Though made for television (it was broadcast on NBC on October 31, 1967), this western boasts a notable cast headed by Henry Fonda and expert direction from Don Siegel (the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Dirty Harry, among many others).
Fonda plays Ben Chamberlain, a bedraggled drunk who arrives in a boxcar at the desolate railway town of Banner looking for a woman named Alma Britton (Madlyn Rhue), but his inquiries are met with hostility. After Ben finds her dead, lawman Vince McKay (Michael Parks), whom railroad mogul Gorman (Lloyd Bochner) has left in charge, accuses him of her murder.
When Ben flees into the desert, in order to give his bored, bickering crew of deputies—played, among others, by Dan Duryea, Sal Mineo, Tom Reese, and Zalman King—something to do, McKay offers the hunted man a head start. The pursuit grows complicated, however, when Chamberlain gets unexpected assistance, first from a surprisingly helpful cowpoke (Bernie Hamilton) and then from widowed rancher Valverda Johnson (Anne Baxter), with whom he quickly develops a romantic attachment. The culmination predictably comes in a showdown back in Banner, made more fraught by the fact that Valverda’s son Matt (Michael Burns) has become an eager member of McKay’s posse, putting him at odds with his mother.
The truth about Alma’s death is revealed in the course of the gunplay, but the real drama comes from the conflict between McKay and his aging mentor Hotchkiss, played by Duryea, who has come to believe that his once-principled protégé has grown cynical and too inclined to kill unnecessarily. Fonda, Baxter and the rest of the cast—including veteran Walter Burke as the town shopkeeper—are all in excellent form, but Parks, in one of his best roles, and Duryea, in one of his last, is exceptional, bringing remarkable nuance and depth to characters that might easily have been one-note.
The film suffers a bit from its television roots, not only in the script’s sidestepping of some psychological issues but in its modest production values, but Siegel and cinematographer Russell Harlan (whose credits included Witness for the Prosecution, Rio Bravo, and To Kill a Mockingbird) use the locations skillfully and give the cast the opportunity to shine.
This is a tough, taut example of 1960s telefilm at its best. Extras include eight trailers, including the broadcast advertisement for this film, and an audio commentary by film historian and screenwriter Gary Gerani. Recommended, especially to fans of Fonda and Duryea, for whom this will be a rare treat.