The movie concerns about a cattle baron (Ray Collins) who takes a foreman named Owen (Burt Lancaster) as his own son , originating in the legitimate one named Lee (Rober Walker) an enormous resentment for the adopted brother . An illegitimate child of Lee and Lily (Sally Forrest) creates more problems when the brothers (John Ireland , Hugh O'Brian) from her , along with a mean gunslinger (Ted De Corsia) are looking for revenge . Lee married to Jean (Joanne Dru) is seeing an opportunity to obtain his father's cattle.
The movie is a good western with extraordinary landscapes that were shot on location in natural parks of Montana and Arizona territory . The picture has western action , drama , round-up , horseman pursuits and results to be quite entertaining . It carries a surprising feeling of authenticity for a Western of this M.G.M.'s classic period . Serious Western by Richard Thorpe and with Burt Lancaster as a foreman trying to live a pacific existence . The picture is produced in enough budget by Metro Goldwyn Mayer where director Richard Thorpe spent 33 years in the same studio and he was to become the longest-servicing filmmaker in their story . In time Thorpe became known as the studio's ¨one take¨ because of his rapid shooting schedules . It's the first Burt Lancaster's Western and , as always , he plays a honest and upright character , similar he subsequently played in ¨Unforgiven¨ (by John Huston). Robert Walker is fine in his last film because being early deceased at thirty two years old , he's specially known for ¨Strangers on the train¨ (Alfred Hitchcock). George Folsey's cinematography is glimmer and colorful like is well reflected on the breathtaking and spellbound outdoors ; however the photography is a little worn-out . In fact , this is one of a handful of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer productions of the 1950-1951 period whose original copyrights were never renewed and are now apparently in Public Domain , meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film . Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely and usually badly edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second or third-generation or more copies of the film . Splendid art direction by Cedric Gibbons from Metro Goldwyn Mayer (film producer) , he's the greatest production designer by that time .
The movie attained lukewarm reception by the public , it achieved a limited success ; however a similar film titled ¨Red River¨ (by Howard Hawks), also with the same protagonist , the attractive Joanne Dru , was much better as reviews as box office . The motion picture was professionally directed by Richard Thorpe . He directed lesser Western and thrillers when he moved into features in 1924 and did little of note before joining MGM in 1935 . Thorpe made routine studio fare until 1950s when he was given more major assignment . He then made various big-budget productions financed by Pando S Bergman among his best known films are all the MGM Tarzans following his arrival at the studio in 1935 and a series of swashbuckling adventures in the early 1950s featuring Robert Taylor , the most successful of these were three swashbucklers made in England as ¨Knights of Round Table¨ , ¨Ivanhoe¨ and ¨Quentin Durward¨ . Thorpe was an expert on all kind of genres as Western as ¨Wild horse¨ , ¨Under Montana skies¨ and ¨Last challenge¨ but his specialty resulted to be adventures as ¨Prisoner of Zenda¨, ¨The prodigal¨ , ¨Challenge to Lassie¨ , ¨Malaya¨ , ¨Tarzan's secret treasure¨ , ¨Tarzan escapes¨ , ¨Tarzan finds a son¨ and Musicals as ¨Fun in Acapulco¨ , ¨Rainbow over Broadway¨ , ¨The prince student¨ and his biggest money-maker to date was ¨The great Caruso¨ and his last big box-office hit was ¨Presley' Jailhouse Rock¨ . He also worked briefly in television before retiring in 1968 , his last film was a Western : ¨The last challenge¨, also titled ¨The Pistolero of Red River ¨. The motion picture will appeal to Burt Lancaster fans and western genre enthusiasts .
