Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Spikeopath Wes Steele is a gunman, his reputation follows him where ever he goes. Then one day he happens upon a dreadful scene, a stagecoach has been attacked and five people have been murdered, including a woman and a child. This sickens Steele who takes up a horse and rides to the nearest town with the best intentions, but no sooner is he there, he quickly becomes a target for blame and hostility. Taking refuge at the home of yellow fever struck Sheriff Gil Corrigan and his daughter Nadine, Steele proves to have a tender side as he helps to aid the ailing sheriff. But an angry mob is out for Steele's neck and when Gil comes around, will he believe that Steele is not responsible for the recent turn of events?Ray Milland's westerns are a mixed bunch, ranging from the mundane (Bugles in the Afternoon), the watchable (California) to the very good - here with A Man Alone. Making his directorial debut, star Milland has managed to craft a genuine mood piece out of a well trodden, and often filmed, story. Milland, utilising his silent feature experience, sets the disquiet tone within the first quarter, where as he comes upon the horror scene, it's played out without dialogue, the mood is set for the next part of the journey, the town.This is an ugly town, corruption and underhand tactics are the order of the day, so much so that when Steele blows into town (literally during a sandstorm) one would think that with his reputation, it would be ideal for him. But things can quickly turn around. Thanks to Milland's portrayal of Steele, it's apparent to us that Steele is weary of the life he has led, his yearning to cast off his burdens evident as his relationship with the Corrigan's starts to blossom. Yet it's funny how quick the milk can turn sour, because seemingly normal people can become a mob, an angry mob intent on justice regardless of the truth. For here there is no truth as the lies have been cast and mud nearly always sticks...Milland is aided in the cast by the always solid Ward Bond (Gil), Raymond Burr (purple suited and black eyed nastiness as town villain Stanley), Lee Van Cleef (Stanley's thug muscle Clanton) and Mary Murphy (bright eyed and bushy tailed Nadine). Shot on location at Snow Canyon in Utah, it's a shame that location work is very much sparse because of the town set plot. However, in a film calling for an oppressive and pot boiling feel, this is something that is easily forgivable. A Man Alone is a very good Western, yes the story has been done far better (re: The Ox Bow Incident for example), but Milland's film deserves your time, and hopefully come the end, also your respect. 7.5/10

Marlburian 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.

loydmooney-1 That's right, folks, perhaps the most Hitchcockian western ever made, this one. Right from the first frames, the eye is very keen: first a doll in the dust, then a peek inside the stagecoach and watching only from the knees to chest, the body of the little girl killed in a holdup. Then a very clean direction of Milland in this tale of a man falsely accused of murder and yes, On The Run. Saboteur in the West or any of the others he had the gun running from the mob etc. And finding the woman who believes him against the rest who are chasing him. The only difference here is that Milland is a gunman, whereas Hitch usually used the blank hero, flawless and innocent, chaste and chased. Otherwise he fits the bill.No western made was ever quite like this, more of a suspense film than rawhide. And very interesting. Too bad Milland was never interviewed about its peculiarities.

silverscreen888 "A Man Alone", adroitly directed by Ray Milland, starred himself as a gunfighter who happens upon a stage robbery, where several people have been slain, while he has been stranded in the desert. He takes one of the horses he finds, and heads to town to report the crime. He is instead accused of the crime himself. He flees and hides in the town's bank. There, he overhears the gang responsible for the deaths talking over the robbery. Another banker is shot in the back, and again Wes (Milland) is made to look guilty of the murder. He stumbles into the sheriff's cellar during a sandstorm,still trying to evade capture; and the next morning, while he is trying to leave, he is confronted by the sheriffs daughter, Nadine. He can't leave; and they become unwilling companions. The sheriff (Ward Bond) is sick with yellow fever. He finds her asleep, exhausted by taking care of her father, and puts her to bed. Their whole relationship changes; she knows he is a good man; but when the sheriff wake he feels he must go. She wants him to stay, they embrace and from then on the situation changes, again. The sheriff wants security for his daughter; and he has sold his soul to the bad element in town to get it. he confronts Raymond Burr, the real killer; they fight and he is wounded. He stumbles back to the house, where he passes out. Nadine, by now in love with him, fetches the doctor to help him. The sheriff finds him there and is livid, saying that he has compromised their home. Days pass; in the meanwhile, seeing what he has become by his own fear, the sheriff decides to let Wes, the gunfighter, go free. The townsmen still thinking that Wes is the murderer go after the sheriff when he has done so; but Wes returns to save the day. This is a tense, dramatic film with good dialogue and a fine silent portion at the film's outset that is superior storytelling with a camera. This film represents an unusual achievement by Milland both as actor and director. The production is in color which is well-used and unobtrusive; cinematography was done by Lionel Linton. The screenplay by John Tucker Battle I find to be taut and well-fashioned; the music by Victor Young served the story-line very well. Art direction was by Walter E. Keller, costumes by Adele Palmer and the important set decorations were supplied by Fay Babcock and John McCarthy, Jr. Among the other actors in this fine cast who made an unusual impression were Raymond Burr as the nefarious banker, Mary Murphy as Nadine, Ward Bond as the embittered sheriff, Grandon Rhodes and Lee Van Cleef, powerful Arthur Space as the doctor, Thomas Browne Henry as the newspaper man, Douglas Spencer, Alan Hale Jr. as the luckless acting sheriff. and Minerva Urecal. This is a tense film, from start to finish; and the pace was never neglected. Much of its action takes place in darkness or shadows, heightening its power on the mind of the viewer. The underlying theme in a semi-wilderness noir situation (where the central character cannot rely on the law to aid him) is strongly demonstrated, namely "to do what is important and be prepared to admit a mistake". This is a narrative about men and women alone on the frontier in a dangerous situation where the only certainties are to be found in one's own courage, character and self-reliant judgment. By my standards, it is a well-directed and very good and unusual story.