A Man Alone (1955)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I was surprised to see that Ray Milland not only starred in this western, he directed it! The fact that a British man would star in an American western, however, did not surprise me. After all, if a Tasmanian (Errol Flynn) could star in one--why not Milland--especially since his Welsh accent was pretty faint. Plus, since the US is a country of immigrants, there MUST have been a few Brits in the Old West. However, I am sure none of them had a name like 'Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones' (Milland's actual given name)! "A Man Alone" is helped along by having a couple really good heavies--Raymond Burr (a familiar heavy of the 50s until he struck gold playing Perry Mason) and a young Lee Van Cleef (who was always menacing). These two automatically improves the movie from the onset. Ward Bond, a wonderful character actor is on hand to play the sick Sheriff. Plus, while he's not especially well-known today, Milland was a dandy actor (at least until his later years when, like Bette Davis, he would accept ANY part--and a few were pretty bad). Here he's still in his prime--a good, solid leading man--not the macho or romantic type--just a good everyman actor--and a far cry from his sophisticated image of the 1930s.This film starts off very sad. Milland is riding his horse in the middle of the American desert when he comes upon a party from a stage coach--and all of them, including the children, have been murdered. When Milland comes into town, the Deputy Sheriff sneaks up on him--Milland turns and shoots (wounding him). Now the town thinks HE was responsible for the massacre--not realizing some of the town's 'upstanding citizens' were the guilty parties. Milland discovers this but no one believes him. It's up to Milland to clear himself and ferret out the guilty parties by the end of the film.There is a major cliché that hinders the film from being one of the best westerns of the day. When Milland hides out, he just happens to hide out in the home of the Sheriff. While the Sheriff is delirious with fever, there is his pretty daughter in the home as well. When she discovers him and realized everyone is looking for him, she shelters him from the posse!!! Why would a woman do this--particularly the Sheriff's daughter?! This makes no sense--and I wish they'd not relied on such a phony plot device as this. And, when she inexplicably falls in love with him, it seems even more phony.Another cliché comes into play later in the film when Milland has his showdown with the leader of the murders (Burr). Burr refuses to draw his gun, so Milland throws away his advantage and his a fist fight! First, in a fight I am sure that the big and burly Burr would have won. Second, any SANE man would have shot out Burr's kneecaps or put a bullet in his brain--that's the only 'fair fight' that really took place in the West. The fist fight cliché is just sloppy writing.However, the film is entertaining and it does take a few nice detours apart from the clichés. As a result of good acting and part of the writing being good (only part), it is very watchable. Just don't expect a lot and you'll be happy with the results.By the way, Alan Hale is listed in the credits. This is actually Alan Hale, Jr. ('Skipper' from "Gilligan's Island")--not his famous character actor father (who was usually billed as 'Alan Hale').

Three years before making his directorial debut with this Ray Milland had starred in The Thief which was notable for a complete absence of dialogue (though there were FX) and clearly something had rubbed off because the entire first reel of A Man Alone lacks dialogue of any kind and even when it comes it is throwaway stuff during a poker game in the saloon. Milland had given the best years of his active life to Paramount but had to go to Poverty Row for a chance to direct, in fact this was one of the last films turned out by Republic. Though Milland is the only major star on offer he does feature familiar faces like Ward Bond, Alan Hale Jnr,Lee Van Cleef and Raymond Burr playing what feels like the one millionth crooked banker in Westerns. Milland in fact employs an interesting mixture of cliché and innovation; he begins with the time-honored sequence of a lone rider gradually coming closer. The rider is Milland himself who, when his horse goes lame on him is obliged to shoot it and continue on foot. Director Milland doles out information with an eye-dropper; initially he could be anyone, good, bad or indifferent, but when he has to continue on foot he discards his saddle but not before removing two large wads of serious folding money planting the suspicion that he may be a bank robber. Eventually he comes across a deserted stage coach surrounded by stiffs. He borrows one of the team and makes for the nearest town where trigger-happy deputy Alan Hale Jnr draws on him and is wounded for his pains. This is where it tends to part company with reality. On the run from a mob Milland steps into the local bank - whose back door is conveniently open even though it is night, well past opening house and especially careless inasmuch as banker Raymond Burr is discussing how he engineered the stagecoach robbery via hired hand Lee Van Cleef, who more or less admits responsibility for the carnage. Burr's partner finds this hard to stomach so Burr puts one in his back unaware that he will be able to blame this on Milland. Despite minor script flaws like this Milland turned out a fairly good first feature.

That's right, folks, perhaps the most Hitchcockian western ever made, this one. Right from the first frames, the eye is very keen: first a doll in the dust, then a peek inside the stagecoach and watching only from the knees to chest, the body of the little girl killed in a holdup. Then a very clean direction of Milland in this tale of a man falsely accused of murder and yes, On The Run. Saboteur in the West or any of the others he had the gun running from the mob etc. And finding the woman who believes him against the rest who are chasing him. The only difference here is that Milland is a gunman, whereas Hitch usually used the blank hero, flawless and innocent, chaste and chased. Otherwise he fits the bill.No western made was ever quite like this, more of a suspense film than rawhide. And very interesting. Too bad Milland was never interviewed about its peculiarities.

A Man Alone starred Ray Milland as a gunfighter who seeks refuge in the cellar of the Sheriff's house. He has come across a stage robbery, while stranded in the desert. He takes one of the horses, goes to town to report the incident, but becomes the accused instead. He runs, hides in the bank, and overhears the gang talking over the robbery. The banker is shot in the back, and again Wes (Milland) is the fall guy. He stumbles into the sheriffs cellar in a sand storm, and the next morning, trying to leave is confronted by the sheriffs daughter, Nadine. He can't leave and they become unwilling companions. The sheriff (Ward Bond) is sick with Yellow Fever. She is exhausted, and he finds her asleep, puts her to bed, and in the morning their whole relationship changes. The sheriff is awake and he must go. She wants him to stay, they embrace and from then on the situation changes. He confronts Raymond Burr, the real killer, they fight and he is wounded. He stumbles back to the house where is passes out. Nadine is in love with him, and gets the doctor to help him. The sheriff finds him there and is livid, saying that he has compromised their home. Days pass and in the mean time the sheriff must decide to let him go. The town, thinking that Wes is the murderer go after the sheriff, but Wes returns to save the day. This is a great western with stellar performances under the direction of Ray Milland. Sort of ahead of its time in the method venue. The color photography is a plus.