A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.
Acting
Anthony Quinn's simmering, wounded devotion to Fonda steals every scene.
Writing
Screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur, adapting Oakley Hall's novel with real moral weight.
Cinematography
Joseph MacDonald shoots the dust-choked town like a pressure cooker.
Director
Edward Dmytryk
Richard Widmark
Johnny Gannon
Henry Fonda
Clay Blaisedell
Anthony Quinn
Tom Morgan
Dorothy Malone
Lily Dollar
Dolores Michaels
Jessie Marlow
Wallace Ford
Judge Holloway
Tom Drake
Abe McQuown
Richard Arlen
Bacon
DeForest Kelley
Curley Burne
Regis Toomey
Skinner
Vaughn Taylor
Henry Richardson
Don Beddoe
Doctor Wagner
Whit Bissell
Petrix
Bartlett Robinson
Buck Slavin
Joe Turkel
Chet Haggin (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Edward Dmytryk was one of the Hollywood Ten, returning to directing after prison and the blacklist.
The novel's author Oakley Hall considered this a loose adaptation; he preferred the 1967 TV pilot that kept his bleaker ending where order collapses entirely.
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