Directed by Budd Boetticher
A masterpiece on its own, Boetticher’s first film starring Randolph Scott with a script by Burt Kennedy set the template for the Ranown cycle to follow. A man stricken by grief, thirsting for revenge, hunts his wife’s killers through a rugged landscape that grows increasingly barren until his quest culminates in a rock-hewn arena of death. André Bazin called it an “exemplary western” and Sergio Leone must have memorized every shot of its ferocious finale.
Warner Bros. Producer: Andrew V. McLaglen, Robert E. Morrison. Screenwriter: Burt Kennedy. Based on a story by Burt Kennedy. Cinematographer: William H. Clothier. Editor: Everett Sutherland. Cast: Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin, Walter Reed, John Larch.
35mm, color, 78 min.
Watch a before and after restoration clip, below:
