Reel work of garbage, check the shadows

I never even paid attention to shadows in detail or anything. I just looked at the sky and thought, "Wow, clear blue sky at sunset. Wasn't it pretty darkish just a minute ago?".

The film was shown in black and white on local TV a couple of years ago. Hadn't seen it before and liked it better then.

And, yes, Robert Aldrich is one of my favourite directors. But dang, shouldn't someone have noticed something wrong while shooting? It bothers me tremendously.

It would demean you to call someone an idiot, but evidently not to call them stupid. You're an idiot.

Back in that time period, it seemed like everything was filmed just whenever the weather allowed. There was no night filming. Filters were used. Now talk about fakey......big puffy white clouds and strong shadows for night scenes. When I was young I never noticed this stuff. When it entered my consciousness, I now have to make a real effort to block it out and just follow the story. But....I agree about this sundown shootout at high noon. Really about the most ridiculous ignoring of the time of day that I have ever seen. We are really spoiled today with our movies filmed at the time of day that it is supposed to be. I saw an old movie western with a sand storm the other day. Great movie, but behind all the blowing sand was clear blue western sky. Outside the boundaries of the wind machines. And that was the great John Ford, a cinematic master. Times have changed.

brillpro, there is no technical incompetence on display in this film. You perhaps are unaware that film speeds in the early '60's were much, much slower than they are today - shooting in low-light conditions was simply a technical impossibility imposed on the filmmakers by the technology of the time.

Trying to film under the conditions of a real thunderstorm or on the verge of sunset was simply impossible for the type of scenes that were required - we'd be looking at virtually blank, darkened screens devoid of detail. Shooting the sunset scene midday then dimming the brightness using the 'day for night' method was in fact standard operation in filmmaking at this time (note that all night scenes are shot on a soundstage).

The results may be jarring to an audience fifty years later, but as with watching many old films a certain allowance must be given in regard to the solving by filmmakers of the inherent technical hurdles presented by the apparatus of the time.

In regards to the similarities to the Spaghetti western genre, I found myself musing while watching that this film must surely have acted as some sort of inspiration in regards to certain stylistic tendencies that were to become prominent in that genre. Certain scenes, especially those toward the end, seem to look forward to Leone's perspectives. Note, too, Ernest Gold's electric guitar cords during certain dramatic scenes - an innovation I had always associated solely with Morricone hitherto.

Despite the shadows flaw I enjoyed the film. Douglas gave his usual virile performance and Hudson was very stoic as the lawman. Malone sexy as usual and Lynley gave a pert performance. Nice trail scenes. Shame we didn't see more of Elam and Brand who were great Western villains. Not a great Western but not a bad one either. Thought the ending was rather moving.

'It wasn't even loaded'

Eddie (Western nut)