An ageing sheriff attempts to run a crooked gambling syndicate out of town but has to contend with public mistrust given his reputation as 'trigger happy' in this Old West drama starring Robert Ryan. While he looks old enough to be the father of love interest Virginia Mayo, Ryan delivers a very human performance here as he laments the fact that his trigger happy reputation is based only on his word against others and as he states confidently that his "ambition is to be oldest living marshal west of Kansas City". The film features some dialogue that simply simmers with wit too; early on, Ryan is told that "pride can kill a man faster than a bullet", to which he quickly responds "so can overconfidence". The conclusion of the movie feels a bit too neat and tidy for credibility, but this is a pretty solid movie overall with Mayo's underwritten, thankless role probably the biggest detractor; it is either that, or the repetitive whistling music at key dramatic parts. When the film focuses on Ryan though and the trust he tries to build with Jeffrey Hunter, it is top tier stuff with the highlight of the film being an incredibly intense scene in which they practise shooting. Apparently, this was one of Akira Kurosawa's favourite movies. It seems an unusual choice, but with such excellent character drama, it is certainly more notable than the average western out there.

The Proud Ones is directed by Robert D. Webb and adapted to screenplay by Edmund H. North and Joseph Petracca from the Verne Athanas novel. It stars Robert Ryan, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Mayo, Robert Middleton, Walter Brennan, Arthur O'Connell, Ken Clark and Rodolfo Acosta. A De Luxe Color/Cinemascope production, with music by Lionel Newman and cinematography by Lucien Ballard. Flat Rock, Kansas, and the coming of the railroad and the trail herds has the town eagerly planning for prosperity. Cass Silver (Ryan), the no nonsense marshal of Flat Rock is expecting trouble, and he gets it… Splendidly mounted Oater that features a strong cast and colourful Scope photography by one of the masters of his craft. The story is hardly breaking new ground, the narrative clearly harks to more well known genre pieces of the 50s, though the oedipal theme that runs throughout adds an extra dimension. In trying to steer the pic away from formulaic over drive, the makers insert an affliction on our tough old boy marshal, namely he is suffering bouts of dizziness and blindness, which naturally couldn't have arrived at a more inopportune moment since Cass Silver has pretty much got to tackle the town's bad eggs on his own. Or has he? Enter Hunter's angry young man, gunning for Cass because he killed his outlaw father, allegedly in cold blood. And this is where we get oedipal from, and it adds some meat to the formula skeleton. This is very good Western film making, plenty of machismo fuelled set-pieces, plenty of brooding and yearning, and it all builds to a ripper of a climax. There's few surprises in store, and Mayo and Brennan are sadly wasted, but this deserves to be better known and more importantly, it deserves to be thought of better than merely being a High Noon clone. Besides which, Robert Ryan is ace, no matter his age he always delivers grace and grizzle in equal measure. 7.5/10

This is the best of three efforts by director Webb I watched in quick succession; like WHITE FEATHER (1955), it's a Western that – as far as I'm aware – has never been shown on Italian TV (which is how I first became familiar with a good many vintage Hollywood title).The film revolves around one of the most popular Western themes – the tough Marshall (in this case, a typically impressive Robert Ryan) taming a lawless town. A couple of unusual twists which heighten the tension considerably concern the fact that the young man (Jeffrey Hunter) he appoints as his deputy – and on whom he comes to depend due to his gradual blindness – bears him a personal grudge; on the other hand, Ryan has his own score to settle with the apparently omnipotent boss (Robert Middleton). For the record, this was the first of three films in which Ryan and Hunter would appear together: the second was the Biblical epic KING OF KINGS (1961), in which the former portrayed John The Baptist and the latter (controversially) Jesus Christ, and the last the historical Western CUSTER OF THE WEST (1967), where both only had supporting roles.As ever, the hero's woman (Virginia Mayo) becomes embroiled in the violent proceedings – while the eminent members in town prefer to stand aside; then again, not much help is forthcoming from Ryan's own associates either: in a role he'd perfect in RIO BRAVO (1959), Walter Brennan is the cantankerous jailer who all he seems to do is read the newspaper – whereas Arthur O'Connell brings up his wife's imminent motherhood to be excused from the inevitable showdown. The numerous shoot-outs (in a saloon, on the street at night and an all-out gunfight in a barn) denote obvious highlights; however, also notable is a town-council sequence which ends with Ryan's hardboiled comment to his peers: "If I were you, I couldn't look into a mirror without vomiting!" The evocative score by Lionel Newman includes a whistling motif which effectively comes in at particularly revealing moments in the narrative. In the long run, the film proves an underrated entry to emerge from the genre during its most prolific and mature era.

Twentieth-Century-Fox was second only to Warner Bros. in rehashing the plot lines of its earlier films. "The Proud Ones" was made a mere four years after "Red Skies of Montana" - but the similarities between the films are only too obvious. The newer film even features the same star, Jeffrey Hunter. Not only that, "The Proud Ones" incorporates music cues that Sol Kaplan composed for "Red Skies of Montana." The story of the Cinemascope picture is bound to evoke deja vu: a young upstart seeks vengeance on an older man he believes is responsible for the death of his father. As the young man, Jeffrey Hunter deserves credit for lending credibility to a character whose actions are anything but credible. He did the same miraculous job in "Red Skies of Montana." If anyone thinks Hunter was just a pretty face, his subtle work in these films should prove he had much more to offer.The rest of the cast in "The Proud Ones" is also excellent, helping to make this one heck of a movie. Unlike its also good predecessor, this "remake" is a western. The genre was obviously chosen to make it seem different from the original. But make no mistake, the two movies are essentially the same. Watch them both and enjoy!