The Virginian (1946)

To give her her due, "Molly" (Barbara Britton) is full of vim and vigour as she arrives at a remote outpost town to take up a post teaching it's kids. The law has yet to arrive in this place, so they have their own hands-on approach to those who break their fairly simple rules. That's the start of her problems as she meets "Steve" (Sonny Tufts) and the enigmatically monikered "Virginian" (Joel McCrea). The former is mixed up with some castle rustlers and their leader "Trampas" (Brian Donlevy) whilst the latter has been charged with clearing these criminals out of town. He and "Steve" are friends of old, and he even warns his pal to stop putting fake brands on the cattle, but in the end you just know that it's all going to come down to a reckoning with "Trampas" and his men. There is something disappointingly pedestrian about this whole ninety minutes. McCrae just isn't at the races and the black-clad Donlevy is about as menacing as "Daffy Duck" as he waddles about the saloon in as unmenacingly fashion as possible. The story ebbs and and flows in a predicable fashion but there's nowhere near enough action to engage, and what there is tends to fall flat as we head to a really quite lacklustre denouement that has as much to do with a stray horse as it has with any of the acting talent. Perhaps colour wasn't it's best friend here, either, as it might have looked better in monochrome - at least that might have engender some slight sense of menace, but as it is this is a disappointing B-effort with very little buzz.