Day of the Outlaw Reviews

A stark, cold-looking western starring Ives as the savage leader of a group of Army renegades who take over a lonely town. The settlement is doomed to having its women raped and its men killed unless someone takes a stand against the outlaws. Finally, no-nonsense rancher Ryan, seeing that the townsfolk would rather let themselves be overrun than fight, reluctantly takes on Ives and his marauders, which leads to a final gun battle between the rancher and the outlaw leader in the middle of a raging snowstorm. Ryan and Ives turn in brilliant performances and the film has an unusually powerful look; the black-and-white photography by Russell Harlan really conveys the bleakness and isolation that are essential to the mood of the story. This is well worth seeing.