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This film is a dark, brooding affair that has plenty of action and suspense and unfolds like an urban thriller. The story is lean and straightforward in its plot development of a range war, a staple of many westerns. Robert Mitchum is excellent as a drifting cowboy who gets caught in the middle of a feud between cattle ranchers and Barbara Bel Geddes matches him with her portrayal of a tough, feisty ranch girl. Robert Preston is also good as a rancher at odds with Tom Tully in their range war and there's a romantic angle that further complicates matters between the ranchers. The picture has crisp black and white camera work with noir shadings here and there and the music is also good. Of note in the film is a savage saloon brawl notable for its intensity, a brutal confrontation that ranks among the best in any western.

The novels of Luke Short paint a dark picture of the old west and Hollywood has made good use of them in making some really good westerns. Blood On The Moon is one of the best screen adaptations of one of his stories.

A quick cursory glance of the films made from his stories, Ramrod, Ambush, Station West, Vengeance Valley, Coroner Creek all of them are pretty dark, almost noir like stories set in the old west. Blood On The Moon has Robert Mitchum as a cowboy sent for by his friend Robert Preston to be part of scheme to grab the herd of cattle baron Tom Tully.

Not that Preston wants to do a little honest rustling, no his is a complicated plan involving getting the small ranchers and homesteaders riled up against Tully and getting a small range war started. He's even seduced one of Tully's daughters, Phyllis Thaxter, into betraying her father with promises of love and undying affection.

All of this is a bit too much for Mitchum for whom it is alluded was quite the hellraiser in earlier times, but now is just sick of it all. Tully's other daughter Barbara Bel Geddes is checking him out if he would only break with Preston.

When discussing this film in his book about Robert Mitchum, Lee Server makes the point that this film was far from what RKO planned for its star. Originally Mitchum was to be the white hat cowboy hero and successor as its B picture western star when Tim Holt went off to World War II. Little did they dream at RKO back in 1944 when Mitchum made his first with top billing, Nevada that he would be in this kind of western and do it so successfully.

Preston had finished with his contract at Paramount and was now freelancing. We now know him primarily for The Music Man, but in his early film days he played many a villain and this one is a study in malevolence. His superficial charm even carries menace with it.

Blood On The Moon enters that list of really top notch westerns that were originally authored by Luke Short. Try not to miss it when broadcast.

Class A western with a great Robert Mitchum performance. Unlike other tall men riding in the films of that time, Mitchum's character is not a snow white hero coming to save the day,but a darkened figure just two steps from being an outlaw. Robert Preston is the charming,jovial wolf in a manner similar to Arthur Kennedy in Bend In the River and Robert Ryan's performance in The Naked Spur. Their epic brawl in an out of the way dingy saloon is one of the best movie fights ranking with John Wayne's and Randolph Scott's The Spoilers duel. Proves that RKO was for a time home to some true innovations in movie story telling. Mitchum's character will only go so far and thanks to Barbara Bel Geddes non Cathy turn as a frontier woman who gradually replaces her Calamity Jane-ish dress to become, seemingly, more domesticated in the manners of both typical western heroines and the mainstream movie going publics view of women after WWII ( Rosie the Riveter transforming into June Cleaver). The fact is though she isn't a screamer nor a corner huddler but equally as strong as Moody Bob. Great Western.

The VHS video of this movie is a colorised version of the original thanks to Ted Turner. I refuse to watch it in colour, so I turn off the colour attributes of my TV and enjoy this movie in Black and White. Without the distraction of colour, one gets to enjoy a great story line, some wonderful performances by Robert Mitchum and Barbara Bel Geddes, and one of Robert Wise's directorial gems.

"Blood On the Moon" is one of those psychological westerns that emerged in the late 40s. Director Robert Wise and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca were both graduates of the Val Lewton film noire school of film making. Photographed in the shadowy dark black and white common to film noire, this picture turned out to be a better than average western.

The story has drifter Jim Garry (Robert Mitchum) riding into the middle of a dispute between cattleman Lufton (Tom Tully) and a group of homesteaders led by Tate Riling (Robert Preston). Riling has hatched a scheme unbeknownst to all together with Indian agent Pindalist (Frank Faylyn) to cheat Lufton out of his cattle and sell them to the army at a huge profit.

Garry is initially hired by Riling but soon sees how Riling is fooling the homesteaders and changes sides. Helping him make this decision is Lufton's daughter Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes) with whom he falls in love. Lufton's other daughter Carol (Phyllis Thaxter) meanwhile, is in love with Riling and betrays her father in the process. This all leads to the inevitable showdown at the end.

The photography is at times spectacular. The outdoor panoramas are breathtaking. However, it is somewhat marred by the cheap looking back projection shots (especially during the stampede sequence) and several "studio exteriors". There also is an excellent graphic fight scene involving Mitchum and Preston.

Mitchum is excellent as the brooding drifter with a conscience. Preston makes a despicable villain using all around him to attain his goals. Bel Geddes is good as the heroine but Thaxter takes the female honors as the gullible sister.

The rest of the cast is comprised of many familiar faces to western fans. Walter Brennan, Charles McGraw and Zon Murray play various homesteaders, Bud Osborne is Tully's trail foreman, Clifton Young and Tom Tyler play Preston's gunslingers and Richard Powers (aka Tom Keene) plays Tully's ranch foreman. If you watch closely you'll also see Harry Carey Jr., Iron Eyes Cody, Chris Pin-Martin and Hal Talliaferro (aka Wally Wales) in various smaller roles.

An good western; a good example of film noire.