Wow, this was a surprise for me. I almost didn't watch it because I'm stupid enough to be turned off by B&W, but I've been getting into westerns recently, so I gave it a try.. I'm glad I did. I don't want to give away too much about the plot, but I will say it never stagnates. I was pretty disappointed in the beginning because it seemed like it was going to be a drama, but the plot changed, it quickly grew in tension, and it never let up. The movie only gets better as each scene passes, and the final act is just fantastic.

This is my first Andre De Toth movie, and he wholly impressed me. From the brilliant outdoor shots to his tense one-shot camera panning, everything he did brought something to the screen. Even his use of back projection and a movie set looked great, and since they were minimally used, they only supported the realism of the rest of the movie. I don't know how De Toth shot a lot of the movie since Tarantino was complaining about how hard it was shooting the same type of movie in the same type of conditions. De Toth didn't have 2015 technology to keep him comfortable during the process, but he got it done with flying colors. For me, it makes this movie that much more impressive, especially shots like horses trudging through five feet of snow with no cutaway.

On top of everything else, the acting was superb. Everyone had a different purpose, and they all played out their character arc perfectly. Since there are so many changes that "Day of the Outlaw" goes through, in terms of plot, everyone has a chance to be in a few different types of movie in the relatively short running time of one.

2 / 2 directing & technical aspect
1 / 2 story
1 / 1 acting
1 / 1 pacing
1 / 1 dialogue
1 / 1 living up to its genre
1 / 1 originality
0 / 1 lasting ability to make you think

.5 / 0 miscellaneous +/- point

8.5 / 10

_**Robert Ryan and Ginger stuck in a snowy mountain town beleaguered by rogues**_

A tough cattleman (Robert Ryan) in bleak Bitters, Wyoming, is willing to use deadly force to stop a rancher (Alan Marshal) who’s fencing-in the area, but a band of rogue cavalry men led by Capt. Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives) interrupt their quarrel. Tina Louise plays the rancher’s wife, Venetia Stevenson a girl in the town and David Nelson a reasonable member of the gang.

“Day of the Outlaw” (1959) is a B&W psychological Western shot in the Oregon Cascades. It’s similar to Westerns from the same period by Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher, not to mention just as good or better. The protagonist (Ryan) isn’t a hero, but rather a tortured man ready to make a last stand; meanwhile Bruhn (Ives) isn’t wholly corrupted and still has some sense of nobility. Several of his hardened men, however, have clearly crossed over into the dark side.

Tina Louise, who would play Ginger from Gilligan’s Island in 5-6 years, is younger & cuter here while Venetia Stevenson is nimble and winsome. You might remember Venetia from her jaw-dropping role in “The City of the Dead,” aka “Horror Hotel” (1960).

Director Andre DeToth was having personal problems at the time of shooting and it affected the mood of the set, plus there were other issues, like snowstorm delays, Ryan missing a week due to pneumonia and DeToth changing his mind about scene locations at the last minute, etc. Perhaps the biggest problem was that the budget was low and, when they ran out of finances, DeToth & crew just packed-up and went back to Los Angeles.

Producers & editors had to make do with what was shot, which explains some weaknesses here and there. Scriptwriter Philip Yordan lamented “what could have been.”

The movie runs 1 hour, 32 minutes, and was shot in central Oregon at Dutchman Flat & Todd Lake Meadows about 20 miles east of the town of Bend in late November thru early December, 1958.

GRADE: B+/A-

There are things worse, ma'am, than dancing with lonely men.

Cowboys and ranchers must stick together when a gang of outlaws ride into town intent on causing trouble and abusing the town. Even though the outlaw leader, ex army Captain Jack Bruhn has them under some sort of control, salvation may have to come from the moody Blaise Starrett, who has his own secret agendas to deal with.

Day Of The Outlaw (poor title not befitting the quality of the film) is directed by André De Toth ("Ramrod", "Crime Wave" & "House of Wax") and stars Robert Ryan, Burl Ives & Tina Louise. Adapted from the novel written by Lee E. Wells, it's a film that is crying out to be seen by more people, especially those with an aversion to Westerns. For although grounded in Western tradition, it comes across more as a moody film noir piece in a cold wintry Western setting

The atmosphere throughout hangs heavy like a weighted burden, with this tiny tin pot town in the snowy swept mountains photographed starkly by Russell Harlan. This is some out of the way place that nobody but its small inhabitants care about (appropriately it's called Bitters), and even those that do are probably doing so more out of ill judged loyalty to having not tasted something else before.

Robert Ryan was a terrific actor, often only mentioned when talk turns to famous pictures like "The Wild Bunch" & "The Dirty Dozen", but it's with performances like here, or "The Set-Up" & "Crossfire", that he really puts a depth and critical layers to his talent. Burl Ives is also great, his weary and scarred Bruhn is almost in empathy with Starrett and the townsfolk, so much so, we are never quite sure just how this picture will end.

Tina Louise rounds out the leads, and apart from being an incredibly sexy woman, she does some great facial acting here, particularly during a section of the pic where the outlaws demand dances with the ladies. This is laden with a vile undercurrent, with Louise perfectly portraying the threat with acting gravitas. With astute directing and acting to match the bleak and sombre soaked story, "Day Of The Outlaw" comes highly recommended to fans of atmospheric enveloped cinema. 9/10