A Man Alone

source: A Man Alone

Sorry for Ray Milland who made wrong choices after so many years on highiest ground , on final gasps he dared make this western including as director, the plot is absurd to say something, Mary Murphy had a half age than him, actually should be more acceptable a bit older woman in this role perhaps, but a lack of realism doesn't mean that all things were wrong, the picture is silly but there's a suitable fear's atmosphere in this dusty city, also has some elements of Noir style as well, so to speak it starts well and ended up not quite convincing, look for one side is a movie without some glamour, in other hand hard to forget for a simply reason, it was unusual and here has a fine supporting casting as Burr, Hale and Lee Van Cleef!! Resume: First watch: 1981 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD-R / Rating: 6.75

That's right, folks, perhaps the most Hitchcockian western ever made, this one. Right from the first frames, the eye is very keen: first a doll in the dust, then a peek inside the stagecoach and watching only from the knees to chest, the body of the little girl killed in a holdup. Then a very clean direction of Milland in this tale of a man falsely accused of murder and yes, On The Run. Saboteur in the West or any of the others he had the gun running from the mob etc. And finding the woman who believes him against the rest who are chasing him. The only difference here is that Milland is a gunman, whereas Hitch usually used the blank hero, flawless and innocent, chaste and chased. Otherwise he fits the bill. No western made was ever quite like this, more of a suspense film than rawhide. And very interesting. Too bad Milland was never interviewed about its peculiarities.

First time director Ray Milland must have scored a success with this psychological Western typical of the 1950s, as he went on to both direct and star in four more features- 1956's "Lisbon," 1958's "The Safecracker," 1962's "Panic in Year Zero!" and 1967's "Hostile Witness." In the role of Wesley Steele, a gunman of ill repute, having to kill simply to survive, director Milland begins the film with nearly a half hour without (much) dialogue. Steele discovers a massacred stagecoach, five people shot dead (including a little girl), all the money gone. He soon finds himself in a most unfriendly town, where the hapless deputy (Alan Hale Jr.) prefers to shoot first and ask questions later; incredibly, the safest place for Steele to hide from a possible lynching turns out to be the Sheriff's quarantined home, due to his being bedridden with yellow fever. Lovely Mary Murphy, Marlon Brando's leading lady in "The Wild One," is entrusted with the most difficult role, the Sheriff's daughter, who naturally falls for the much older Steele, and capably manages the feat of growing up from 'daddy's little girl' to feisty heroine, inspiring Wes to return to clear his name, and redeeming her own father (Ward Bond), who had fallen under the crooked influence of town banker and criminal mastermind Raymond Burr. You can't go wrong with a supporting cast that includes Lee Van Cleef, Douglas Spencer, Thomas Browne Henry, and Arthur Space. Unfortunately for Mary Murphy, her screen career wound down all too quickly, though television kept her busy for another two decades. Horror/sci fi buffs remember her turns in 1951's "When Worlds Collide," 1954's "The Mad Magician," and 1957's "The Electronic Monster."

I was surprised to see that Ray Milland not only starred in this western, he directed it! The fact that a British man would star in an American western, however, did not surprise me. After all, if a Tasmanian (Errol Flynn) could star in one--why not Milland--especially since his Welsh accent was pretty faint. Plus, since the US is a country of immigrants, there MUST have been a few Brits in the Old West. However, I am sure none of them had a name like 'Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones' (Milland's actual given name)! "A Man Alone" is helped along by having a couple really good heavies--Raymond Burr (a familiar heavy of the 50s until he struck gold playing Perry Mason) and a young Lee Van Cleef (who was always menacing). These two automatically improves the movie from the onset. Ward Bond, a wonderful character actor is on hand to play the sick Sheriff. Plus, while he's not especially well-known today, Milland was a dandy actor (at least until his later years when, like Bette Davis, he would accept ANY part--and a few were pretty bad). Here he's still in his prime--a good, solid leading man--not the macho or romantic type--just a good everyman actor--and a far cry from his sophisticated image of the 1930s. This film starts off very sad. Milland is riding his horse in the middle of the American desert when he comes upon a party from a stage coach--and all of them, including the children, have been murdered. When Milland comes into town, the Deputy Sheriff sneaks up on him--Milland turns and shoots (wounding him). Now the town thinks HE was responsible for the massacre--not realizing some of the town's 'upstanding citizens' were the guilty parties. Milland discovers this but no one believes him. It's up to Milland to clear himself and ferret out the guilty parties by the end of the film. There is a major cliché that hinders the film from being one of the best westerns of the day. When Milland hides out, he just happens to hide out in the home of the Sheriff. While the Sheriff is delirious with fever, there is his pretty daughter in the home as well. When she discovers him and realized everyone is looking for him, she shelters him from the posse!!! Why would a woman do this--particularly the Sheriff's daughter?! This makes no sense--and I wish they'd not relied on such a phony plot device as this. And, when she inexplicably falls in love with him, it seems even more phony. Another cliché comes into play later in the film when Milland has his showdown with the leader of the murders (Burr). Burr refuses to draw his gun, so Milland throws away his advantage and his a fist fight! First, in a fight I am sure that the big and burly Burr would have won. Second, any SANE man would have shot out Burr's kneecaps or put a bullet in his brain--that's the only 'fair fight' that really took place in the West. The fist fight cliché is just sloppy writing. However, the film is entertaining and it does take a few nice detours apart from the clichés. As a result of good acting and part of the writing being good (only part), it is very watchable. Just don't expect a lot and you'll be happy with the results. By the way, Alan Hale is listed in the credits. This is actually Alan Hale, Jr. ('Skipper' from "Gilligan's Island")--not his famous character actor father (who was usually billed as 'Alan Hale').

