Stranger On Horseback-1956-Joel McCrea

This was another of those family owned properties sitting dormant fifty years before being rescued for DVD (the producer was a Robert Goldstein). For all that time, you could about as easily have tracked down London After Midnight (Stranger was in no syndicated TV package I found). The camera negative is apparently lost (it’s no older than me after all, and I’m still here). VCI had to borrow a surviving 35mm print from the British Film Institute for the transfer. I’m imagining a Goldstein heir with no idea he’s got Stranger On Horseback possibly sitting among discarded rakes and lawn mowers in an untended LA garage.(taken from Greenbriar Picture Show)



This is why the print is not the very best quality



Adapted from a novel by Louis L'Amour, Stranger on Horseback is one of Joel McCrea's shorter western vehicles, zipping merrily along at a mere 66 minutes. McCrea plays a travelling judge who makes it his mission in life to clean up the town of Bannerman. This proves difficult, in that the town is virtually owned by the Bannerman family. But when the family's youngest son (Kevin McCarthy) commits murder, McCrea vows to bring the boy to justice -- and to see that he gets a fair trial, despite pressure from the Bannermans' enemies. Czech-Mexican actress Miroslava makes one of her rare American film appearances as McCrea's love interest; shortly after Stranger on Horseback was released, Miroslava committed suicide, allegedly as a result of an unhappy romance with bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin.



Cast:



Joel McCrea - Rick Thorne

Kevin McCarthy - Tom Bannerman

John McIntire - Josiah Bannerman

Nancy Gates - Caroline Webb

John Carradine - Lawyer

Emile G. Meyer - Sheriff Nat Bell

Robert Cornthwaite - Arnold Hammer

Walter S. Baldwin - Vince Webb

Jaclynne Greene - Paula Morison

James Bell - Vince Webb

Herb Meadow

Miroslava - Amy