The minor western is emotionally directed by Henry Levin.

Breaking Horses, Hearts and Boys. The Lonely Man is directed by Henry Levin and written by Harry Essex and Robert Smith. It stars Jack Palance, Anthony Perkins, Elaine Aiken, Neville Brand, Robert Middleton, Elisha Cook Jr. and Claude Akins. It's a VistaVision production with cinematography by Lionel Lindon, music scored by Van Cleave and the title track sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Trying to leave his gun slinging days behind him, Jacob Wade (Palance) tries desperately to bond with his son Riley (Perkins) who blames him for his Mother's death. From the outset as Tennessee Ernie Ford warbles a soft ballad over the opening credits, you know that we are in for a Western sorrowful in tone, and so it proves. I confess it's a film I hadn't really heard of before and kind of stumbled upon it by accident. It certainly seems to be under seen, while judging by the lack of written critique's for it, most probably forgotten by those who viewed it many years ago. It's a film with problems, there is no getting away from that, but for the Western fan who has a bent for films like Shane, The Gunfighter and Unforgiven (and it is no way in the same league as these pictures) it has narrative rewards. There is very little action here, a couple of horse pursuits (though these are very well filmed and are exciting) and a short gunfight are about as thrilling as it gets, because this is very mu…

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