An odd film, both in content and setting. I cannot figure out why the film was set in an Arizona ghost town other than to make use of pre-existing sets. I also always have a hard time buying the "town with a dark secret" scenario....
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An odd film, both in content and setting. I cannot figure out why the film was set in an Arizona ghost town other than to make use of pre-existing sets. I also always have a hard time buying the "town with a dark secret" scenario. Generally, the fear of all strangers just makes the viewer wonder how the town could even function at all.

Still there are some good things. I like the numerous shots of citizens staring out of the hotel window early on, I especially like Borgnine and Brennan. Lee Marvin bores me here. The film works best as a mystery, as Tracy works his way through the colorful locals (for example the loose-lipped "doc" and the drunken sheriff) to get at the truth of a murder involving the town's leading citizen.

There are still towns like this in the American west, but few where all the able-bodied men are standing around to see if the train stops once every four years. A lot of this seems cliche to me, but there must be something to it, the theme is repeated in many dramas over the years.