Un homme traqué

The first 30 minutes of this film are very gritty, with Wes Steele in trouble from the start, discovering the stage with its murdered passengers and then becoming a fugitive trapped in a town. Then the film tapers off a bit, and it's a little hard to accept that Nadine comes to trust him so quickly.

I'm conscious of my own pedantry, but have to note that Milland here joins Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott in playing a middle-aged Westerner who has little trouble in attracting a much younger woman - he was 50 when the film was released. And if being the notorious Wes Steele is such a handicap, why not assume a false name - it would have been difficult for the authorities to disprove a false identity. (Richard Egan in "Tension at Table Rock" was another notorious Wes - Tancred in this case and in the ballad that accompanied the film - who diligently signed his real name in hotel registers, only for the clerk to react in distaste.) The "Time Out" review describes Milland's direction as "sometimes a little too ponderously deliberate, but - like the performances - eminently watchable", and I agree with this. The plot made a pleasant change from the run-of-the-mill Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s.

Ray Milland makes use of his silent film experience to play the first half of this movie virtually without speaking. He plays the title character, a lonely man in ever sense as he finds a group of slain stagecoach passengers, is forced to kill the sheriff (Hale, Jr.), sees another man shot before his eyes, and ends up a man wanted for all the killings.

A good commentary on human weakness in the "psychological" tradition, but it gets to talky and melodramatic in the second half.

Good supporting cast headed by Burr, Murphy, and Bond hold up well to Milland's straightforward playing and direction.

A stark, fairly convincing western.

Just a brief correction on the above comments: A Man Alone was *not* Milland's only directoral experience. He also directed Lisbon (also starred and produced), The Safecracker (U.K., also starred), Panic in the Year Zero! (also starred) and Hostile Witness (U.K., also starred). Although solid pictures, none of these films made a strong impact on Milland's career.

After Winning the Oscar for "Best Actor" for the Cutting Edge Film about Alcoholism, "The Lost Weekend" (1945), Ray Milland went on to have a Long and Varied Career in Film and Television.

This B-Western made at "Republic" Studios (one of their last) was His first Try at Directing. He went on to Direct 3 other Movies, the Best is "Panic in the Year Zero" (1962), about the Aftermath of a Nuclear War.

This is an Offbeat Western. The First 30 Minutes has Milland's Gunslinger on the Run in the Desert and there is No Dialog. This First Act Sets Up the Bleak Tone of the Film as there is much Suffering and Brutal Displays of the Harsh Desert and a Stage Coach Massacre (with a not often shot of a bloody murdered little girl). This is Adult Stuff.

The Film has Noirish Claustrophobic Tendencies, Mob Mania, and Rich Folks as Super-Baddies. Almost Everyone in Town, it seems, has been Corrupted by the Harsh Realities of the Desert and the Clan of Outlaws Running Things.

Ward Bond's Speech to His Daughter (Mary Murphy) about just how Bad Things were when She was a Little Girl and Lost Her Mother is Heartbreaking and Profound.

Bond is accompanied by Lee Van Cleef and Raymond Burr and that gives this Western Shades of Film-Noir, as does the Desperation and Wholesale Corruption.

Overall, Mary Murphy is Stunning as a Smart and Beautiful Young Woman, Van Cleef is Menacing, and Burr is Burly and Scary. Above Average Western in Color, but Not CinemaScope with a Good Cast, Good Story, and Milland's Direction is Edgy at times.

Notorious gunman Ray Milland comes upon the scene of a stagecoach massacre. Outlaws had robbed the stage and killed six people, including a mother and child. Milland frees the horses and rides one of them into town for help during a sandstorm.

The sheriff is laid up and a lout of a deputy, Alan Hale Jr., comes at Milland gun in hand without identifying himself. Milland starts shooting and wounds the deputy. After that it's a hunt for Milland in the town.

Of course he takes refuge in the one place no one is going to look, the house of the sheriff, Ward Bond and his daughter Mary Murphy. The house is under quarantine because Bond is down with yellow fever.

Milland helps Murphy nurse Bond back to health. During which news of the stagecoach massacre reaches town. And the hunt is renewed.

Milland gives a fine performance in this very grim western of a man on the run, mostly due to his bad reputation. Ray Milland also directed this film for Republic Pictures in its last days. Director Milland got some good performances out of such in the cast as Raymond Burr, Lee Van Cleef, Arthur Space, and Thomas Brown Henry.

A Man Alone has similar plot premises to both The Oxbow Incident and John Payne's Silver Lode that came out the year before. All three had to do with the terrible consequences of mob violence when due process is abandoned. Very telling stuff indeed coming out as it did at the tail end of the McCarthy era.

The film holds up very well after over 50 years and is recommended for western and other movie fans.