Clay Lomax served 7 years for bank robbery. After leaving prison, he hatches a plan to revenge his partner, who shot him in the back. But suddenly from an old friend who died, a little girl Becky appears in his life, possibly his daughter.
Director Gary Hathaway repeated the formula of his most successful film, True Courage (1969): a little girl and an old shooter in the Wild West. Except instead of John Wayne and Kim Darby, we have a duet of Gregory Peck and 8-year-old Dawn Lin. In many ways, it was the comparison with True Grit that turned out not to be in favor of this picture, which made critics and viewers react to it coolly. In my opinion, despite some similarities, this film is quite self-contained.
The film is based on the novel “The Lonely Cowboy” by Will James, which was previously filmed in 1933. For most of the film, we watch the relationship between an older shooter and a little girl. The most dramatic and tough scenes the director saved at the end. When Lomax has to protect his child.
The main character is played by Gregory Peck. There is no doubt about the skill of the actor, but for the robber and the shooter, his character turned out to be too noble. Quickly finds common ground with Decca. He has the opportunity to deal with his pursuers in the middle of the film, but for some reason lets them go.
Dawn Lin makes up a good duet with Peck, playing a brave and wayward girl, sharp on the tongue. It is also worth highlighting Susan Tyrrell as a stupid prostitute and Robert Lyons as a colorful scumbag.
Not a bad western, the penultimate film of the Hollywood classic Henry Hathaway. A little overloaded with sentimentality, but quite at the level.
7 out of 10