Strictly as a matter of timing, I was struck by the very opening sequence in which a young boy runs across a dusty Western street with a gun going 'bang, bang' at an imaginary outlaw. As I write this, the nation is undergoing a raucous debate over proposed new and stricter gun control laws following the Newtown, Connecticut massacre, and the media is filled with numerous stories of kids as young as five years old getting reprimanded or suspended from school for doing the same thing, sometimes for just pointing a finger to simulate a pistol. If the kid in the picture did that today, he'd probably be arrested for sure.
You know, teaming William Conrad and Anthony Quinn was an interesting casting choice. It looks like they should have been in each other's role, such is their influence on supporting characters. The charismatic and good looking Kallen (Quinn) is supposed to be the bad guy, and the sweaty, bloated Hamish is the lawman. That dynamic is neatly explored in the second half of the story as the duo comes under Apache attack and rescue a young girl who lost her parents to the savages. Hamish confesses his insecurities and failures in life to Kallen, and even though Kallen has ample opportunity to make his getaway a number of times, he's developed an understanding and trust in the sheriff to get a fair trial for a murder back in the States.
The film runs a compact seventy nine minutes and makes use of crisp black and white photography that's made even more cinematic whenever Lita Milan hits the screen as Kallen's Mexican firebrand fiancée. I would swear that Ellen Hope Monroe looks like she might have grown up to become some famous movie star (resemblance to Lee Meriwether?), but in checking the credits, she only made one other picture, and that one, "The Black Orchid", had Anthony Quinn in the lead role as well. She really didn't have that much to do here except look vulnerable, but as far as that goes, she made it work.
You know, teaming William Conrad and Anthony Quinn was an interesting casting choice. It looks like they should have been in each other's role, such is their influence on supporting characters. The charismatic and good looking Kallen (Quinn) is supposed to be the bad guy, and the sweaty, bloated Hamish is the lawman. That dynamic is neatly explored in the second half of the story as the duo comes under Apache attack and rescue a young girl who lost her parents to the savages. Hamish confesses his insecurities and failures in life to Kallen, and even though Kallen has ample opportunity to make his getaway a number of times, he's developed an understanding and trust in the sheriff to get a fair trial for a murder back in the States.
The film runs a compact seventy nine minutes and makes use of crisp black and white photography that's made even more cinematic whenever Lita Milan hits the screen as Kallen's Mexican firebrand fiancée. I would swear that Ellen Hope Monroe looks like she might have grown up to become some famous movie star (resemblance to Lee Meriwether?), but in checking the credits, she only made one other picture, and that one, "The Black Orchid", had Anthony Quinn in the lead role as well. She really didn't have that much to do here except look vulnerable, but as far as that goes, she made it work.