The Man from Bitter Ridge

source: The Man from Bitter Ridge

The Man from Bitter Ridge

Express company agent Lex Barker and sheepman Stephen McNally are reluctant allies and rivals for the hand of Mara Corday. Allies they have to be against three brothers John Dehner, Myron Healey, and Warren Stevens who not only are responsible for a whole lot of crimes, but Dehner is an ambitious man. He's embarked on a political career that has him running against local sheriff Trevor Bardette. A lot of what they're robbing is for his campaign expenditures, not for this, but because Dehner wants to be governor. Can't say he's not ambitious. Dehner's the brains and Healey and Stevens are the muscle end of the organization. It's your average shoot 'em up western with an interesting political twist to the proceedings. The climax involves a shootout where the whole town seems to be involved. It's putting a real crimp into the scheduled election for sheriff. Western fans should like this.

A pretty good time waster. Effective, fast paced, with very good action sequences. The cast is also adequate: Stephen Mac Nally, Lex Barker, Mara Corday, and John Dehner as the bad guy: a banker involved with a gang of stagecoach robbers, outlaws. But unfortunately the topic is rather foreseeable. Barker is the guy who is accused for being one of the outlaws who robbed the stagecoach. And he finds an allied in Stephen Mac Nally, a sheep man. The gunfights sequences at the end of the movie are vibrating. A good western, but we are far away from NO NAME ON THE BULLET, also directed by Jack Arnold and, I admit, a rather psychological western.