I refuse to believe that the dreadful Hollywood-archaic screenplay which numbs The Horsemen (Astoria) was entirely the work of Dalton Trumbo as the credits vouchsafe.

The result is curiously stodgy, over-reverent.

For all its overlength, however, it is reasonably beguiling on its [road to] nowhere.

I have long admired Mr Frankenheimer's talents, but they are overlaid here by local colour (splendid photography by Claude Renoir).