Randolph Scott you really couldn't find a better good guy than McCrea and he does a nice job with the part. McCarthy was fun in this early role even if his sometimes comic approach is a tad bit off. It's always fun seeing McIntire as he eats up scenes and we even get John Carradine as the corrupt prosecutor. Miroslava plays the bad man's cousin and makes for some good chemistry with McCrea. I'm not familiar with the Louis L'Amour story so I can't say how close this film follows it but the routine screenplay could have used some better stuff but if you're a fan of the cast then you might as well kill 66-minutes.

The review by Tom Slaback (tom-374) from Prescott, AZ says that he's only seen this film in black & white and wanted to know if a color version is available. Well, I rented the DVD and it IS is color, though the DVD indicates that there is no surviving negative and the copy is not optimal. In other words, while it's in color, the colors are a bit off (everybody appears sunburned because of the over-saturation of reds) and the print is a tad fuzzy.The film begins with a new federal circuit judge (Joel McCrea) arriving in a western town. The first thing he notices is that all the businesses in town are owned by a man named Bannerman. The second thing he notices is that the sheriff and prosecuting attorney in town are bought and paid for by Bannerman--and he and his family can pretty much do as they please. It's obvious that there will soon be a showdown between the judge and Bannerman--and it's a fairly typical sort of plot for a western.At times the plot is a lot like a lower budget "5:10 to Yuma" as well as "High Noon"--awfully good company in which to place any film. Despite having many familiar elements, Joel McCrea is so good in the film and the movie is made economically (not just cost but a lot of bang in such a short film), it's well worth seeing.

McCrea glows as the circuit judge attempting to deliver to justice the murdering son of a wealthy cattle baron. the routine tale is uplifted by a superior cast including a rare appearance by International star, the late Miroslava, John Carradine, John McIntire, Roy Roberts, and a pre-Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Kevin McCarthy. The story moves at a rapid pace to a furious and unpredictable conclusion. This is truly a great western, and it is a shame that the only copy to make it to VHS is from film that is obviously deteriorated. C'mon Turner or AMC...this is one that deserves restoring!!!