female narrator

I thought the narrator was the Coleen Gray character 'Nettie', and that Victor Mature survived the shooting.
But your thought on it seems possible as well.

Can't be: you can hear the female narrator saying "then I decided to go" and cue Nettie's entrance in the prison. Nettie is obviously the narrator, not two ways about it.

I always thought it was Coleen Gray's character talking.

I always thought it was Colleen Gray. Reed Hadley seemed to have a monopoly on Fox narration in the 40's. He was a great Zorro at Republic, the only time I can remenber him starring in a film.

When I took a film class a few years ago I analyzed a grim little western LITTLE BIG HORN and credited Hadley's performance as an embittered cavalry sergeant as one of the highlights of the movie. It rarely plays anymore on tv and was hard to find on tape or DVD. Lloyd Bridges plays an army captain determined to join Custer at the Little Big Horn. The cast includes John Ireland, Sheb Wooley, Jim Davis, Hugh O'Brian and Marie Windsor as Bridges' cheating wife. Quite violent for 1951. Charles Marquis Warren would go on to do GUNSMOKE.

It's obviously the Nettie character, not only from the credits but from elementary logic. There is no reason to think the first wife has this kind of feeling for NIck, whereas Nettie definitely does. Besides, Hathaway isn't such a corny director to have the narrator speak from the "afterlife."

No. But it was a very unwise decision to incorporate it because the female narrator - of at least ´that´ particular female narrator - didn´t jibe with the rest of the film at all. Beside the borderline moronic ending, it´s the movie´s biggest flaw.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

It's Nettie, but what a novel theory! It always seemed unclear whether he'd died or not, and the ambiguity of whether it's Nettie or the first wife narrating at the end would have left the issue even more in doubt!

Hey Bell-Knights, I'm with you.

It had to be the first wife. Our hero, Nick, was shot up point blank with many slugs from a powerful gun. There's no way he could survive that. If we're supposed to believe he survived such a massive shooting, the film should have at least told us that. It didn't. After receiving so many slugs in the gut, it would be laughable for us to believe he somehow survived. The only logical conclusion is that Nick was deader than a doornail.

So who would say "I got Nick" at the ending. It had to be someone who was already dead...i.e. the first wife. Unless we're supposed to think that dear Nettie killed herself to join Nick in the afterlife, this is the only conceivable conclusion.

Good call, Bell.
Cheers