A Man Alone (1955)

Ray Milland is - A Man Alone!

Wes Steele is a gunman, his reputation follows him where ever he goes. Then one day he happens upon a dreadful scene, a stagecoach has been attacked and five people have been murdered, including a woman and a child. This sickens Steele who takes up a horse and rides to the nearest town with the best intentions, but no sooner is he there, he quickly becomes a target for blame and hostility. Taking refuge at the home of yellow fever struck Sheriff Gil Corrigan and his daughter Nadine, Steele proves to have a tender side as he helps to aid the ailing sheriff. But an angry mob is out for Steele's neck and when Gil comes around, will he believe that Steele is not responsible for the recent turn of events?

Ray Milland's westerns are a mixed bunch, ranging from the mundane (Bugles in the Afternoon), the watchable (California) to the very good - here with A Man Alone. Making his directorial debut, star Milland has managed to craft a genuine mood piece out of a well trodden, and often filmed, story. Milland, utilising his silent feature experience, sets the disquiet tone within the first quarter, where as he comes upon the horror scene, it's played out without dialogue, the mood is set for the next part of the journey, the town.

This is an ugly town, corruption and underhand tactics are the order of the day, so much so that when Steele blows into town (literally during a sandstorm) one would think that with his reputation, it would be ideal for him. But things can quickly turn around. Thanks to Milland's portrayal of Steele, it's apparent to us that Steele is weary of the life he has led, his yearning to cast off his burdens evident as his relationship with the Corrigan's starts to blossom. Yet it's funny how quick the milk can turn sour, because seemingly normal people can become a mob, an angry mob intent on justice regardless of the truth. For here there is no truth as the lies have been cast and mud nearly always sticks...

Milland is aided in the cast by the always solid Ward Bond (Gil), Raymond Burr (purple suited and black eyed nastiness as town villain Stanley), Lee Van Cleef (Stanley's thug muscle Clanton) and Mary Murphy (bright eyed and bushy tailed Nadine). Shot on location at Snow Canyon in Utah, it's a shame that location work is very much sparse because of the town set plot. However, in a film calling for an oppressive and pot boiling feel, this is something that is easily forgivable. A Man Alone is a very good Western, yes the story has been done far better (re: The Ox Bow Incident for example), but Milland's film deserves your time, and hopefully come the end, also your respect. 7.5/10

_**“Shut up, Wesley!”**_

In the Old West, a drifting gunman (Ray Milland) finds himself in a Southwest town wrongly accused of a crime. He hides out in the basement of a young woman whose father is invalided upstairs (Mary Murphy and Ward Bond). Can he escape before being lynched by a vengeful mob? Raymond Burr, Lee Van Cleef and Alan Hale Jr. are also on hand.

"A Man Alone" (1955) is the first of five films directed by Milland. It mixes the brutal realities of the Old West with some quality mood. While mostly a town-bound Western (and often in the Sheriff’s residence), there’s also some spectacular photography of the Southwest (listed below). Meanwhile Milland comes across as a James Stewart lookalike.

If you can roll with a couple of contrivances, the story is good with interesting explorations of morality. For instance, is dishonest gain acceptable as long as no one dies? Even if it can be justified, what if innocent people wind up dead? How long can a generally good person keep up the lie and live with their conscience?

The movie runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot at Republic Studios in Los Angeles with location work done at Snow Canyon outside St. George, Utah. Other locations cited are Arizona (Paiute Wilderness Area & Colorado City) and New Mexico.

GRADE: B

Ray Milland directed himself and built quite well on a reliable cast with this story of a gunslinger who rued the day he tried to do something good. Having lost his horse, “Steele“ discovers the wreckage of an ambushed stagecoach as he walks in search of civilisation. Thing is, though, when he borrows a horse and reports what he has found to the local sheriff (Ward Bond) has quickly finds himself chief suspect. Things don’t get any better when he encounters the manipulative and greedy “Stanley” (Raymond Burr) who owns the town and has plans of his own that don’t include “Steele. When the lawman is then shot in the back, his days look well and truly numbered but for the intervention of that man’s daughter “Nadine” (Mary Murphy) who shelters him whilst her father recuperates. Becoming more convinced "Steele" is a decent man, and taking a shine to him too, it is her who begins to realise the extent of the corruption in the town - but what can they do against an angry, stirred-up, population bent on vengeance? Although the story is hardly original, Milland holds this together capably with Bond, Burr and a more substantial contribution from Murphy as her more pivotal role presents us with the moral of the story. This is another of these westerns that showcases the emergence, kicking and screaming, of genteel law and order from the ashes of it's more violent past and though there is the odd shoot-out, this is more a thinking man’s film about doing the right thing.