I'd long wanted to see this and see it in 3D as it occasionally will show up at a 3D fest and because the director made such great use of 3D years later in Amityville Horror 3D. I ended up seeing a good print but flat on TCM.
The trouble here is Fleischer was really good with action but the rodeo footage seems to have been shot from very far away, with a few OK close ups of actors shot against projected footage. It's hard to put an actor on a fake horse and have it look at all real and those shots work well enough, but we are so far from the action so much of the time that in 3D or flat it just ain't exciting.
The story all takes place on one long day at the rodeo that is a little usual and Gig Young does well on horse or not. Henry Morgan probably has the best role, in real life he was a devoted horseman. The color process gives the film a more natural color than it typical of the 1950's but yes, the best action scene is the opening car scene and one scene late in the show I can't mention as it'd be a spoiler.
It's a sort of downbeat rodeo film dealing with the broken lives and loves involved in what is shown to be a job with no reward. Director Fleischer was on his way up at the time so this is a let down as you need exciting and dangerous rodeo footage and for whatever reason you just don't get it here. I sort of suspect they had to shoot at a real rodeo event and the cameras had to be in the stands and then later they shot a few inserts of actors to match the documentary footage. If this was the way it was done it was probably due to budget restrictions--too bad, if Fleischer had been able to do the action scenes the way he was easily capable of the movie might have the kick it needs. He does have a chance to convince you the actors are interacting with the dangerous animals in the sort of pregame aspects of the riding, but then when the real action happens, again we are way far away in the stands.
Barbara Lawrence looks the part and acts well as the femme fatale, all the dramatic scenes work well but....
Still it's better than Junior Bonner, another later Rodeo film, it may well be that you have to be there to really get a rodeo.
