JohnHowardReid Randolph Scott (Owen Merritt), Joan Leslie (Laurie Bidwell), Ellen Drew (Nan Melotte), Alexander Knox (Will Isham), Richard Rober (Fay Dutcher), John Russell (Hugh Clagg), Alfondo Bedoya (Cultus Charlie), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Bourke Prine), Clem Bevans (Pay Lankershim), Cameron Mitchell (George Virk), Richard Crane (Duke Virk), Frank Sully (Lee Repp), Don Beddoe (Love Bidwell), George Lloyd (Tom Croker), James Kirkwood (Sheriff Medary), Frank Hagney (Ned Bale), Frank Ellis (townsman), Tennessee Ernie Ford (wrangler).Director: ANDRE DE TOTH. Screenplay: Kenneth Gamet. Based on the novel by Ernest Haycox. Photographed in Technicolor by Charles Lawton, junior. Film editor: Charles Nelson. Art director: George Brooks. Set decorator: Frank Tuttle. Technicolor color consultant: Francis Cugat. Music: George Duning. Songs: Harold Lewis (music) and Ralph Murphy (lyrics). Music director: Morris Stoloff. Assistant to the producer: Herbert Stewart. Assistant director: Willard Reineck. Sound recording: Frank Goodwin. Associate producer: Randolph Scott. Producer: Harry Joe Brown. Executive producers: Harry Joe Brown, Randolph Scott. A Scott-Brown Production, released through Columbia Pictures. Copyright 7 December 1951 by Producers Actors Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 2 December 1951. U.K. release: 28 June 1952. Australian release: 11 September 1952. 87 minutes.U.K. release title: The OUTCAST. SYNOPSIS: Owen Merritt, a small rancher, has to stand aside and see his ambitious girlfriend, Laurie Bidwell, marry a wealthy neighbor, Will Isham. Laurie's heart, however, is still with Owen. When Isham realizes this, he determines to destroy his rival.COMMENT: This promising theme is none too well handled by a group of first-class technicians who should have known better than fall back on such old-fashioned devices as under-cranking the camera to speed up the action. Although well-motivated, the script also fails to deliver. The story develops into one long gun-fight, with brief interludes of talkative peace. The lovely Ellen Drew is wasted as Scott's also-ran love interest.

classicsoncall Here's a Randolph Scott Western with a very perplexing ending. The character of Laurie Bidwell Isham (Joan Leslie) was so inconsistent it managed to spoil what could have been an effective story. OK, she married Will Isham (Alexander Knox) for his wealth and ambition after throwing over Owen Merritt (Scott), the laid back rancher. Having second thoughts about the whole thing made sense, but after she planned to run off with Owen and then opted to stay with the heel, that just ripped it. For the writers, it seemed like a necessary angle for Scott's character to close the deal with Nan Melotte (Ellen Drew), but it should have been handled a lot more cleverly. Oh well.Otherwise the story moved along at a nice pace and delivered it's share of action and suspense. One thing that seems virtually impossible to me though, and it's happened in a handful of Westerns I've seen, is how easily one can disengage the hitch on a runaway wagon the way Owen did in this one. It's often done with railroad cars as well, and I bet if you tried it yourself you'd strike out a hundred out of a hundred times because of the pressure forces at work.I saw John Russell's name in the opening credits and darn if I didn't recognize him when he showed up as the taciturn henchman Hugh Clagg. The picture staged a fairly impressive one on one between Russell and Scott, that had to be carried outside after the cabin they were in fell apart. Seriously, you have to see it for yourself. They had a nice tumble down the hillside as well, but I had to wonder why Clagg's horse would have been waiting for him where he landed to make a getaway. Just like I wondered how Owen and Nan managed to drive their wagon up the mountain in the first place. If there was a clear trail to that cabin, why didn't Clagg use it to get there? But tell you what, Randolph Scott didn't let me down in the wardrobe department. He donned his trademark all black outfit for the final showdown with the baddies, complementing it with a nice bandanna flourish. Bad guy Isham didn't make it to the end of the picture, so you're left to wonder whether Laurie wound up selling out to Merritt after he closes with Nan in a clinch. And steenkin' badges aside, Alfonso Bedoya fulfills his picture long wish to get a new hat.

utgard14 Joan Leslie loves Randolph Scott but marries wealthy Alexander Knox. The super jealous Knox isn't satisfied having Joan; he also wants Scott dead. So he hires gunmen to kill him. Scott survives the attack and is nursed back to health by Ellen Drew, who's in love with him. Once better he sets out to settle things with Knox and his hired guns. So-so western soaper has a nice cast but doesn't rise above average. Scott's fine, as is most of the cast. Hard to buy sweet Joan Leslie as hard and ambitious. This is one of those westerns where the good guy wears a bright yellow neckerchief and the bad guy wears black gloves. Watchable but forgettable.

Spikeopath Man in the Saddle is directed by Andre De Toth and adapted to screenplay by Kenneth Gamet from the novel written by Ernest Haycox. It stars Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie, John Russell, Ellen Drew, Alexander Knox, Richard Rober and Guinn Williams. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr.More known and rightly lauded for the series of Western films he made with Budd Boetticher, it often gets forgotten that Randolph Scott also had a long working relationship with Andre De Toth. Man in the Saddle was the first of six Western films the two men would make together, and it's a pretty impressive start.Sometimes you see words such as routine and standard attributed to a lot of Westerns from the 1950s, and Man in the Saddle is one such film that's unfairly tarred with that brush. Not that the narrative drive is out of the ordinary, the plot essentially sees Randy as a peaceful farmer forced to get nasty when evil land baron flexes his muscles, but the zest of the action, the stunt work, the colour photography (Lone Pine as always a Mecca for Western fans) and Scott, mark this out as a thoroughly entertaining production.Characterisations carry a bit more psychological smarts than your average "B" Western of the era. There's a four way tug-of-love-war operating that is clearly going to spell misery, pain and death for somebody, a capitalist slant that bites hard with its egotistical bully boy overtones, while the obsessive behaviour of the principal players adds another dark cloud over this part of the West. Then there is the action scenes, of which De Toth once again shows himself to be a darn fine purveyor of such directional skills.And so, we get an ace runaway blazing wagon sequence, a stampede, a quite brilliant gunfight in a darkened saloon, a mano-mano fist fight that literally brings the house down – and then continues down a steep ravine, and the closing shoot-out played out during a dust storm doesn't lack for adrenaline rushes. Scott is once again a bastion of Western coolness, more so when he throws off the bright attire he wears for the first half of film, to then switch to black clothes that signifies he's going all bad ass on those who have caused him grief.Undervalued for sure, both as a Scott picture and as a Western movie in general. Don't believe the routine and standard scare mongers, there's good craft here and it's a whole bunch of Oater fun. 7.5/10