Horizons West (1952)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Budd Boetticher

Writer:

Louis Stevens (story)

Release Date:

11 October 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

LAWLESS RUTHLESS DEFIANCE! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Two brothers end up on opposite sides of the law in post-Civil War Texas.

Cast

Robert Ryan	...	Dan Hammond
Julie Adams	...	Lorna Hardin (as Julia Adams)
Rock Hudson	...	Neil Hammond
Judith Braun	...	Sally Eaton
John McIntire	...	Ira Hammond
Raymond Burr	...	Cord Hardin
James Arness	...	Tiny McGilligan
Dennis Weaver	...	Dandy Taylor
Frances Bavier	...	Martha Hammond
Tom Powers	...	Frank Tarleton
John Hubbard	...	Hunter
Rodolfo Acosta	...	Gen. José Escobar
Douglas Fowley	...	Ed Tompkins
Walter Reed	...	Layton
Raymond Greenleaf	...	Eli Dodson

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1953) | USA:Approved | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Andy Jauregui Ranch - Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Movie Connections:

Featured in Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

ALEXIS, DARLIN' OF TEXAS

At least it's not cut-and-dried

One of a number of interesting psychological westerns from the fifties though this isn't in the same class as the later Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott westerns, (it's let down by a poor script and poor acting). Robert Ryan and Rock Hudson play brothers returning from the Civil War to the vanquished Confederate side. Ryan goes to the bad while the mealy-mouthed Hudson stays on the side of law and order and that's basically it. But Boetticher sets up a number of interesting scenarios that make the Ryan character far from a cut-and-dried villain, (late in the film there is even a little speech as to what turned him the way he is), and the familial relationships are nicely drawn.