The Tall Stranger (1957)

Routine plot - efficient in execution, but beware of pan and scan monstrosity. The Tall Stranger is directed by Thomas Carr and written for the screen by Christopher Knopf from a story by Louis L'Amour. It stars Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Michael Ansara, George Neise, Whit Bissell, Adam Kennedy, Barry Kelley and Leo Gordon. A CinemaScope/De Luxe color production, film is filmed on location at two ranches in California, Morrison and Russell, with Wilfred M. Cline the cinematographer. Hans J. Salter scores the music. Plot sees McCrea as Ned Bannon, who has a run in with rustlers and left for dead. Luckily he is found in time by a wagon train heading for California. Nursed back to health, Ned becomes suspicious of two outsiders who are leading the group into a dead-end valley owned by his hostile half-brother. Ned must overcome family hostility to try and avert a range war from occurring. Solid mid 50's Oater boosted by the reliable McCrea and some dark shades within the writing. Running at just over 80 minutes, picture condenses enough old time punch ups and shootings into the story to stop the routine nature of the plotting dragging the pace down. There's even some messages in here to show the writers wanted something more than just a yeehaw production. Sadly the film is badly let down by the pan and scan process and the lifeless colour. There are very few reviews of the film about, but nobody makes mention of the bad print of the film? Certainly the current print doing the rounds for British TV is so bad it takes much away from the film. Cline's ("The Last Wagon/The Indian Fighter") location photography is barely seen - is this really in CinemaScope? - and periphery characters are heard but chopped in half! Even the normally radiant Mayo looks washed out due to the tired looking De Luxe color. There's a half decent film in the mix, but even with the best of home cinema set ups to play with, it's nigh on impossible to fully immerse oneself in the movie. 6/10

“Bannon” (Joel McCrea) is minding his own business when both he and his horse fall foul of some cattle rustlers who leave him for dead. Luckily he is picked up by a wagon train, and as he recovers he helps guide them to the perfect spot by the river for them to build their settlement. The snag for these pioneers is that the land has already been claimed and they aren’t welcome. “Bannon” has history with the landowner, and so offers to broker some sort of deal to help them out and get them to move on, but the travellers are being goaded by “Harper” (George Neise) to dig their heels in and fight back. Things come to an head when the bathing “Ellen” (the sparingly featured Virginia Mayo) is the victim of some unwanted advances by one of the men, and a gunfight looms large. It’s all pretty standard fayre this, with McCrea holding it together well enough as the story settles into it’s well trammelled plot and Neise delivers the kind of role I usually preferred Robert Douglas in. The romantic elements are kept to a minimum and there are enough bullets flying, especially towards the end, to keep this typically standard production moving along fine.