Karten, Kugeln und Banditen

Joseph Kane is generally well regarded as a Western director, but he simply out-did himself with "Plainsman and the Lady."

Yes, he had a superlative cast, but he got more than a Western movie: He got superb performances from his actors in the drawing room, in the saloon, in the public square, on the battlefield.

"Plainsman and the Lady" -- and Republic's Herbert Yates seemed to love titles of "The Something and the Something Else" -- is, of course, fiction, based loosely on the creation of the Pony Express, although the names Russell, Majors, and Waddell were from history.

William Elliott's character, Sam Cotton -- which is, for some reason, mis-called in IMDb's listing as "Sam Colton," although I have tried to correct it on 19 April 2017 -- is pure invention, as are the Arnesens and Marquette. (In fact, I have now tried FOUR TIMES to make the corrections, and FOUR TIMES have been ignored!)

But story writers Michael Uris and Ralph Spence have tied together their real and fictive elements into an exciting story with many characters and vivid settings.

There is a huge cast, with some Western movie stalwarts such as Donald Barry, in an unfortunate role, Hal Taliaferro, veteran Paul Hurst, Jack Lambert, Noble Johnson, and someone I had never before seen in a movie, a man much more famous as a song-writer, Stuart ("Don't call me 'Stu'") Hamblen.

Such a strong cast can make a Western movie lover miss or ignore any flaws. Frankly, I doubt there were any. This is a great movie.

You can catch it where I did, at YouTube. And you should. It is, as I said, and as I will say again, a great movie.