sflynn22

The movie starts with Attorney Craig Carlson dictating the circumstances of his own upcoming murder into a tape recorder. Through a series of flashbacks we find out that he has a problem - his best friend's wife (Lansbury) comes to him for help in a divorce. Then another problem - he falls in love with her. Then another problem - she shoots her husband in self-defense. Now he has to defend her from a murder rap.

He gets her acquitted and they get engaged. All is well!! Of course not - why would the movie be over in twenty minutes? Let's just say that his tidy little circumstances rapidly grow complicated. His awareness of his changing situation, and his reaction to it, make for an interesting psychological development.

Burr was a good actor and the camera focuses in on his brooding face. It takes a while to find out that Lansbury's performance is more subtle than you might think.

The movie is economically directed - witness how the attorney picks up his gun in the opening shots. No dialog, just a brief sequence of visuals, and the plot advances. Well written, with good supporting performances, including a youngish and slim Denver Pyle. Nice unknown movie.

This is a standard Western with all the proper elements: do-right hero (R. Scott), do-wrong villain (Noah Beery), henchmen and "characters", pretty scenery, and African lions (???).

It is interesting to see a youthful Randolph Scott with a face-altering mustache and spouting an odd aristocratic Southern dialect ("they ah coming hyeah") while masquerading as a woman-hating mountain man.

The "mountain lions" are of course African lions loaned out from Tarzan.

The scenery, wherever it is, is very nice: mountains and lonesome pines.

Noah Beery makes a nice villain, really very good at it, and Verna Hillie is attractive enough.

The plot and acting are no more absurd than a million other B-westerns.