Backlash stars Donna Reed before she became typecast as "nice" and Richard Widmark as a believable cowboy looking for the killer of his father. I will not give away the plot, but there is certainly a twist to it. John McIntyre also stars as a heavy, a role he would leave behind to play a good cop in Naked City, the television series, a few years later. Speaking of a few years later, it appeared rather obvious to me that the set that was used for this film was also used in the film for "The Magnificent Seven". I wonder how many moviegoers recognized that coincidence. Widmark always does well in any tortured loner role, as he excelled in those kinds of characters. It was a surprise to see Donna Reed play a hard case, when she was so soft in "From Here to Eternity" and the "Donna Reed Show, a few years later. If Westerns are your thing, you could do much worse than this entertaining oater.
Review of Backlash
