Sterling Hayden, along with Macho-Man Robert Mitchum, were Contemporaries that had a Certain Charm of "Biting-the-Hand"...
Because They were Both so Good at the Craft of Acting, the Method Style of Non Acting, that They Could Send Caution to the Wind and Present Their "True-Feelings" Without Blow-Back.
Hayden, Performed to Get Money to Sail Away from it All, and Mitchum Because He Felt the Acting Profession was a Thing that Real-Men Didn't Do.
This Movie, It is Often Pointed Out, is a Remake of "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936).
But, that Only Makes it an Anomaly, a Remake that is as Good as the Original.
Made in the Early 50's Before the "Western" Genre Sunk-In and Became Entrenched, along with Science-Fiction...to Dominate the Decade.
Because of that, there was a Plethora of Pictures that were so Mainstream and Inoffensive that the Dust and Dirt and the Hard-Edged Life in the "Wild-West" were Removed for Mass-Appeal.
A Lot of What Passed was Anything but Realistic or Reflective of the "True-West".
Not so Here. Everything is somewhat Authentic from Frame-One, and Continued Throughout this Minimalist Treatment of a Man Sent to a "Hell-Hole" of a Desert Prison for Something He Did Not Do.
A Fine Cast, with Ward Bond as a Brutal Warden and James Arness as a Cell-Mate more than Make Their Mark in this Remarkable "Western" that is Worthy of More Attention and Praise.
A Must-See for "Western" Fans...For All Others it's...
Worth a Watch.
