ksf-2 Review of Sierra Stranger

Sierra Stranger (1957)

minor spoiler ... duff, foran in okay western

[6/10 · 13 September 2022]

This western has it all... stage holdups, fist fights, horse chases, shoot outs. When collins (howard duff) helps sonny (ed kemmer) out in a fist fight, he heads to town to help file a claim. And that's where the trouble begins. Everyone in town seems to be against him, but he's not sure why; no-one will tell him the real story, and the viewer is led to believe collins is one good guy helping another good guy. The townspeople all know that sonny is really the bad guy. Co-star dick foran was in so many westerns. Even sonny's girl (gloria mcGehee) knows he's not a good guy, but doesn't say anything. The weakness in this story is that for some reason, people who know sonny's history take a really long time to fill in collins, apparently to mislead the viewer. The townies act more like thugs, and keep starting fistfights, instead of filling collins in on how bad sonny really is. Was the original plot too close to another story, or was it just weak writing? Directed by lee sholem, who is called "roll em, sholem" on his own wikipedia page. He didn't direct many films after making this, moving mostly into television. I'll give "stranger" just an okay... there are so many better westerns, with stronger storylines.