Posted: Sat., Dec. 31, 1955, 11:00pm PT

Backlash

By Variety Staff

Universal. Director John Sturges; Producer Aaron Rosenberg; Screenplay Borden Chase; Camera Irving Glassberg; Editor Sherman Todd; Music Herman Stein; Art Director Alexander Golitzen, Eric Orbom

Richard Widmark Donna Reed William Campbell John McIntire Barton MacLane Edward C. Platt

Richard Widmark and Donna Reed add name value to this regulation western drama. Story period is early Arizona soon after the Civil War, and most of the location lensing was done in that state for picturesque visual values.

When interest wanders from the story, the eye can always pick up scenic beauty for compensation. Interest will wander, too, because John Sturges' direction is not always sure-handed and permits some characters to wander to the ludicrous side. Such a one is the young killer played by William Campbell, who does his deadly work with an overboard Liberacean grin. When Sturges is telling the Frank Gruber novel, scripted by Borden Chase, with a straight toughness, the guidance is good; otherwise, just fair.

Identification of five white men killed in an Apache raid and of one who escaped, plus the whereabouts of $60,000 in gold the party was supposed to have had, puts the plot in gear. Jim Slater (Widmark) wants to make sure his no-good father (John McIntire) is one of the dead and not, as he secretly fears, the one who escaped with the coin. Karyl Orton (Reed) is on the search for the money, believing her husband, one of the dead, had an interest in it.

Widmark is tough enough to please those who like him best when he's mean. Reed also handles her character well, that of a girl who hasn't always been what a lady's supposed to be.

(Color) Extract of a review from 1956. Running time: 83 MIN.