Many movies deserve their obscurity, and none more than this formula Western. Direction, editing, writing-- all are uninspired, especially the occasional attempts at humor.
But the casting is atrocious. Desperately bad. They've all done good work in other roles, but in this
So clean-cut he almost squeaks, Keir Dullea is at no point convincing as a gambling, carousing womanizer.
Buddy Ebsen adds nothing new—not one glance, not one inflection-- to the tiresomely familiar role of the wise, slow-spoken, solitary old-timer.
In the eponymous role, Lois Nettleton stares soulfully toward Ebsen, Dullea, or the near distance. That's about it. Refreshing though it is to see a rather plain actress as a star, she finds no way to redeem—with humor, with spirit-- a woman who did not advertise for a husband (her boss did, played by a wry Marie Windsor), and who has almost no curiosity about her sight-unseen future mate and his home. In fact, objectively, her non-reaction is almost criminally irresponsible for a widow with a child.
If ever a film deserved to be in the background of some other activity (including sleep), it's this one.
But the casting is atrocious. Desperately bad. They've all done good work in other roles, but in this
So clean-cut he almost squeaks, Keir Dullea is at no point convincing as a gambling, carousing womanizer.
Buddy Ebsen adds nothing new—not one glance, not one inflection-- to the tiresomely familiar role of the wise, slow-spoken, solitary old-timer.
In the eponymous role, Lois Nettleton stares soulfully toward Ebsen, Dullea, or the near distance. That's about it. Refreshing though it is to see a rather plain actress as a star, she finds no way to redeem—with humor, with spirit-- a woman who did not advertise for a husband (her boss did, played by a wry Marie Windsor), and who has almost no curiosity about her sight-unseen future mate and his home. In fact, objectively, her non-reaction is almost criminally irresponsible for a widow with a child.
If ever a film deserved to be in the background of some other activity (including sleep), it's this one.