Uses the Western setting for a character drama and it's really interesting despite having very little action. It's all in the tension and Ford's cockiness combined with everyone else's palpable trepidation makes it work.

A gripping Western full of suspense and character and two excellent performances by Heflin and Ford.

Almost succeeds in being an interesting look at the myth of heroes and outlaws. The farmer is driven not by a sense of justice, but by necessity and trepidation, and the criminal has a strange sense of honor and is prone to sentiment. Unfortunately by the end it seems to sacrifice these themes for moral transcendence and a black-and-white view of the world. Still, it's acted brilliantly and shot neatly, making it worth a watch.

Like a boredom pill, with uh, boring, shit, just a really boring film. Nothing exciting about this western at all, I have no idea how anyone can sit the whole way through it without questioning why he hasn't gone off to do some more productive instead.

A decent western, fairly suspenseful, if sometimes hard to swallow, particularly the ending sequence.

Just watched this for the first time, I'd seen the remake already. I was into the movie for almost the entire thing and then the climactic walk to the train was a disappointment. The phycological torture that Ben Wade puts Dan through was fantastic. Then the ending just plain sucked, and I did not buy into his sudden changed heart. A great 80 minutes followed by a weak ten.

Glen Ford is amazing.

This was a good character driven psychological drama wrapped up in Western clothes.The mind games Ben Wade (Glen Ford) played with Dan Evans (Van Heffin) really take this from an average Western to a classic of the genre.

The remake is so much better. But this was still good.

Pretty good for a recent cowboy flick. I really liked the music, as well as the end.

Classic western with some great dialog. It's age certainly shows in comparison to the remake, however. I'm glad I saw this version first.

Heflin and Ford's strong as ever performances make this a classic showdown western. It carries on some of the questionably motivated and ambiguously good or bad characters that High Noon made possible, giving it more depth than many of the movies of its time. Really good!

The original film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's western story shares the same plot framework with its recent descendant and a few scenes play out almost identically. Yet it also serves as an enlightening lesson in how Hollywood filmmaking has changed in fifty years. There's a clear contentment to let the drama and conflict play out quietly between the two main characters. Ample time is turned over to their psychological parrying, which adds weight to the final moments.

A surprisingly psychological-thrillery Western. Glenn Ford is perfectly charming and affable, making him seem even more like the Devil Himself when he starts to get inside other people's heads. Tense stuff.

OK Western. Finale shot in a confusing way to conceal how noncredible it is

A nice, character-driven western

It's about the burden of expectation placed on the everyman by idealised heroes of the western myth - a burden almost inverted here as one such hero makes of an everyman the stuff of legend. The universal plight of men is captured to a tee, be they lovers, husbands, fathers. Ominous, stuffy, acted and paced to perfection - the only flaw is the ending, which whilst satisfying is vastly improved on by the remake.

Great Western for the period, great Western now.

although this is the original it is still very good and the storyline is just amassing

Soild Western, but completly overshadowed by its high quality remake.

Felicia Farr is kinda hot.

I watched this in anticipation of the 3:10 remake in '07, and was pretty enthralled by it. It's got a unique concept which really separates itself from other Westerns' standard fare. The two leads give solid performances. Most of all, if you enjoyed the more complex and superior remake, it's worth watching through this one to see how they flipped the original ending on its head.

While a mass majority of film-critques haven't seen nor heard of this, This is a very well-made, tough as steel Western phenomenon that excels at all the elements that leads to a classic: acting (led by driving performances from the duo-casting of Ford and Heflin), script, score (with haunting, yet somewhat cheerful pieces of orchestra), editing and of course, cinematography. However, the crowd that has seen it worship it and helm it as the best ever made. Great, but not at classic status.

Remake is so much better.