Le Shérif

Robert Middleton was a big brutish character actor... We have seen him in "The Silver Chalice" opposite Paul Newman, in "Friendly Persuasion" opposite Gary Cooper and in "Love Me Tender" with Elvis Presley...

In "The Proud Ones", he is at his best as the smooth-faced and smooth-spoken saloon owner who tries to have the lawman relieved of his job in order for the town to be wide open for wild business...

Middleton makes a considerable impression as Honest John Barrett, distinctive in his dishonesty and insincere manners... He is a thief ready for anything in order to control his lucrative interests, hiring cheap crooks like George Mathews (Dillon) who results a fraud according to his rules... We see him hiring dangerous gunmen willing to slay at any time like Chico (Rodolfo Acosta), who swears to the Marshal that he will kill him one day...

The film arouses profound suspicion that we are pushed to ask ourselves why a suspicious man like the Marshal had to shoot someone apparently unarmed from behind and can we justify his action?! ¿Is he, by any chance, a 'trigger-happy' murderer?

Jeffrey Hunter performs the mistaken cowboy involved in a sinful act to avenge his father's death with the wrong man... He never believes the rectitude of the Marshal who has a questionable past... Hunter accuses him of killing his father... 'It was either him or me', exclaims Ryan, 'but I never shot an unarmed man in my life.'

The climax of the film proves clearly and openly the whole truth to the tormented young man when he confronts Barrett in a showdown... The film wakes up our attention in its development when we discover that the proud Marshall is losing the power of seeing, a serious problem considered suicidal for a lawman who has powerful enemies...

With the lovely Virginia Mayo, the good jailer Brennan and the timid O'Connell, "The Proud Ones" is a solid Western, which remembers me a similar one, "The Lonely Man" with Jack Palance and Anthony Perkins...

My brother gave me this movie for Christmas because he knows I love Robert Ryan. There's just something about middle-aged character actors from the "golden age" of Hollywood that appeals to me; they're so cool and tough in ways that modern actors just can't match.

And this movie did not disappoint me. Ryan is great in it. He's macho and wise but also vulnerable. There were times when I was genuinely worried that the bad guys would get the upper hand over him.

In fact, quite a lot of this movie is suspenseful. It has many unexpected twists, not only in terms of "surprise" action but also character development. The constantly evolving relationship between Ryan and Jeffrey Hunter is a particular source of interest.

Even the mandatory love interest - Virginia Mayo - gets a lot of solid character development, though she does disappear from the movie for somewhat long periods of time.

Best scene? When Ryan rips into the cowardly town council. It's simply awesome.

Twentieth-Century-Fox was second only to Warner Bros. in rehashing the plot lines of its earlier films. "The Proud Ones" was made a mere four years after "Red Skies of Montana" - but the similarities between the films are only too obvious. The newer film even features the same star, Jeffrey Hunter. Not only that, "The Proud Ones" incorporates music cues that Sol Kaplan composed for "Red Skies of Montana." The story of the Cinemascope picture is bound to evoke deja vu: a young upstart seeks vengeance on an older man he believes is responsible for the death of his father. As the young man, Jeffrey Hunter deserves credit for lending credibility to a character whose actions are anything but credible. He did the same miraculous job in "Red Skies of Montana." If anyone thinks Hunter was just a pretty face, his subtle work in these films should prove he had much more to offer.

The rest of the cast in "The Proud Ones" is also excellent, helping to make this one heck of a movie. Unlike its also good predecessor, this "remake" is a western. The genre was obviously chosen to make it seem different from the original. But make no mistake, the two movies are essentially the same. Watch them both and enjoy!

Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo, and Jeffrey Hunter star in The Proud Ones a pretty good western from 20th Century Fox. It deals with a town marshal in a town that says it wants law and order, but is more interested in the profits that being wide open can bring.

The guy who is bringing in the profits and the lawlessness is saloon owner Robert Middleton and he's got history with Ryan from other towns. Who else has history is Hunter whose father Ryan killed a gunfight. What will happen is anyone's guess.

And if that isn't enough Ryan who sustained a wound to the scalp in a gunfight in Middleton's saloon is having recurring bouts of blindness since the incident. A lot like John Wayne was having bouts of paralysis after being wounded in El Dorado. Ryan also takes his time seeking medical attention just hoping the bad guys don't find out about it and do him in.

The Proud Ones is a nicely done adult western with a good cast giving life to characters you care about. Pay attention also to a nice performance by Walter Brennan as Ryan's deputy. With his character the producers took him and his fate from Destry Rides Again.

No western action fan could possibly complain about the shootout in a stable between Ryan, Hunter and assorted miscreants. That one was taken from High Noon. One of the best staged climaxes I've ever seen in a western.

And western fans should not miss The Proud Ones.

"The Proud Ones" has an extremely fine script by Edmund H. North, veteran screenwriter; its plot vastly improves on the novel on which it was ostensibly based. Robert D. Webb's direction is taut, featuring dense images, helping his actors to achieve top-notch performances. Every element of this production works, from the art direction by classy Lyle Wheeler to the memorable theme song, the music by Lionel Newman, the sets, and the costumes by Travilla. Among the outstanding performances are those given by Robert Middleton as "Honest John", villain of the piece, George Matthews as his 'segundo', Whitner Bissell and others as townsmen and henchmen; the film is far-above-average in acting. This well-remembered dramatic western stars Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo and young Jeffrey Hunter as a youth who is befriended by an aging marshal (who has been run out of a town poisoned by the lies of a delusive gambling joint owner). Hunter acquits himself well, as does Ryan, as the younger man tries to forgive the man he begins to admire, even after he has killed the boy's father in the line of duty. Virginia Mayo achieves considerable skill and charm as the woman who loves Ryan. The story's theme of honesty set against plausible pretense is unusual and difficult to carry off; the adjective "proud" has been forced to carry two contradictory meanings for years. Here it is used correctly in a secular sense to refer to men too honest to be bought off and too brave to be scared off, the sort of men who will fight when necessary, refusing to be intimidated. All-too-rare are films that celebrate objective minds, people who can be honestly wrong but act ethically when the chips are down. Whole genres are based on the betrayal of such commitments by people who argue they "can't help being what they are".As the beleaguered marshal in this story faces a town full of profiteers with the wrongness of their selling out to be opportunistic looters of unearned wealth during a boom, the film is raised to heights of thoughtfulness and of clearly-exampled good and bad behavior seldom found in the western genre. This is a very good and a very memorable achievement of cinema. Incidentally, it is physically beautiful to watch as well.