Robert Forster (le prêteur sur caution dans JACKY BROWN)

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Outstanding Western.

Author: jack.hunter
8 March 2000

I found this to be a taut and exciting western. The film builds scene by scene to give the characters depth and to instill a sense of unknown dread. The music  soundtrack is superb in enhancing this sense of dread. The film puts to good use the concept that what cannot be seen is sometimes more frightening than  what can be seen. This concept is used for terrific effect with the psychotic Indian who is the stalker. Peck, Saint and Forster give outstanding performances and create realistic characters that we can care about. I believe this to be one of the finest westerns made and consider it be a very underappreciated film by critics.

Dark shadows and unseen danger

Author: NewEnglandPat from Virginia
2 April 2003

This western was released when Hollywood was about finished with the genre and the film went largely unnoticed. However, the movie is well photographed,  with good work by Gregory Peck, although Eva Marie Saint doesn't have much to do in the way of dialogue.Peck is a cavalry scout who quits the military to ranch in New Mexico and takes Saint and her half-breed son with him. Peck and Saint eventually turn up the romantic flames, but her boy is the object of a  deadly game of search and destroy. The lad's father, a murderous Apache warrior, wants to reclaim him, and perhaps kill the woman for deserting him. The film has plenty of suspense, creepy shadows, and eerie noises in the dark and at times seems more like a mystery than a western. Most of the action occurs at picture's end, and Fred Karlin's plaintive yet thrilling score builds up the tension as Peck and Salvaje edge towards their showdown.