Watch A Man Alone For Free

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fresh and Exciting

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This movie is barely watchable. Several times I almost shut it off. Writing this review was the only thing that kept me watching. I was suckered into watching it because of a great cast, including Ray Milland, Raymond Burr, Ward Bond and Lee Van Cleef. Not bad, right? Wrong. Also my Comcast on screen guide gave it three stars out of four, when it should have had just one star.The biggest problem is the implausibility of most of the plot. Through a series of preposterous coincidences, Wes Steele, a notorious gunfighter, finds himself falsely accused of the murder of six people in a small town.Even more preposterously, he is harbored in the town by the Sheriff's daughter, who proceeds to fall in love with him in less than 24 hours, despite the fact that he is at least 30 years older than her and provides no evidence that he is not responsible for the killings.A half hour into the movie it would have been clear to a five year old exactly how all the conflicts were going to be resolved. This resulted in the movie having zero dramatic tension.Wes, although a notorious gunfighter, is a copycat of Gregory Peck's character in "The Gunfighter", which was released five years before this movie. Implausibly, he's a "good guy" who's never killed anyone except in self defense, is running away from his reputation blah blah blah. Like Peck's Ringo Kid, he is engaged in massive self pity party about how tough his life is because of his "name".Of course, for no apparent reason he announces almost immediately to the girl that he is none other than the famous gunfighter, Wes Steele. Later in the movie, he continues to share this information with just about anyone else who will listen It would have been very easy and consistent with the presentation of his character to keep that information to himself, but then that would make sense and be out of step with the movie, which makes no sense.And exactly how in 1880's Arizona did people keep their shirts so perfectly pressed? Especially after they've wandered for days through the desert with only a canteen and a gun on them? Amazing.The movie also lacks several things I like to see in a Western, like outdoor locations. This was shot almost 100 pct in Burbank. In the opening scene, Milland almost knocks over one of the fake cacti on the set. Hilarious.There are no Indians, except a crude reference to possible murdering Apaches on the loose. There are a couple of Mexican characters, who are treated with no respect or humanity.I'd say the most interesting thing about this movie was the presence of Alan Hale, honing his acting skills in preparation for his future as the Skipper in Gilligan's Island.Also, it was interesting to note that both Hale and Mary Murphy had later guest appearances on Burr's TV show "Ironside" and on Bond's TV show "Wagon Train". I guess those guys took care of their own.It was also interesting that Alan Hale played one of the three avenging brothers in "The Gunfighter", a film in which Gregory Peck played an identical character to Wes Steele of "A Man Alone".

Three years before making his directorial debut with this Ray Milland had starred in The Thief which was notable for a complete absence of dialogue (though there were FX) and clearly something had rubbed off because the entire first reel of A Man Alone lacks dialogue of any kind and even when it comes it is throwaway stuff during a poker game in the saloon. Milland had given the best years of his active life to Paramount but had to go to Poverty Row for a chance to direct, in fact this was one of the last films turned out by Republic. Though Milland is the only major star on offer he does feature familiar faces like Ward Bond, Alan Hale Jnr,Lee Van Cleef and Raymond Burr playing what feels like the one millionth crooked banker in Westerns. Milland in fact employs an interesting mixture of cliché and innovation; he begins with the time-honored sequence of a lone rider gradually coming closer. The rider is Milland himself who, when his horse goes lame on him is obliged to shoot it and continue on foot. Director Milland doles out information with an eye-dropper; initially he could be anyone, good, bad or indifferent, but when he has to continue on foot he discards his saddle but not before removing two large wads of serious folding money planting the suspicion that he may be a bank robber. Eventually he comes across a deserted stage coach surrounded by stiffs. He borrows one of the team and makes for the nearest town where trigger-happy deputy Alan Hale Jnr draws on him and is wounded for his pains. This is where it tends to part company with reality. On the run from a mob Milland steps into the local bank - whose back door is conveniently open even though it is night, well past opening house and especially careless inasmuch as banker Raymond Burr is discussing how he engineered the stagecoach robbery via hired hand Lee Van Cleef, who more or less admits responsibility for the carnage. Burr's partner finds this hard to stomach so Burr puts one in his back unaware that he will be able to blame this on Milland. Despite minor script flaws like this Milland turned out a fairly good first feature.

The first 30 minutes of this film are very gritty, with Wes Steele in trouble from the start, discovering the stage with its murdered passengers and then becoming a fugitive trapped in a town. Then the film tapers off a bit, and it's a little hard to accept that Nadine comes to trust him so quickly.I'm conscious of my own pedantry, but have to note that Milland here joins Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott in playing a middle-aged Westerner who has little trouble in attracting a much younger woman - he was 50 when the film was released. And if being the notorious Wes Steele is such a handicap, why not assume a false name - it would have been difficult for the authorities to disprove a false identity. (Richard Egan in "Tension at Table Rock" was another notorious Wes - Tancred in this case and in the ballad that accompanied the film - who diligently signed his real name in hotel registers, only for the clerk to react in distaste.) The "Time Out" review describes Milland's direction as "sometimes a little too ponderously deliberate, but - like the performances - eminently watchable", and I agree with this. The plot made a pleasant change from the run-of-the-mill Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s.

A Man Alone starred Ray Milland as a gunfighter who seeks refuge in the cellar of the Sheriff's house. He has come across a stage robbery, while stranded in the desert. He takes one of the horses, goes to town to report the incident, but becomes the accused instead. He runs, hides in the bank, and overhears the gang talking over the robbery. The banker is shot in the back, and again Wes (Milland) is the fall guy. He stumbles into the sheriffs cellar in a sand storm, and the next morning, trying to leave is confronted by the sheriffs daughter, Nadine. He can't leave and they become unwilling companions. The sheriff (Ward Bond) is sick with Yellow Fever. She is exhausted, and he finds her asleep, puts her to bed, and in the morning their whole relationship changes. The sheriff is awake and he must go. She wants him to stay, they embrace and from then on the situation changes. He confronts Raymond Burr, the real killer, they fight and he is wounded. He stumbles back to the house where is passes out. Nadine is in love with him, and gets the doctor to help him. The sheriff finds him there and is livid, saying that he has compromised their home. Days pass and in the mean time the sheriff must decide to let him go. The town, thinking that Wes is the murderer go after the sheriff, but Wes returns to save the day. This is a great western with stellar performances under the direction of Ray Milland. Sort of ahead of its time in the method venue. The color photography is a plus.