- Overview
Robert Ryan plays an aging sheriff responsible for law and order in a frontier cattle town. Virginia Mayo plays his fiancee. As if handling wild cattle drovers isn't enough, a crooked casino operator from Ryan's past comes to town. An early scuffle in the casino leaves Ryan with vision problems that interfere with his duties. Jeffrey Hunter who came to town with a cattle drive encounters Ryan, who killed Hunter's father when Hunter was young. Feelings of animosity soon change as Hunter begins to sense Ryan is telling the truth about his father. What follows is a plot that continues to thicken to the inevitable showdown.
- Release Date
15 May 1956
- DirectingRobert D. Webb
- Budget
$0.00
- Revenue
$0.00
- Stars
Videos
User Reviews
See moreJohn Chard
16 May 2024
A thriving town sells its soul. The Proud Ones is directed by Robert D. Webb and adapted to screenplay by Edmund H. North and Joseph Petracca from the Verne Athanas novel. It stars Robert Ryan, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Mayo, Robert Middleton, Walter Brennan, Arthur O'Connell, Ken Clark and Rodolfo Acosta. A De Luxe Color/Cinemascope production, with music by Lionel Newman and cinematography by Lucien Ballard. Flat Rock, Kansas, and the coming of the railroad and the trail herds has the town eagerly planning for prosperity. Cass Silver (Ryan), the no nonsense marshal of Flat Rock is expecting trouble, and he gets it… Splendidly mounted Oater that features a strong cast and colourful Scope photography by one of the masters of his craft. The story is hardly breaking new ground, the narrative clearly harks to more well known genre pieces of the 50s, though the oedipal theme that runs throughout adds an extra dimension. In trying to steer the pic away from formulaic over drive, the makers insert an affliction on our tough old boy marshal, namely he is suffering bouts of dizziness and blindness, which naturally couldn't have arrived at a more inopportune moment since Cass Silver has pretty much got to tackle the town's bad eggs on his own. Or has he? Enter Hunter's angry young man, gunning for Cass because he killed his outlaw father, allegedly in cold blood. And this is where we get oedipal from, and it adds some meat to the formula skeleton. This is very good Western film making, plenty of machismo fuelled set-pieces, plenty of brooding and yearning, and it all builds to a ripper of a climax. There's few surprises in store, and Mayo and Brennan are sadly wasted, but this deserves to be better known and more importantly, it deserves to be thought of better than merely being a High Noon clone. Besides which, Robert Ryan is ace, no matter his age he always delivers grace and grizzle in equal measure. 7.5/10
More Like This
Unforgiven
William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one...
See moreNevada City
The conflict between a railroader and a stage line owner is being aggravated by bad guys who are sabotaging both sides. Roy and Gabby mediate the...
See moreThe Iron Sheriff
Frontier peacekeeper Sheriff Galt faces a crisis of conscience in The Iron Sheriff. In the aftermath of a robbery-murder, Galt follows the trail of...
See moreOpen Range
A former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman.
See moreWild Horse Stampede
Two cowboys try to protect railroad workers from rampaging Indians.
See moreCattle Empire
After serving a five year prison sentence for allowing his men to destroy a town in a drunken spree, a trail boss is hired by the same town's...
See moreEl Dorado
Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Harrah. Together with a fighter and a gambler, they help a...
See moreRed River
Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting...
See moreThe Plainsman
Calamity Jane tries to help Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickock stop an Indian war.
See moreThe Last Ride to Santa Cruz
A former sheriff begins to persecute the gang led by Pedro Ortiz, after his wife is taken away.
See moreThe Fighting Buckaroo
In this western, a lonesome cowpoke trots into a town and helps clear his pardner's name. The trouble began when the friend was framed by the...
See moreFirecreek
A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.
See moreCarry On Cowboy
Stodge City is in the grip of the Rumpo Kid and his gang. Mistaken identity again takes a hand as a 'sanitary engineer' named Marshal P. Knutt is...
See moreYoung Guns II
Three of the original five "young guns" — Billy the Kid, Jose Chavez y Chavez, and Doc Scurlock — return in Young Guns, Part 2, which is the story...
See moreTroublemakers
Two brothers who hate themselves are going to spend Christmas with their mother. She tries to get them together.
See moreThey Call Me Trinity
The simple story has the pair coming to the rescue of peace-loving Mormons when land-hungry Major Harriman sends his bullies to harass them into...
See moreRoaring Frontiers
U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok arrives in Goldfield to arrest Tex Martin, who has been accused of murdering the sheriff. "Hawk" Hammond, the man...
See moreThe Great Silence
A mute gunslinger fights in the defense of a group of outlaws and a vengeful young widow, against a group of ruthless bounty hunters.
See moreSunset in the West
Roy puts a stop to gun smuggling.
See moreBad Lands
A sheriff and his posse set out to catch a murderer, but their mission proves more dangerous than anyone suspected after they become stranded in...
See more