I'm going to make no apologies for this: I am an Orson Welles fiend. I've seen everything he's directed, and have moved onto chasing down all the little cameos he did to finance his other pictures. I can't explain it, its just a thing. So bear that in mind when you read the following. For people who sit through all kinds of trash hoping to catch a glimpse of Orson Welles, this movie is a 8/10. Its one of the better ones. It has value. He is a main role, a sort of villain type. He is in more than a few scenes. Feels like half of the picture. The value here is that the movie is a fun schlocky noir movie, and that Orson appears with little makeup, just one of his noses by the look of it. Highly recommended for my kind of people.Now, for people who don't care about Orson Welles, this movie is also not bad. Its a pretty fun B-movie. I'd say only a 5/10 though. For balance, therefore...7/10.

Seems like shapely actress Colleen Miller appears outside her regular clothes about as often as in them, as in nightgown and underwear. But then, the movie posters had to have something provocative to promote.The premise itself has been around the block more than a few times—a reluctant lawman stands up to local tyrant despite opposition from frightened townspeople. Still, the movie works pretty well up to two points where the screenplay buckles—the rope dragging and the town turn-around. Neither of these is very believable within context. But then, the film is on a budget and does have to motivate a wrap-up.I gather producer Zugsmith helped finance Welles' next feature Touch of Evil (1957) in return for appearing here. The part is relatively small, and Welles underplays without the needed malevolence. Seems almost like he's walking through. Nonetheless, it's a solid cast of supporting players, familiar faces from thuggish Leo Gordon to Dragnet's Ben Alexander taking a break from the LAPD. The support works well to provide more color than usual. Rather sad to see that earnest actor Jeff Chandler again, knowing he died unnecessarily at 42 as result of medical malpractice (a foreign object left inside following an operation, as I recall). He's quite good here as the conflicted sheriff struggling to do his duty. All in all, it's a decent enough programmer, better than Zugsmith's usual quickie fare, thanks in large part (I expect) to under-rated director Jack Arnold.

Not a bad B Western set in the modern little town of Spur Branch (or whatever it is). Jeff Chandler is the sheriff but the town is ruled by Mister Big -- Orson Welles, growing ever bigger -- from his ranch, The Golden Empire. Welles has a few hundred braceros working for him. He himself is surrounded by goons of varying degrees of terpitude. There is no question of who makes the rules in Larkspur. It isn't Chandler, sitting with his feet on his desk.Welles has a comely daughter, Colleen Miller. She doesn't have much of a part to play in the movie, except that she sets the plot in motion by dating one of the Mexican laborers and infuriating her father, who has the young man beaten to death. The director, Jack Arnold, who made some fine science fiction movies, is gracious enough at least to give us a glimpse of Colleen Miller in her lingerie. She looks better than a giant tarantula although her acting is at about the same level.Anyway, an old Mexican shuffles into Sheriff Chandler's office with a tale of having seen Miller's boyfriend get his skull split by an axe handle (in a particularly vivid piece of writing). Chandler treats him as a nuisance. There may be something to the story but why stir things up? With the exception of Mount Spur's Italian barber, Santoro, the rest of the town concurs. These Beaners can never be trusted.But when the old man who reported the incident ALSO turns up dead, Chandler becomes a bit more animated. What in the world is going on in Spurmont? Some shenanigans out at the ranch? Chandler is visited by the town leaders who urge him to ignore the whole mess. If he alienates The Golden Empire, Welles will just take his business elsewhere and Spurville will suffer a decline in economic advantages.Faced with insults from Welles, threats from his henchmen, the disapprobation of the public, and slavering growls from an unfriendly German shepherd, does Chandler relent? Are you kidding? This kind of movie can end in only one of two ways: the sheriff takes on the fight alone and wins ("High Noon") or he's rendered helpless by the miscreants and the town finally finds its spiritus and bands together to rescue him. One of these solutions applies here.It's not badly done. By that, I mean that it deals with racism, of course, but it doesn't hit us over the head with it. There is only one preachy speech by Chandler and it's mercifully brief. But the movie has its weaknesses too. The general level of the performances is poor. The townsmen have little motive for their determined change of heart at the end. Welles loves his daughter but, that aside, the evil guys are pure evil, as in a child's cartoon.I believe the plot itself is recycled. Maybe it's been recycled several times before. Mister Big on his ranch on the outskirts of Spur Valley calling the shots until one of the citizens gets all noble. The racial overtones aren't all that common, although if anyone wants to see a better-done example, he might check out "Bad Day at Black Rock."

This is a good "pre-civil rights movement" western, continuing in the tradition of "High Noon" and "Bad Day at Black Rock". Colleen Miller plays Orson Welles daughter, (not his wife as someone posted previously.) Jeff Chandler (who died way too young at 42) is the sheriff and conscience in the film and he does a good job in this role. The fact that the cowboys have beaten a defenseless Chincano to death is something that most citizens in the town would rather forget.Chandler's character and his family are harassed by the murderous and prejudiced cowboys who work for Welles.The climax of this film is hard to watch even today. The director was Jack Arnold,who was great at expressing his opinions in low-budget films,such as "It Came from Outer Space" and "The Tattered Dress."