Daniel Ullman's script turns backroom political dealings into high drama; Tourneur's poised and lyrical direction elevates it to a sort of secular scripture.

Jacques Tourneur's first and best film in CinemaScope is also one of his strangest westerns.

This is a western in the vein of older, more naïve works, where the heroes are noble and principled, and the villains mean-spirited and untrustworthy.

A fairly intelligent and moderately entertaining Western.