This is pretty much a by-the-numbers Western with stagecoach agent Mike Ryan (Joel McCrea) keeping his identity under wraps until he gains confidence in Sheriff Tom Jomes (Addison Richards) being on the up and up. Jones has a daughter (Joan Weldon) that immediately catches Ryan's eye, but that romance doesn't play out until the very end of the story. Ryan's investigation has him catching up with frustrated piano player and stagecoach robber Velvet Clark (Mark Stevens), after a stable encounter in which the hooded bad guy tries to take Mike out in a spirited tussle. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd object to a nickname like Velvet if I was a gambler in the Old West; it just doesn't set the right tone to my mind. With minor distractions by a bunch of rowdies called the Lazy Heart Gang, Ryan closes in on Velvet's attempt to escape during an extended chase through mountain country, but the final showdown seems rather anti-climactic, as Ryan gets the drop on Clark and takes him out with no fanfare. The closing scene has Ryan in a clinch with Molly Jones after she's had the entire afternoon to think it over.
Review of Gunsight Ridge
Gunsight Ridge
(1957)
"It's hard to know right from wrong, but when you're sure, you do what you have to."
11 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers