I like Westerns and here we got one on our hands with a different approach story-wise. In fact this movie does what I look for which is a story within a story making one want to follow the movie and plot screen by screen. Helping this along are the stars and supporting cast doing a great job in making us buy what they are selling no problem. I like the outdoor shoot, the snow, horses, weather and the stark reality of this. Men on the move because they robbed a payroll stop by a town and terrorize it. The thing is this town is out in the middle of nowhere. They soon take-over and there are some tense scenes a coming courtesy of the women being at risk by bad guys that don't give a hoot or a holler except to have a good time and the sooner the better too. Pure animal nature in these men which should remind all who watch that men have work to do until the beast is not only tamed but disposed of. Think: we were made in the image of something better. I like Burl Ives and he does his Westerns justice. The guy delivers as a good or bad guy so you are in for a treat. Robert Ryan can do no wrong either. I like the horses trying to travel in the snow for its realism. The bad guys are trying to get away and we get to see how the gold drives them not the will to survive. The Indians used to comment how these little yellow rocks made white men mad. Here you get a good glimpse of that native Indian philosophy. One of my favorite beliefs that I stand behind is demonstrated in this movie. Never give up your gun...ever! When you do, you no longer have a say so in your own life. Of course the argument that you are alive because you did goes to work as well. You decide. Notice the look on the faces of the women who were forced to dance with filthy, murdering, low down vermin against their will. If looks could kill, the men would be dead. While I was watching this scene, I was reminded that when scheming, evil-based and short on morals and character men who do whatever it takes to get ahead like to spend their money on what decent people spend it on only their guilt won't let them enjoy as men only beasts of the field. You see that today with tyrants, dictators, drug dealers, pimps and thieves. It is not what a man comes to have as much as how he came to have it. Ill-gotten gains gives no peace, closure or satisfaction only the illusion of these things. That point is made in this film as well. Good movie for a sandwich and a tasty drink plus a snack of choice to follow. For added pleasure, watch this with a chill and you will set the mood quite nicely. Enjoy

Andre de Toth directs faultlessly here bringing a big surprise to anyone who thought that 1950's westerns were watered down versions of reality. This is possibly the most uncompromising and bleak vision of the old west that I can remember seeing for a film from the 1950's. Brilliantly photographed against a backdrop of snow, hills and forests, with wonderfully composed shots of both actors and scenery, this is a minor masterpiece. Terrific choice of actors headed by tough guy Robert Ryan, folk singer Burl Ives and the beautiful Tina Louise with great supporting actors, Dabs Greer, Elisha Cook Jr, Jack Lambert etc. Great story, unfolding slowly and with completely unexpected events occurring throughout. Just when you think something is going to explode, de Toth holds it all back,racking up the tension to the bitter end. The best western I've watched in years. If only they made pictures like this still.

Cowboys and ranchers must stick together when a gang of outlaws ride into town intent on causing trouble and abusing the town. Even tho their leader, ex army Captain, Jack Bruhn has them under some sort of control, salvation may have to come from the moody Blaise Starrett, who has his own secret agenda to deal with.Day Of The Outlaw {poor title not befitting the quality of the film} is directed by André De Toth {Ramrod, Crime Wave & House of Wax} and stars Robert Ryan, Burl Ives & Tina Louise. Adapted from the novel written by Lee E. Wells, it's a film that is crying out to be seen by more people, especially those with an aversion to Westerns. For although grounded in Western tradition, it comes across more as a moody Noir piece, the atmosphere throughout hangs heavy like a weighted burden, with this tiny tin pot town in the snowy swept mountains photographed starkly by Russell Harlan. This is some out of the way place that nobody but its small inhabitants care about, and even those that do are probably doing so more out of ill judged loyalty to having not tasted something else before.Robert Ryan was a terrific actor, often only mentioned when talk turns to famous pictures like The Wild Bunch & The Dirty Dozen, but it's with performances like here, or The Set-Up & Crossfire, that he really puts a depth and critical layers to his talent. Burl Ives is also great, his weary and scarred Bruhn is almost in empathy with Starrett and the townsfolk, so much so, we are never quite sure just how this picture will end. Tina Louise rounds out the leads, and apart from being an incredibly sexy woman, she does some great facial acting here, one sequence as the outlaws demand dances with the ladies is laden with a vile undercurrent, with Louise perfectly portraying the threat with acting gravitas. With astute directing and acting to match the almost sombre soaked story, Day Of The Outlaw comes highly recommended to fans of atmospheric enveloped cinema. 9/10

Wow Wow Wow!!! OK here is another Western that has dropped off the radar screen that is not only a very good Western but it is the source of quotes that show up in Corbucci's "The Great Silence", in "Firecreek" and it in a way it also references "Shane".I'll give a quick synopsis: Directed by Andre' de Toth it stars Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, and Tina Louise (yes that Tina Louise "The Movie Star" from Gilligan's Island). Anyway it begins with rancher Starrett (Ryan) & his foreman Dan (Persoff) bucking their horses through heavy snow as the titles roll across the screen. They stop outside of a small town at a wagon filled with rolls of barbed wire. Ryan is going to have a confrontation with farmer Hal Crane who has fenced off some choice land for a farmstead. Ryan is also in love with Crane's wife (Louise). After a period of time where we learn of all these various triangles the confrontation comes at the only saloon in town. Starrett faces off against Crane and three other farmers. Dan the foreman is drunk but Starrett tells him to roll an empty booze bottle down the bar and to draw when it falls off.Up to this point this film seems like a typical Western and you think you know where its going.Before the bottle reaches the end of the bar in through the saloon door bursts a deranged Bruhn (Ives) dressed as a Union Officer with great coat, hat, and belts, along with his crazed gang of loonies with guns drawn who have just made it through a mountain pass after robbing 18,000 dollars. The gang gathers all the townsfolk together as hostages. The gang want whiskey and women but Bruhn has taken a bullet in the chest, and he tells them no whiskey or women, until he gets that bullet out. The only Doc in the town is a vet and he digs out the bullet and gives Bruhn a large shot of morphine, but it makes Bruhn feel better temporarily though the Doc believes the shot is fatal.Starrett tells Bruhn that he knows another pass over the mountain to Cheyenne and gets them to leave the town, the next sequences are reminiscent of both the desert in GBU and the horses struggling through the snows in TGS. I won't tell anymore.Ryan is great in this, Ives is great (better than his Western turn in "The Big Country"), and Louise is good.It also stars David Nelson (Ricky's brother) as the kid in the gang.All in all this is coming out on DVD and I'll be picking it up for my collection. So now we have an interesting progression from The Ox Bow Incident, Day Of The Outlaw, The Great Silence, McCabe & Mrs Miller, Joe Kidd, to Keoma.