A rustler about to be lynched for the murder of a rancher's son is saved by a US Marshall intent on taking him to trial. The father determines to exact justice and pursues them across the desert.This western has a great cast with Marshall Len Merrick played by Kirk Douglas, Timothy 'Pop' Keith (the rustler) portrayed by Walter Brennan and Virginia Mayo as his daughter, Ann. Also along for the ride are Ray Teal and John Agar as trusted deputies, and Morris Ankrum as the rancher. It's a fairly stilted affair with average performances but the story still rattles on apace and the scenery is magnificent. All in all, a perfectly watchable diversion.The question is, did Pop really kill the rancher's son. You'll reach your conclusion well before the end of the film but still enjoy watching the predictable story develop.

The 1950's brought us a lot of great Westerns - The Naked Spur, High Noon, Man of the West, 3:10 to Yuma, Shane, Vera Cruz and others. Unfortunately this is not one of them despite the hand of the Great Director Raoul Walsh. No it is not bad but overall this is a routine western - straightforward story - Old guy wrongly accused of murder (Walter Brennan), taken by Marshall (Kirk Douglas) for trial, chased by rich rancher (Morris Ankrum) whose son was killed, Marshall has hots for old guy's daughter (Virginia Mayo) despite all the tension between them. It does have its moments and a good cast despite all the western clichés and Kirk Douglas's clenched teeth. Enjoyable though and wrapped up in a tidy 88 minutes.

It's one of those "journey" stories in which a group with mixed motives must cross dangerous territory to reach their goal. In this case, the territory is a desert, as it was in so many other Westerns -- "They Came to Cordura," "Three Godfathers", and the rest.Nice cast, too, with performers that are either reasonably good, like Kirk Douglas in the lead role of a US Marshall who must get his prisoner, Walter Brennan, to San Loma without his being lynched, or else merely seasoned, like Roy Teal, or at least no worse than we've come to expect of them, like Virginia Mayo and John Agar.The script wastes little time on meanders. It's tightly drawn, even though the script lacks the folk poetry of the Westerns that Burt Kennedy wrote for Budd Boettiger. That is, the dialog is functional but nobody says anything like, "Ma'am, if you was my woman I'd have come for you even if I'd of died in the doin' of it." The location shooting is quite good. The desert is convincingly captured, even though the movie really deserves color. The director, Raoul Walsh, knows how to shoot a movie and maintain pace and complexity. What a craftsman! In outlining the more admirable features of the film, I've thrown in a lot of qualifications, and for a reason. Overall, it resembles a story left over from some B Western of the 1930s, starring John Wayne or Wild Bill Elliot or Bob Steele. They had names like "The Star Packer" and "Melody Ranch" and "Shadows on the Sage." Everyone did his job but brought nothing extra to the production. It begins with the generic Western title: "Along the Great Divide." The great divide has nothing to do with it. The story moves along efficiently and without much soul.Douglas is fine, Brennan is okay, and Jim Anderson, the real villain, is as abrasive on film as he was in real life. He was the redneck who spit on Gregory Peck's lawyer in "To Kill a Mockingbird." He may have enjoyed the chance because he and Peck hated each other. Virginia Mayo as Brennan's dusty daughter is surprisingly okay, despite falling deeply in love with Douglas after a two-minute chat behind the joshua trees. Douglas gets to fix the self-inflicted wound on her trim calf. Lucky Kirk.

The Marshall (Kirk Douglas) and his deputies come upon a lynching about to occur so they naturally stop it. However, the powerful rancher about to the hanging vows that the man MUST die or else. Well, despite being there being overwhelming odds against them, they vow to take the accused killer and cattle rustler to town to be tried in a court of law. Along the way, the accused (Walter Brennan) convinces the group to stop by his home overnight--a major hole in the plot, as I can't see any sane lawman willing to take such an unnecessary risk. Naturally, the guy's daughter (Virginia Mayo) tries to help him escape! Despite all this, eventually Douglas is able to get the man to town for the trial--though they barely make it. However, something doesn't feel right about the case. Brennan readily admits to the theft but there's an obvious (way too obvious if you ask me) alternate suspect in the killing.This is a decent western but there are a few plot points that didn't seem to work well. I already mentioned the stopping off at Brennan's house portion but there also was a back story about the death of Douglas' father that seemed forced and unnecessary--as did the budding romance between Douglas and Mayo which seemed more clichéd than anything else. Not a bad movie but not one that I'd heartily recommend--mostly because the real killer is way, way too obvious.