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The Tall Stranger

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6.5/10 • 18

1957-11-171h 23m

Western

Savagely written by the author of "Hondo"!

A Union soldier returns to his western home at the end of the Civil War and finds himself caught in the middle of a land war between his greedy half-brother and a wagon train of Confederate homesteaders.

Directors
Thomas Carr
Editors
William Austin

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Joel McCrea

    Joel McCrea

    Ned Bannon

  2. Virginia Mayo

    Virginia Mayo

    Ellen

  3. Barry Kelley

    Barry Kelley

    Hardy Bishop

  4. Michael Ansara

    Michael Ansara

    Zarata

  5. Whit Bissell

    Whit Bissell

    Adam Judson

  6. James Dobson

    James Dobson

    Dud

  7. George N. Neise

    George N. Neise

    Mort Harper (as George Neise)

  8. Michael Pate

    Michael Pate

    Charley

  9. Leo Gordon

    Leo Gordon

    Stark

Reviews1

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John Chard Avatar

John Chard

Mar 3, 2020

6/10

Routine plot - efficient in execution, but beware of pan and scan monstrosity. The Tall Stranger is directed by Thomas Carr and written for the screen by Christopher Knopf from a story by Louis L'Amour. It stars Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Michael Ansara, George Neise, Whit Bissell, Adam Kennedy, Barry Kelley and Leo Gordon. A CinemaScope/De Luxe color production, film is filmed on location at two ranches in California, Morrison and Russell, with Wilfred M. Cline the cinematographer. Hans J. Salter scores the music. Plot sees McCrea as Ned Bannon, who has a run in with rustlers and left for dead. Luckily he is found in time by a wagon train heading for California. Nursed back to health, Ned becomes suspicious of two outsiders who are leading the group into a dead-end valley owned by his hostile half-brother. Ned must overcome family hostility to try and avert a range war from occurring. Solid mid 50's Oater boosted by the reliable McCrea and some dark shades within the writing. Running at just over 80 minutes, picture condenses enough old time punch ups and shootings into the story to stop the routine nature of the plotting dragging the pace down. There's even some messages in here to show the writers wanted something more than just a yeehaw production. Sadly the film is badly let down by the pan and scan process and the lifeless colour. There are very few reviews of the film about, but nobody makes mention of the bad print of the film? Certainly the current print doing the rounds for British TV is so bad it takes much away from the film. Cline's ("The Last Wagon/The Indian Fighter") location photography is barely seen - is this really in CinemaScope? - and periphery characters are heard but chopped in half! Even the normally radiant Mayo looks washed out due to the tired looking De Luxe color. There's a half decent film in the mix, but even with the best of home cinema set ups to play with, it's nigh on impossible to fully immerse oneself in the movie. 6/10

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  • The Tall Stranger poster
  • The Tall Stranger poster
  • The Tall Stranger poster
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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
land war