Along the Great Divide (1951)

Directed by Raoul Walsh. Starring Kirk Douglas, Walter Brennan, Virginia Mayo, John Agar, James Anderson, Ray Teal, Morris Ankrum, Hugh Sanders.

Standard pursuit Western with Douglas as a dogged marshal determined to bring cattle rustler (and potential murderer) Brennan to justice; he’s accompanied by a pair of deputies (Agar, Teal), plus Brennan’s pugnacious daughter Mayo—for no good reason other than the producers wanting to squeeze in a labored romance angle—and hounded by a posse eager to exact a little frontier justice. Unevenly paced and low on tension or action; drama attempts to cultivate the characters’ psychological profiles to mixed results. Brennan and Mayo are as irksome on the high prairie journey as a sharp stone in a boot, inspiring rare rooting interest in a lynch mob. Douglas’ first Western.

39/100