Here's a western which satisfyingly refreshes some stock characters and situations. It also has assured performances from Glenn Ford as the gunfighter turned lawman, Angie Dickinson as the saloon keeper who loves him, and Chad Everett as the young gunslinger who wants to kill him to build a reputation. On the strength of performances like the one he gives here, Everett deserved to become a big star; elsewhere, Jack Elam has a straight role as a hired gun. Richard Thorpe's slack direction lets the strong script (by John Sherry and Robert Emmett Ginna) carry the picture.

An upstart outlaw baits a legendary gunslinger, now a marshal in love with a saloon keeper.