Rugged Chuck Connors (in one of his best roles as a vengeful buffalo hunter) heads an impressive parade of Hollywood veterans and current TV stars that people this modestly pleasing and occasionally bloodthirsty Western saga: Claude Akins, Buddy Baer, Bill Bixby, Joan Blondell, Jamie Farr, Paul Fix, Frank Gorshin, Gloria Grahame, James MacArthur, Gary Merrill, Arthur O'Connell, Michael Rennie and Ruth Warrick. Connors marries wealthy beauty Kathryn Hays (the then-Mrs. Glenn Ford) but seeks to make a fortune for himself in buffalo skins, a quest which takes him 11 years and earns him $17,000. However, no sooner has he arrived back in town that he falls foul of the drunken sadism of boorish Akins, suave gambler Bixby and would-be respectable banker Rennie. Regaining his strength after being cared for by Fix, Connors soon comes face to face with Hays (who mistakes him for a saddle tramp) and, subsequently, his assailants whereupon he starts the slow process of reprisal. Bixby gets his in gruesome fashion to the torments they had themselves inflicted on Connors (with a branding iron), Akins is trashed and killed in the climactic bar-room brawl and Rennie (who is engaged to Hays) is unmasked as the thief of Connors' money. Not badly done of its kind, actually, and undeniably given a boost by that cast and its flashback structure starting out as it does in a contemporary setting with barman O'Connell narrating of the legendary events that occurred on "The Night Of The Tiger" to visiting government official MacArthur.
Review of Ride Beyond Vengeance
