Straniero in patria

Director Sidney Salkow, about whose work I know very little, apparently cranked out quite a few B Westerns in his day, and this one is not exactly bad to look at, cinematographically, but it suffers from a poor script. On the plus side, it posts a gripping beginning but loses steam.

According to other reviewers, one desperado by the name of Jack McCall did exist in the real West, and apparently he was a bad seed, shooting people in the back, among other dastardly deeds!

Well, thank God for little mercies, Montgomery portrays an upstanding character who has inadvertently given away the position of his Union troop HQ to Confederate men in Union uniform, and he has to clear his name, and save his neck from the noose for high treason, by tracking down the man to whom he drew the map... on the back of an envelope addressed to Jack McCall. That tells you that Jack would never rate the sharpest knife in the drawer. Still, although he shoots other men facing them, he is not above jumping jail and enlisting the help of pretty Angela Stevens, known in saloon circles as thieving Rose.

That the reb who can clear his name survives years of secession war, postwar yank-reb enmity, and all the shootouts at Deadwood and all over the Far West, gives you a measure of this desperado's faith in favorable fate. More faith than I have in ever retrieving the 76' I invested in this BS fest. 5/10.

A good-looking Columbia Technicolor western with a Civil War backdrop that for some reason calls it's central antagonists Jack McCall and Wild Bill Hickok.

Aside from being set in the wrong decade, viewers who saw Porter Hall or Lon Chaney as McCall would be surprised to see this new handsome and upright incarnation by George Montgomery. Somebody involved in the production must have seen a photograph of Hickok, since Douglas Kennedy in the role has the only authentic Wild West moustache in the film.

Mixing the historical characters and locations with the myth has been done many times, and this fast-paced western is no different. Hickock is the villain of the piece, which itself is interesting, but there are unusual elements such as the leading lady, who isn't your usual run of the mill heroine who is there for the romantic scenes. She's up there with hero, the usual stalwart, George Montgomery, jumping off stagecoaches and getting involved in hold-up. A solid B western with an energetic shootout finale.

At least this one "paints" the indians as good guys although the villain (who dies in the first couple of minutes) is called "Wild Bill Hickok" which doesnt give this as much credit as it might appear, the rest of the villains are hardly frightening, including the relative who guns down the heros mother for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Montgomery is usually good viewing material and this plays to his strengths as the wronged man out for justice. It could have been better but its a 50s western so lacking in a fair amount of quality including the leading lady

This western is a pretty good time waster but not more; don't expect to learn the true life of Jack McCall, the assassin of Bill Hickock, who shot him in the back during a poker game.... Don't expect to see this here. Imagine the hero of a western killing one of his pals with a bullet in the neck. Especially for a western produced in the fifties, and - the worst of the worst - monitored by the awful Sam Katzman who did not care at all about authenticity and historical facts. But don't worry, it is a good western, agreeable to watch for western buffs. George Montgomery does his job, as usual. Don't avoid it. Forget the true Jack McCall's fate.