Copyright 1957 by Emirau Productions. Presented by Regal Films and released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: September 1957. U.K. release: January 1958. Australian release: around June 1958 at a guess (the actual date was not recorded). 6,940 feet. 77 minutes. Cut to 6,080 feet or 68 minutes in Australia.SYNOPSIS: The story revolves around a prim Boston schoolteacher, who goes West to teach in a small town, and a tough U.S. Cavalryman. Miss Gray is the teacher and Mr Morrow is the whisky-drinking soldier and they are thrown together when Miss Gray finds the little town completely wiped out by Apaches. Morrow had escaped the rampaging Indians because he was in jail drunk the night of the attack. How the two face hardships together and the efforts of Miss Gray to change Morrow's character provide the drama and romance in Eric Norden's screenplay.VIEWERS' GUIDE: The Australian censor says both versions are not suitable for children, the British Board says the full-length picture is okay for all.COMMENT: This somewhat unusual story (reminiscent of "The African Queen") is rather slow in the telling. (We are now stuck with the full version. As usual, all copies of the Australian print seem to have disappeared). It's none too well acted either. But what makes one hanker for the Oz cut is that the opening and closing sequences are quite suspenseful. A great deal of the picture was obviously lensed on location, and these sequences are reasonably exciting too. It's the rest of the movie (to which presumably the shears were taken down under) that's pretty hard slogging.

I thought it was a good movie. I've watched it several times and I keep noticing things I have not seen before. I know people just like Nora, played excellently by Coleen. Her facial expressions speak as loudly as the dialog. Jeff Morrow as Hack was also great casting. He knows that when he is condemned to die that it was useless to protest. Strorther Martin also added a bit of humor. I think it was courageous of Hollywood in 1957 so make a film with such an overtly religious theme. I doubt it would pass today, where everything stresses the insignigicence of life. Every time I see the movie, it becomes more and more real. A great movie.

I think there is a real problem here with what could have been a real 'sleeper' - a modest, but potentially good, film. That problem is the continuity. This movie has a thrown together look, with scenes that don't match, and with dialog that is sometimes spoken as if some climax is about to happen, but never does.I loved Jeff Morrow in this - he seems to be in a completely different (and better) picture than most of the rest of the cast. Colleen Gray is very pretty, but why is she all dolled up and coiffed in a 1950s beehive-type hairdo if she's out in the Wild West? In typical Hollywood style, no matter what befalls her, her lipstick never smears.The actors are called upon to suffer many hardships, and one minute they are walking in the desert, and the next they are walking next to a stream near some woods, and how they got there is never accounted for. I couldn't keep track of when they had a wagon and horse, and when they didn't. Events sometimes seem to unfold backwards.That isn't the actors fault. It's annoying, but it shouldn't detract from the performances, and the kernel of a good story that just never develops properly. It should lead the viewer to speculate about how this movie could have been a bit better. Maybe someone will remake it some day.

I would bet that most people missed that firearms which were used in the production of this picture. They were actually authentic to the period. The rifle used was a Henry, long made before the recent import of Italian copies. They had to get it out of a museum. The handguns, too, which would have been appropriate for this time were the open top conversions. This was a breath of fresh air from western shot of the 1860s', and early 1870's, where everyone has a new model Colt - 0001 manufactured in 1873 and a model 92 Winchester of like 1982 date. The truth is these weapons were not seen by the average Westerner until 10 years after they were introduced.Watch the movie again. It is unusual for a western love story, but it does have good story line, and AT LEAST IT IS ACCURATE. Undoubtedly due to Charles Marquis Warren who produced Gunsmoke - whose weaponry was not time period accurate. Matt Dillon carried a '92 Winchester. In the last season, Festus advises a deluded gold prospector that it was 1873. Festus Haggen would not have gotten one of the first in 1873! Every Western movie collection should have a copy.