BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

rooster_davis This was one of the few Audie Murphy Westerns I had not seen, and I was not disappointed when I finally got to view it. While it's a typical Western with some bad guys and good guys and people shooting it out, there are also a lot of light-hearted moments and some humor.Murphy shows up in town and is taken for a famous marshal and hired to be the sheriff. He is actually associated with some bad guys who plan to rob the bank but nobody knows this. The woman-friend of a member of his gang shows up in town and the pair end up pretending to be husband and wife to help cover some of the circumstances of their meeting.Matthau is the local judge and he is also sort of a foster-father to a young orphan boy named Jimmy. The judge eventually figures out who the new sheriff really is, and knows he is going to have to do something about him even though Jimmy has gotten attached to him. In an actually heart-felt scene, the judge tells Jimmy that someone who has grown up the way Murphy's character has, can never be any good and can never change. Jimmy has himself come from the same kind of circumstances. When the judge sees the look of hurt on his face, thinking that he also is destined to be bad, he says almost pleadingly "I didn't mean that. You know I didn't mean that." The boy who played the role of the orphan was really good - much better and more appealing in my opinion than many better-known child actors of that day or any other. His acting career consisted of only four roles however.At the end of the movie there is of course a surprise twist and I don't want to give it away, but I'll just say that I enjoyed it and I'll gladly watch it again. I've added it to my DVD collection.

orlalobo1-1 i really enjoyed this western as i always liked audie murphy westerns. also a great performance by walter matthau as the crusty old judge. also gia scala is great as the bad girl with a big hearti wish they would show this, other audie murphy movies and all the 50's westernsfrom universal-international on tcm. also what do we have to do to get these great old western from universal on DVD? "ride a crooked trail" rates up there with me with "the cimmaron kid" "night passage" "the duel at silver creek" and the "unforgiven" as audie's great westerns. they put out old black & white westerns from the 30's and 40's from other studios but why don't they put universal's great color westerns from the 50's out on DVD

slickysu I would have to say, walter matthau in this early supporting performance was truly a stage presence to have in a film like this. This movie being one that shows the lines and decisions that a born tough guy must make to decide whats really whats truly dear to him. Sort of a shadow to Audie Murphy's character was the young boy, who grew up also in a saloon, but never stood a chance to grow up straight until a man, such as himself took a stand against injustice and only then, was the young boy cured of the sins he was born into...Excellent choice if you want to know what moral 50's Hollywood wanted to put out there.Ritchie Fontaine

Brian Camp RIDE A CROOKED TRAIL is an Audie Murphy western distinguished by good writing and a flamboyant early role for Walter Matthau as a silver-haired, hard-drinking, shotgun-toting judge in a growing river town. It has surprisingly little action for a Murphy western, but it's consistently engaging thanks to a group of interesting, well-etched characters, a strong cast, some welcome humor, and a script by western veteran Borden Chase (WINCHESTER '73, BEND OF THE RIVER, THE FAR COUNTRY, BACKLASH, etc.).Murphy was always at his best when surrounded by solid co-stars and here he's got Matthau as a persistent father figure; Gia Scala as a femme fatale ripe for reform; and Henry Silva as an outlaw gang leader. Murphy plays a wanted outlaw himself who is mistaken by Matthau for a missing marshal (who'd fallen off a cliff while pursuing Murphy) and soon has to assume the functions of the marshal's office in order to keep up the charade and escape detection. When Scala gets off the riverboat from New Orleans, she recognizes Murphy and calls him by his real name, "Maybe," forcing Murphy to cover up by telling Matthau Scala is his wife. But Scala is there to case the town's bank for Silva, so she has to act the respectable lady for a few days till Silva and company come to town. Both she and, later, Silva expect Murphy to help with the bank job. After a while, Matthau starts to get suspicious, even as Murphy begins to grow comfortable in the marshal's job. Added to the mix are a precocious orphan boy (Eddie Little) and a dog who, true to form, gradually tug at Audie's and Gia's heartstrings.Murphy seems more relaxed here than usual. Perhaps he was grateful for the opportunity to turn the more attention-getting dramatics over to Matthau. Murphy also has good chemistry with Scala, who is quite attractive and confident here in a way that looks forward to Isabella Rossellini (who played a similar role in Lawrence Kasdan's WYATT EARP, 1994, with Kevin Costner). Joanna Moore (mother of Tatum O'Neal) makes an attractive saloon girl. Mort Mills has a small, vivid part as one of Silva's gang and his appearance will be enjoyed by those who recall him as Charlton Heston's sympathetic colleague in TOUCH OF EVIL the same year and as the highway patrolman who stops Janet Leigh in PSYCHO.Most of the film was shot in a western town set on the Universal Pictures backlot, although a few chase-and-cattle scenes take place on location late in the film. It's a relatively light-hearted film for screenwriter Chase, who wrote or co-wrote so many harder-edged westerns, but it turns out to be among the best of the roughly two dozen westerns Murphy made at Universal.