Die Revolverhand

A rancher is pressured by his cheating wife and a gang leader, into trying to cripple a marshal's gun hand, after that marshal killed his murderous son in self defense.

He Rides Tall is a cut above many of the westerns released at time with some strong noirish drama at play. It has some good characterisation, quite compelling ones. Sure it's low-budget, and looks like a TV show, but it's well handled by Springsteen and Dan Duryea steals the scene as the villain and he's quite callous in his treatment of a cheating wife by passing her to the Indians. There's a well-staged shootout in a darkened room.

It's a decent western that keeps one watching, however a better lead actor would have made this western better. Tony Young is ok, but overall he lacks personality and looks like he's reading from a cue card. Shame Audie Murphy didn't star in this one. He probably would have if he hadn't made westerns for other studios during this time. In the opinion of producer Gordon Kay he felt if Murphy had stuck with Universal only he would have made westerns with them till '69. But Audie needed money to feed his gambling habit so he made westerns with Columbia/20th century Fox studios.