3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Cast, Etc.
Dir. Delmer Daves, Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Robert Emhardt, Richard Jaeckel, score by George Duning, unrated, 1957

Synopsis
A cattle rancher is tasked with making sure an outlaw gets on a train.

Review
A lot of the great westerns are more dramas than action, placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and seeing how they react. Such is the case with 3:10 to Yuma. Dan Evans (Heflin) is a regular rancher trying hard to make ends meet, when he comes across his cattle one day being used to hold up a stagecoach, he realizes the man in charge of the holdup is Ben Wade (Ford), an infamous outlaw. Wade takes Dan's and his sons' horses to keep them from telling the local sheriff and rides off with his gang. Later on in town, Dan is drawn into helping the sheriff and his deputies catch the outlaw in order to get him and his gang out of town. A complicated scheme is concocted to get Wade out of town and to a safe holding place where his gang won't find him. This results in Dan watching over Wade in a hotel room waiting about an entire day for the 3:10 afternoon train to Yuma to show up, at which time Dan will need to get the outlaw to the train. Along the way, his gang sniffs out where Wade is hiding and Dan's companions start to desert him. What follows is a really good psychological drama set in the old west. Van Heflin does a fine job as Dan, a normal guy who is up against the wall, so to speak, in his personal life and with finances who takes the job of guarding Wade to help pay for water rights so his cattle will survive. Glenn Ford is really good as the bad guy, a handsome and charming guy who learns early on what Dan's weakness is and tries to exploit it, offering him more money than he's ever known or imagined if he'll just let him go. The supporting cast is adequate, with Richard Jaeckel more so as Wade's right-hand man and Robert Emhardt as the Mr. Butterfield, owner of the stage that got held up and who is financing the capture of Wade. It is the duel of wits, in a way, between Dan and Wade that drives the film, though, and it is carried off by what we see as the real temptation for Dab to take Wade's offer for the sake of his wife, his kids, and his livelihood. The scenes in the hotel room are top-notch and the situation Dan finds himself in rivals the problem Will Kane had in High Noon, a man who knows what he's doing is right and is committed to seeing it through to the end regardless of what everyone else thinks. 3:10 to Yuma adds the temptation, however, making it not as clear a choice as it was for Kane. A problem with the film is that the shootouts aren't all that exciting, but the tense drama makes up for it.

Highlights
Heflin and Ford; "You owe me two dollars"; the hotel

Rating
I give this film a whiskey rating; it's pretty intense for an old western. As a western, it's really good. The villain of Wade is very good, taunting our hero every chance he gets just to try to get away. The score by Duning is okay; there is a typical '50s western title song.