Director Andrew V. McLaglen takes an original story by western writer Ric Hardman and set out to mix history with southwestern lore. A young girl and her mother (Juliet Mills and Maureen O'Hara), travel from England to Texas with their prize Hereford Bull to Crossbreed a new species. Along the way they meet Sam Burnett (James Stewart) who plans to deceive them. The Bull is suppose to go to Alexander Bowen (Brian Keith) who has other plans. To help his scheme is Deke Simons (Jack Elam) and Jeff Harter (Ben Johnson). The movie is set in the old west and there is plenty of spacious open range for all things western. Such things as horses, Cowboys, fistfights, rough-an-tumble mayhem, free-for-all, wild gun play, rugged frontier life and free-range Long-horn Cattle. Together, the entire film is a tribute to a good yarn and should stand up well as a good movie for the entire family. Easily recommended to any seeking a movie of frontier life in the early west. ****

This isn't a bad film. But, considering that it starred Jimmy Stewart and Maureen O'Hara, I really expected so much more! Instead of the exciting and well-acted film I hoped to see, it was a dull script with few good surprises. In fact, if it hadn't been for the stars, I would have given the film a 4.Jimmy Stewart is a man who has been hired by Maureen and her daughter to help transport her prize stud bull out west to sell. En route to America, Maureen's husband apparently died. We don't see this but are told by the characters that this occurred. Oddly, Ms. O'Hara seems pretty willing to let Brian Keith (in a very broad portrayal) and later, Stewart to woo her. So much for feeling a great loss! Anyway, the film just slowly slogs along until it gets to a very expected conclusion. This could have been so much better, believe me.

I enjoyed the movie "The Rare Breed" despite the fact that it was a tad silly at times. I don't think that it was an attempt to make an extremely powerful, gut wrenching story, but rather some great actors doing a film that mixed some serious moments with a lot of fun. Instead of knocking Mr. Stewart for doing this movie I would just as soon sit back and have a good time watching this "modern" western. I must agree however with Leonard Maltin who says that the only thing wrong with it was too much studio footage. It really would have helped the credibility factor to go out more to the open range. As a major Jimmy Stewart fan, I acknowledge that this was not his best, but who cares!

This is dire. Without James Stewart, this flabby, far-too-long cattle yarn would be unwatchable. As it is, it's not far off. Stewart made a few of these 'modern' westerns for Universal in the mid 60's ("Shenandoah" springs to mind) and they are consistently shallow and unrealistic. Two English beauties, Martha and her daughter Hilary, travel out to the American West in 1884 to sell their prize hornless bull. They meet up with Bulldog Burnett, a trusty cowpoke, who helps them move their bull to Texas. Various adventures befall them along the way. The film wants to be a comedy action movie, but fails in both departments. The script is very weak and the improbabilities of the story are just too much to swallow. Stewart plays Burnett, and manages to inject a bit of human interest into even this poorly-drawn character who has to utter some dreadful lines. Martha is played by Maureen O'Hara. She reacts beautifully and wordlessly when Bowen proposes marriage, but other than that she has nothing to do in the whole interminable film except look pretty and seem aloof. Juliet Mills is passable as the female ingenue Hilary, as is her male counterpart (Jamie, played by Don Galloway), but their characters are too flimsy to merit further attention. Jack Elam plays the bad guy Simons, as ludicrous a villain as exists anywhere on celluloid. And now for the daffy parts. Burnett and the English ladies have camped for the night on the trail, but their camp is as bright as day, thanks to the Universal 'look'. Somebody takes a shot at Burnett, the bullet striking the coffee pot in his hand, but everyone decides to ignore it and turn in for the night! The notion that these two fragrant English roses would sleep on dirt is preposterous, but worse is to follow. The next morning, they are wearing crisp new outfits, both featuring dazzling white blouses - even though they have no luggage with them! Simons shoots his partner dead for no reason whatsoever - even though he is within his victims' earshot and risks ruining his own plan. When Simons stampedes Jamie's herd, nobody notices him firing his gun or riding in among the cattle, waving a yellow scarf. When he robs the travellers, the obvious thing for him to do is to kill them, but he lets them go free. Before and after the dry gulch sequence, the group moves through lush pasture land. The dry gulch simply doesn't fit with the terrain (which is probably meant to be Oklahoma Territory). Brian Keith as Alexander Bowen parades the most awful Scottish accent since Brig O'Doon - and because he's Scottish, he plays the bagpipes, of course. The scenes in the Bowen ranch yard and the blizzard sequence are very obviously filmed in a studio. Verdict - Too long, too shallow ... and too bad they decided to film it at all.