La madone du désir

Joel McCrea is just reassuring. He delivers a strong performance and you feel secure in his hands as you watch the movie. He's just reliable as the actor and the character - very consistent.

It does a good job showing the vigilante system during a rough period. There was much justice to be achieved, and much corruption. Killing was frequent.

It would be good to see a little more character development between McCrea and De Carlo, the romantic leads. I would have liked to have known more backstory about him and his past, as well as her's. How did she get so mixed up with someone like Cain, trying to take over the whole state.?

While I did believe her's and McCrea's connection, is she to be trusted for the longterm? Will she just change? How will she adjust to life at the mines, returning with McCrea to his work? She's had a very exciting life with the villain Cain, in beautiful homes, political campaigns, and surrounded by tons of ambition she admitted she liked. Will McCrea's character have enough ambition and drive for her? While it's great to see them together at the end, would Rick go back to just "having fun" and she go back to a more ambitious life? That would seem the case, but we should hope and believe that they found true love. And then therefore they changed.

There are some superb scenes..... an escape from being Shanghaied through water, boats and taverns; understanding how Vigilantes worked; and amazement at the sense of lawlessness and Killings that can occur in the wild west of the 1880s.

A compelling well thought story, clear, committed characters, twists and turns, strong resolution at the end. It also has a lot of great comedic events!

A very good movie, easy to watch, and very enjoyable.

This is a standard western with nice dialogues and good cast Joel McCrea as Rick. Elson and Yvonne De Carlo as Adelaide McCall. Story is nice although sets are too poorly done. If only it was filmed in colour and with a longer footage it would have easily been an A western instead of a B one. Docks sequence is almost a film of its own and some more footage could have been a nice addition to the movie, widely developing the story and making it more interesting adding more secondary aspects. Without it, it still remains a very decent and entertaining western.

This is sort of a desultory effort on the part of the star, Joel McCrea, a man who usually takes command of a scene merely by his presence, but here looks tired and like he would rather be on his own ranch instead of this talky, studio-bound production. The thing probably looked good on paper--and if you've got the knowing sultriness of Yvonne DeCarlo, things are set up for some hot romance, at the very least. But the script is a little unfocused, and there's a lot of chatter about the legal Vigilante group, and Sidney Blackmer attempts to show some menace by mouthing menacing lines--but for an action-packed Western or a thoughtful revisionist history lesson, this effort falls flat, and would be a loss leader except for two brilliant, lively scenes with character actor Florence Bates, sporting an eye patch and plenty of life as her own Shanghai Lil (helped along by a massive, silent Tor Johnson) and this viewer perked up and wondered how the rest never recovered; even the final confrontation lacks either suspense or tension, and just allows almost everybody to go home quietly.

Well that looks very like a western from Republic Pictures where the settings have nothing to do with splendid landscapes, Death Valley desert, Monument Valley jawdropping view, you won't see any Indians vs cavalry charge, no pursuit between posse and outlaws in the wilderness. No, this is a Barbary Coast western, taking mostly place indoors, as many Joseph Kane's western from the golden Republic Pictures era. It takes place in saloons, cabarets, government offices, speaking of rotten politicians, vigilantes and also some romance; it looks like a historical period topic of the conquest of the West. Well, why not? Joel Mc Crea is also in the cast, with the gorgeous Yvonne de Carlo and it is a Robert Parrish's film; one of the earliest of the director. Not the movie that I will remember the most from this director.

All dressed in white ,except in the last sequences,Yvonne De Carlo reigns over the movie.At the time,IMHO,only Ava Gardner surpassed her in beauty.So we can forgive Robert Parish if he often forgets his script which is rather desultory for a western and anyway is not much interesting in the first place .You can't make new things out of (already) old :a tycoon who wants to have the whole town under his thumb (Sidney Blackmer was a fine villain,remember Roman Castevet?),shameless politician,bribery and corruption... and a noble hero played by aging Joel McCrea who could be De Carlo's father.His first line when he sees the hanged man is full of humor.

Parrish made better westerns in the late fifties such as "saddle the wind" and " the wonderful country".His foray into sci-fi gave an (overlooked) memorable movie: "Journey to the far side of the sun" aka "doppelganger".