Rooney produced this cheap Mexico-shot western as a vehicle for himself at a time when his career was on a downturn, and he made a poor choice. Just about everything about this film is second-rate at best--the writing is awful, the photography is fuzzy and washed-out, the sound is tinny and the action scenes are badly done. Rooney plays a brassy New Yorker searching for his brother in Mexico who gets mixed up with bandits, Texas Rangers and a pretty Mexican senorita. Robert Stack plays his brother, Robert Preston is the Ranger and Wanda Hendrix is the girl. Preston--as always-does a good job, trying to breathe some life into a poorly written part. Stack is badly miscast and Hendrix is just window dressing, albeit with a terrible Mexican "accent". Director Elliot Nugent, although known primarily as a writer and playwright, had done good work in the past but had suffered what was at the time called "a nervous breakdown" and couldn't find work. He should have passed on this one. This looks like not much more than a home movie. The direction is choppy and confused, supporting performances are uniformly poor, action scenes are poorly staged (one bandit gets "shot" and falls off his horse, even though no one was shooting at him) and the overall effect is to make you wonder how much of this picture Nugent actually directed, or if Rooney or an even less talented director took over.
Just about the only "pluses" to this picture are Robert Preston and the fact that Rooney didn't try to make his character an actual cowboy, which would have been painfully embarrassing. Otherwise, this cheap, chintzy, inept western has nothing going for it.
Just about the only "pluses" to this picture are Robert Preston and the fact that Rooney didn't try to make his character an actual cowboy, which would have been painfully embarrassing. Otherwise, this cheap, chintzy, inept western has nothing going for it.