Why isn't this film better known?
I just saw this on the Fox Movie Channel and I was engrossed in it from beginning to end. Great cast, strong story and script, expert direction. And not an easy film to categorize. It's got a western setting but it's not a typical western. It's got elements of noir and gothic drama. It's got a town full of women whose menfolk are off on a mission, so they have to take matters into their own hands when the convicts arrive and are more than capable of it. It's a solid Hollywood melodrama, with romance, suspense and action mixed in. Like a lot of Hollywood movies of that period.
Why did this never play on TV when I was growing up and watching every movie I could on local channels that played old movies all the time (in the decades before cable and TCM)? Why was it not part of the 20th Century Fox package that ran all those Tyrone Power movies and Betty Grable musicals and Dana Andrews film noir that I saw over and over. I mean, TIN PAN ALLEY, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, ALL ABOUT EVE, CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE and TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH ran all the time, so why not this one? LAURA, THE GANG'S ALL HERE, NIGHTMARE ALLEY and PRINCE OF FOXES played at revival theaters, so why did no one program this one? Why did I have to wait this long to see this? And why did none of my film buff friends ever bring it to my attention?