Roughshod

“If it’s pretty speeches you want, you won’t be hearin’ ’em,” says the cynical, on-the-run rancher Clay (Robert Sterling) in Mark Robson’s Roughshod, a cold Western noir in which a gang of ex-cons led by Lednov (John Ireland) hunt down the man whose testimony had sent them up the river. That man is Clay. Accompanied by his horses and his dutiful little brother Steve (Claude Jarman, Jr.), Clay encounters a broken-down carriage on the road and feels morally obligated to welcome the stranded passengers, a foursome of saloon girls, into his expedition, which means four new, big personalities to navigate while evading his pursuers. The particularly feisty Mary (Gloria Grahame) even falls in love with him. Joseph Biroc’s camera work is pedestrian at times, but his occasional innovation pays off, like when Lednov catches the Irishman with his new “wife” and the final shootout by the water at night.