For 20 years Marshal Frank Patch has maintained law and order in the town of Cottonwood Springs the only way he knows how - with his fists and a gun. But now he faces mounting pressure from the leaders of the community, anxious to attract eastern investors; they see him as an anachronism who has outgrown his usefulness. Patch, however, is not to be got rid of without a fight.
Richard Widmark fills the classic Western role of the lawman facing the challenge of changing times and value quite well, and there's some good action sequences, but apart from that it's a very dull western that is quite talky, has some bizarre scenes of a woman eating chicken in the saloon - it's a typical type of western released in the late 60's, signalling the end of the genre. The end of the gunfighter. The passing of the west.
Richard Widmark fills the classic Western role of the lawman facing the challenge of changing times and value quite well, and there's some good action sequences, but apart from that it's a very dull western that is quite talky, has some bizarre scenes of a woman eating chicken in the saloon - it's a typical type of western released in the late 60's, signalling the end of the genre. The end of the gunfighter. The passing of the west.