Generally good primary feature (90 min.) western from Republic, shot in Trucolor, in mostly Colorado settings, which match the scripted Colorado setting.......The story begins with the return of Jet Cosgrave(John Derek) to Colton, CO: a town said to be run by his uncle: Major Linton Cosgrave(Jim Davis), who also apparently inherited the large Circle C Ranch from Jet's father. This is a true wild west town, that lacks a sheriff, because the last 4 were either killed or soon resigned. Jet has reason to believe that the will giving the Major the Circle C is a forgery, but cannot prove that. He is prepared to use violent means to take ownership of the Circle C, if the will cannot be proven to be a forgery. .....No explanation is given for Jet's disappearance from home 8 years ago, when his father died, nor information on what he has been doing in the meantime, nor explanation for why he decided to return just now. He has contracted for 9 gunslingers, headed by Dude Rankin(Bob Steele) to help him wrest the ranch from the Major. If Jet had known the reputation of Dude, he wouldn't have entrusted him with the leadership of this group, for Dude would prove a turncoat when the Major offered him more compensation, in the form of all the Polsen cattle they could rustle, which had recently reoccupied the Newmark Valley, which the Major considered part of his territory. The Newmark Valley was owned by a Mr. Newmark, who had disappeared some years ago, rumored to have been killed by the Major. The Major had pushed the Polsen family out of the valley a while ago. Jet, with his little army aimed to support a Polsen retake of the valley, to irritate the Major. However, when Dude switched sides, the Polsen cattle disappeared one night. Yet, the relationship between Jet and the Polsens is still uncertain. Papa Polsen, a bible freak, whipped his daughter Judy and disowned her just because Jet had grabbed and kissed her. Later, papa would apologize. Curly(Nacho Gulindo) was the only one of Dude's bunch who didn't defect to the enemy. He and Jet would be attacked by Prince(James Millican): the Major's foreman, plus other men, but the pair would kill all except Prince, who escaped, and would survive until the finale shootout. The pair then were accosted by the Polsens, who thought they had rustled their cattle. Several of the Polsens then accompanied Jet to try to retrieve their cattle, which had been stolen by Dude and bunch. They managed to kill nearly all these gunslingers after engineering a stampede. Dude fled on his horse, but Jet caught up and they arm wrestled while riding their horses, until Jet transferred to Dude's horse and pushed him off, apparently breaking his neck upon landing.......I like that the expected finale showdown between Jet and the Major was more complex than that. There were 5 participants in the shootout, that occurred on Main Street. Besides Jet and the Major, there was Prince, Boone Polsen(Slim Pickens) and crooked lawyer, Andrew Devlin(Taylor Holmes). Boone's main objective was to protect Jet from being killed. The Major had had recent fallings out with Prince and Devlin. Prince was eager to shoot both Jet and the Major. The major had just pistol whipped Devlin, and the latter was itching for revenge, which partly took the form of shouting that Jet's father's will was a forgery. See the film(available free at YouTube) to find out the sequence of shootings and final result.......I also liked that, instead of the formulistic good girl vs. bad girl conflict, the women involved: Alice Austin((Catherine McCleod), and Judy Polsen(Joan Evans) became friends, although one(Alice) was promised to wed the Major, while Judy fancied that Jet might ask her to marry him. Jet flirted with both, although he claimed to Judy that his flirtation with Alice was just to irritate the Major. Toward the end, both women were fed up with the war. Alice returned to Virginia, and Judy swore off further romancing with Jet. However, Judy would quickly change her attitude after the results of the finale showdown. ... ...Joan Evans and Catherine McLeod were both minor Hollywood players. Bob Steele was in the midst of his entertainment career. Once playing cowboy heroes, by the mid-40s, this diminutive(5' 5") scrappy man was relegated to character parts. In contrast, Jim Davis(the Major) was tall and well built. He played in many B westerns, but would receive the most fame from his role in the "Dallas" TV series.

...are the strengths of this muddled movie. And the soundtrack is reasonably good, too. The gunfight between the cattle rustlers and Jet and two of the Polson boys provides some dandy footage of cowboys ridin' and shootin' - not to mention the nice stunt work during the horseback tussle between Jet and Dude. Otherwise you should avoid it.The plot is a variation on the old Hatfields and McCoys feud. In this variant, however, one of the families is, itself, also split into two factions, and the pater familias of the other family buggy whips and banishes his daughter. Oddly, the Polsons even call themselves "hill people," reflecting a social milieu and jargon straight out of Appalachia and foreign to the Old West. The dialog is full of other, similar oddities and apparent anachronisms. Most of the characters are not well-defined or well-portrayed. Derek's character is especially unsympathetic, and his acting is pure wooden bravado without any nuance. When he tells Judy that he has just been making a play for Alice in order to embarrass his uncle, it comes as a totally incredible fabrication.As one commentator already noted, the anticipated gunfight between Jet and The Major is at first delayed by some pseudo-romantic exposition and then finished with other anti- climactic interruptions from a hired gun and a raving lawyer.Easily the best scene is apparently unscripted. The sight of Jet wheeling his horse into Dude, whacking him on the head with the horse's mouth is just about the only thing in this movie that seems genuine.

Republic, among other small studios in Hollywood was considered to be "Poverty Row", but they had a lot of talent working for them and "The Outcast" is one of their best productions. John Derek is Jet Cosgrave, a man who has been cheated out of his inheritance by his uncle Jim Davis, and lost his ranch. He contracts some gunfighters, whose leader is Bob Steele, in order to get it back. He flirts with Joan Evans, and she falls in love with him, but he is not sure about his feelings because he is also very impressed by his uncle's wife to be Catherine McLeod. Derek is excellent in his role, you don't really know up to the end if he is a good guy or not. William Witney made a lot of westerns and here is at his best, providing good action scenes, specially one where Derek jumps in the horse Steele is riding. Also there are many shootouts, some of them among cattle. It was great to see a young Slim Pickens, I remembered him very well as the old sheriff in Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. The color system used Trucolor is less expensive than Technicolor but the result is satisfactory. A film that did not age, great entertainment for those who like westerns

An early performance by Derek is the main attraction here, in this action packed tale of a young man, returning home to reclaim his ranch from a dastardly cattle baron. A good supporting cast, and a director that doesn't let the romance scenes get in the way, make this good fare.