Well above average film. The opening 30 minutes (in which Milland, our hero, doesn't say a word, despite being on screen most of the time)are particularly atmospheric. The film's strength comes from it's depiction of the harshness of the landscape and how this fact compromises the moral principles of several of the characters. We are shown a bleak, sandstorm-blown, yellow fever ridden, arid, uncompromising world where a fairly traditional western is played out. Ray Milland gives a good performance as the eponymous 'Man Alone', while his directing skills are less assured. Definitely worth watching, and a cut above most of the films in its genre.

The first 30 minutes of this film are very gritty, with Wes Steele in trouble from the start, discovering the stage with its murdered passengers and then becoming a fugitive trapped in a town. Then the film tapers off a bit, and it's a little hard to accept that Nadine comes to trust him so quickly. I'm conscious of my own pedantry, but have to note that Milland here joins Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott in playing a middle-aged Westerner who has little trouble in attracting a much younger woman - he was 50 when the film was released. And if being the notorious Wes Steele is such a handicap, why not assume a false name - it would have been difficult for the authorities to disprove a false identity. (Richard Egan in "Tension at Table Rock" was another notorious Wes - Tancred in this case and in the ballad that accompanied the film - who diligently signed his real name in hotel registers, only for the clerk to react in distaste.) The "Time Out" review describes Milland's direction as "sometimes a little too ponderously deliberate, but - like the performances - eminently watchable", and I agree with this. The plot made a pleasant change from the run-of-the-mill Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s.

Ray Milland's early career was in mostly light romantic fluff but he did have Oscar success in The Lost Weekend. He and Ginger Rogers were fun in The Major And The Minor. He was properly creepy in Dial M For Murder. His later years were lost in terrible monster flicks and bit parts. In the midst of the lousy movies, he did make a Western that stood out. This one. He was actually pretty good in it and as his directorial debut it wasn't bad either. It's a shame that the director's best assets weren't better utilized. He kept one of my very favorite character actors in bed for most of the movie (Ward Bond) and Raymond Burr isn't on screen long enough for my liking. This role was one of many villains that Burr so splendidly played for many years until we see him as Perry Mason in 1957. Another great bad guy that gets some close-ups is Lee Van Cleef. In the 60's and 70's, we'll see lots of him in many Leone or Gemma "spaghetti" Westerns. His face says so much without saying a word.....an absolute necessity when you don't speak Italian. I guess that's why Eastwood did so well in spaghetti Westerns...he wasn't much of an actor back then. In this movie, Ray Milland plays an aging gunfighter (he's on foot) who comes upon the murdered victims of a stagecoach holdup. He rides one of the the stagecoach horses into town to get help. The nervous deputy (a younger Alan Hale, Jr) is summoned (after seeing Milland ride in on the stagecoach horse) and shoots at Milland as he dismounts. Milland shoots back and wounds the deputy. Thereafter, they hunt for him high and low and block all exits out of town. Milland unknowingly takes refuge in the sick sheriff's home (under quarantine) where his daughter is nursing him back to health. The scenes between Milland and the sheriff's daughter are well done. The outcome is not decided until the final minutes of the movie. It's a good movie for Ray Milland fans and if you like good bad guys and good character actors...this is a good one for you, too.

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

Ray Milland makes use of his silent film experience to play the first half of this movie virtually without speaking. He plays the title character, a lonely man in ever sense as he finds a group of slain stagecoach passengers, is forced to kill the sheriff (Hale, Jr.), sees another man shot before his eyes, and ends up a man wanted for all the killings. A good commentary on human weakness in the "psychological" tradition, but it gets to talky and melodramatic in the second half. Good supporting cast headed by Burr, Murphy, and Bond hold up well to Milland's straightforward playing and direction. A stark, fairly convincing western.