Day of the Outlaw (1959)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

An Andre de Toth western. Not my favorite. I've never appreciated Robert Ryan as an actor. Too somber, lacking in emotion, especially in westerns, for me. Burl Ives' character is very similar to that of Rufus Hannassey, in "The Big Country"', released the previous year. He treats his motley crew of desperados just like he treats his adult sons in the prior film. He functioned as their collective conscience and disciplinarian. One reviewer wondered what hold Ives had over his gang that made them stick with him and submit to his pronouncements. It would be nice if we had an inkling of how he accumulated this gang: all at once or individually. What they all wanted was a fair share in the $40,000. in gold from a stolen army payroll. It's not clear why several or all of his gang didn't demand dividing the gold at this point and perhaps scattering to make tracing them more difficult. It wasn't clear where the badly wounded Ives was leading his gang, other than away from the distantly pursuing cavalry. It was in the interest of the people in the small settlement his gang took over to do what they could(an operation by a veterinarian!) to try to prolong his life at least until he decided to leave, and give the people back their town. If he died before they left, the others clearly would have gone wild, since they had all the guns. We saw how wild they acted with the women during the organized dance, sometimes trying to force a kiss or hug, even with Ives watching.......I don't understand some things in the last part of the trek by the gang plus Robert Ryan through the snow, over a mountain, to hopefully throw off their pursuers. As predicted, Ives succumbed during this trek, leaving the others free to decide what to do. They don't want Ryan to die, ,because he's the only one familiar with this route. The number in the party gradually dissipates until only 2 gang members are still with Ryan. They stop for a while. Ryan distances himself and mounts his horse as if he's going to ride away. One shoots his horse, which falls down. Later, Ryan mounts another horse and starts back where they came from. One gang member picks up his rifle and aims at Ryan, as he passes by. But he holds his shot, then falters and collapses on the snow! He wasn't wounded, so I assume he passed out from exhaustion. Strangely, the other gang member didn't try to stop or join Ryan. What happened to the 2 pack horses that had previously turned around to go back where they came from? What happened to the gold? Was it mainly in saddlebags, or were the pack animals carrying it? When Ryan returns to the settlement, he finds that gang member Nelson, the mildest mannered one, had somehow walked through the deep snow all the way back to the settlement, after his horse had keeled over. Amazing! Was Ryan now prepared to renew his feud with sodbuster Hal Crane over putting up barbed wire fencing? Their duel in the saloon was interrupted by the arrival of Ives' gang......At one point, Ryan told Hal's wife that he felt he was no different than the gang members, only they didn't pretend to be anything else. Was Ryan's suggestion that the gang take this perilous route across the mountain a veiled suicide mission? See it at YouTube

There's a fine off-beat (b/w) western hiding behind that generic title. In a small snowed-in outpost town, a land dispute between self-appointed lawmaker Robert Ryan and other residents is interrupted by the arrival of runaway cavalry soldiers and gold thieves (led by Burt Ives, who's very good, as is the whole cast). It's more psychological than action-packed, and never quite plays out the way you'd expect. Based on a novel by Lee Wells. With Tina Louise, Venetia Stevenson, Nehemiah Persoff, Elisha Cook Jr. (barely in it as a barber), Jack Lambert, Lance Fuller, Frank De Kova, Dabbs Greer, William Schallert, Betsy Jones-Moreland (LAST WOMAN ON EARTH), Arthur Space and Robert Cornthwaite. It would make a good bleak winter western double-bill with THE GREAT SILENCE. Yordan wrote that other notably weird western JOHNNY GUITAR, among others.Movie reviews at: spinegrinderweb.com

In the end of the Nineteenth Century, the tough cowboy Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) arrives in the snowing village of Bitters with his foreman Dan (Nehemiah Persoff) with the intention of killing the farmer Hal Crane (Alan Marshal) using the pretext of the barbed wire he is running around his farm. However, Blaise really wants his wife Helen (Tina Louise) with whom he had a love affair. During the showdown between the cowboys and ranchers in the saloon, the violent gang of outlaws led by Captain Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives) appears out of the blue interrupting their quarrel. Jack Bruhn, who is a notorious captain of the army responsible for the massacre of a village of Mormons, disarms the men and explains that they have robbed the payment of the army and a cavalry is chasing them. He is wounded and wants to spend the night in the village and he gives his word to the locals that his gunners will not touch the women. Further he orders the barman to hide the booze from his men. When the local veterinary removes the bullet from the chest of Jack Bruhn, he realizes that he might have an internal bleeding and not survive. Blaise decides to lure the criminals and lead them in a journey with no return. "Day of the Outlaw" is a bleak and original Western in a snowing landscape and based on a historical fact of North America: the violent confrontation between farmers and ranchers that ran barbed wire around their own land and public land that they used for grazing without permission and people that cut the barbed wire. The cinematography is magnificent and the sequences in the snow are impressive, with the horses submitted to a great effort to ride through the mountains. The performances are stunning with Robert Ryan and Burl Ives in the role of strong and tough characters. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Quadrilha Maldita" ("The Damned Gang")

Cowboys and ranchers must stick together when a gang of outlaws ride into town intent on causing trouble and abusing the town. Even tho their leader, ex army Captain, Jack Bruhn has them under some sort of control, salvation may have to come from the moody Blaise Starrett, who has his own secret agenda to deal with.Day Of The Outlaw {poor title not befitting the quality of the film} is directed by André De Toth {Ramrod, Crime Wave & House of Wax} and stars Robert Ryan, Burl Ives & Tina Louise. Adapted from the novel written by Lee E. Wells, it's a film that is crying out to be seen by more people, especially those with an aversion to Westerns. For although grounded in Western tradition, it comes across more as a moody Noir piece, the atmosphere throughout hangs heavy like a weighted burden, with this tiny tin pot town in the snowy swept mountains photographed starkly by Russell Harlan. This is some out of the way place that nobody but its small inhabitants care about, and even those that do are probably doing so more out of ill judged loyalty to having not tasted something else before.Robert Ryan was a terrific actor, often only mentioned when talk turns to famous pictures like The Wild Bunch & The Dirty Dozen, but it's with performances like here, or The Set-Up & Crossfire, that he really puts a depth and critical layers to his talent. Burl Ives is also great, his weary and scarred Bruhn is almost in empathy with Starrett and the townsfolk, so much so, we are never quite sure just how this picture will end. Tina Louise rounds out the leads, and apart from being an incredibly sexy woman, she does some great facial acting here, one sequence as the outlaws demand dances with the ladies is laden with a vile undercurrent, with Louise perfectly portraying the threat with acting gravitas. With astute directing and acting to match the almost sombre soaked story, Day Of The Outlaw comes highly recommended to fans of atmospheric enveloped cinema. 9/10