Good film with deft performances from all concerned with continual element of surprises , thrills , humour and turning of the tables . Revolving around a lawman : Audie Murphy , nicknamed "Seven Ways from Sundown" Jones- thus the title- joins the Texas Rangers , as he puts on a badge as a Texas Ranger , accompanying ranger-veteran Hennessey : John McIntire . As his first assignment is to capture the bad guy , skillfully played by Barry Sullivan. Catching him, in New Mexico, is not near the job that getting him back to a Texas jail . Along the way , Audie has to escort back to justice, while must fight and standing against impossible odds , as he has to confront outlaw Sullivan , gunmen and Indians . On the way back to town the two develop a special relationship and while turning-of-the-tables and passes up numerous chances to escape - but in the end Sullivan "asks for it" and Murphy obliges.
An intelligent and brooding Western with a great main and support cast giving awesome interpretations , concerning a curiously close relationship between amiable Audie and wily gunslinger Sullivan . Decent and enjoyable Western with magnificent interpretations from Barry Sullivan and Audie Murphy and a splendid plethora of secondaries . An intelligent , adult and impressively tense Western based on a story and screenplay by Clair Huffaker . The inventive storyline has the vein of humour that keeps this sort of movie going well , and of course , adding usual fights and shootouts , here with a subtle difference . A top-notch cast under superb direction by Harry Keller makes this movie notable in every aspect , being shot on Universal International Pictures scenarios and locations that serve to increase the mood of extreme tension .This acceptable , simple , powerful picture tells a peculiar and likeable relationsip , though , ultimately , things go wrong . Hollywood production full of interesting characters , shootouts and intense drama . This ¨Seven Ways from Sundown¨not the best Western ever,...but pretty darn close . Director managed to create a nice work of art with fine acting , appropriate scenarios , and attractive plot . It provides wonderful sociological lessons that are timeless and transcend the genre . Bursting with appealing , top-drawer characters, including adequate filmmaking and interpretation . The confrontation results to be tense , charged and riveting . This is one of a clutch of acceptable horse operas Universal International Pictures made in the forties , in the late 50s and the early sixties . Here Murphie is again the kid , giving an agreeable acting as ¨Seven ways from Sundown¨whose father numbered the kids and the mother embellished the numbers . While Barry Sullivan is Jim Flood, a famous outlaw who eluded the law for years . They are well accompanied by gorgeous Venetia Stevenson , and an extraordinary plethora of secondaries as John McIntire Kenneth Tobey , Mary Field , Suzanne Lloyd , Don Haggerty , Jack Kruschen , among others .
Thrilling and atmospheric music by Irving Gertz and William Lava . As
well as colorful and brilliant Cinematography by Ellis W. Carter. The motion picture was efficiently produced by Gordon Kay and professionally directed by Harry Keller . Harry worked at Republic Pictures , specializing in westerns , where he shot a lot , such as : Phantom Stallion , Red River Shore ,Paso Stampede , Bandits of the West , Savage Frontier , Marshal of Cedar Rock , Thundering Caravans , Black Hills Ambush , Rose Cimarron , Fort Dodge , Stampede , Desert of lost men , Tarnished and most of them starred by Allan Lane and Rex Allen . When that studio folded he went to Universal, directing westerns again : Quantez , Gundown at Sandoval , 6 Black Horses , interspersed with some dramas/thrillers : Step Down to Terror , Man Afraid , Voice in the mirror , Female Animal , comedies : Tammy and the Doctor and war pictures : In Enemy Country. In the late 1960s he stopped directing films and started producing them, although he did keep his hand in directing TV shows. And making TV Westerns : Texas John Slaughter : Stampede at Bitter Creek ; Texas John Slaughter : Wild times . Keller gained some degree of fame as the director called in by Universal to reshoot scenes from Orson Welles' masterpiece Touch of evil (1958), and by most accounts -including Welles'- matched Welles' style quite well . Rating . 6.5/10 . Better than average western . Well worth watching , exciting stuff .
