Tension at Table Rock

Frank Gruber's novel "Bitter Sage" becomes highly-engrossing western from R.K.O. Richard Egan (amusingly expressionless, and cutting a mighty figure in his cowboy garb) plays a gunslinger whose best friend turns on him, ending with the friend shot dead; hoping to escape his reputation as a coward, Egan's Wes Tancred first goes to stay with a lonesome rancher and his son (ending in a rather unfair violent episode), later winding up in a town under the fear-grip of a nasty bunch of rowdies who invade the territory every so often during their cattle drive. Combining several familiar scenarios (such as those for "High Noon" and "Shane"), the movie nevertheless gets quite a bit of sagebrush excitement pumping, with the viewer completely on Egan's side (if this film didn't break handsome Egan as a big Hollywood name, it should have). Billy Chapin (from "The Night of the Hunter") is excellent as the lad who takes a shine to Tancred, and Dorothy Malone is also good as a lonely sheriff's wife. Eddy Arnold hauntingly sings the theme song, which plays a major part in the proceedings. Predictable, perhaps, but it's a formula that works when it is done right, and here it is done right. *** from ****