Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fantastic!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Somewhat tacky entry in the genre of films about murderous lovers and their inevitable undoing. Robert Ryan (Carson) is good as a tycoon who shows excellent coping skills after being abandoned in the California desert by his unfaithful wife Geraldine (Rhonda Fleming) and her slimy lover Duncan (William Lundigan). It's a little tiresome overhearing Carson's thought processes, but how else are we going to know what's going on, and he does OK in a physically demanding role. The lovers are much poorly written by comparison, and we never quite believe that they'd kill to be together. Geraldine spends most of her time looking sexy and worried, and Duncan gains entry to the cad's hall of fame with one particularly callous toss of a canteen. Ouch!!The movie ends on a genuinely touching note, with a message about man helping his fellow man. I loved Ryan's final words to his wife. This may not be a film for the ages, but it definitely kept my interest.

Boy the reviews here are pretty strong for a mediocre crime/survival drama. It's worth watching but I don't get the love even though I'm a lifelong desert rat (on the other hand maybe that's why I'm unimpressed, the desert scenes are as over-dramatized as they are weak).Ryan does an OK job winning our sympathy once he's been out in the desert a while but the scenes where he's trying to move/climb/hunt are so hokey that it gets a bit comical. The actual best part IMO is the ridiculous melodrama of Fleming and Lundigan dealing with fear that someone will figure out what they did as their lust smolders back at the awesome vintage 50s motel.As for the 3D well I was never a fan (except for the so-bad-it's-awesome Treasure Of The Four Crowns) or the contrived ways most 3D films try and mix in an object headed at the screen but if you want to see someone throw a knuckle curve with a kerosene lantern, this is the movie for you!

I was at a disadvantage in not seeing this film in it's original 3-D. But even as a 2-D character thriller, it's pretty effective in a B-movie way. In its time, it wasn't seen as a B-movie, with the high end 3D process, and being one of the first films in stereo. But seeing it as a B-movie now gives a better feel for its strengths (which are considerable) and forgiveness for it's weaknesses. A man with a broken leg has been left to die out in the Mojave desert by his wife and her younger lover. While this couple 's actions are clearly unforgivable, the man they abandon isn't particularly sympathetic himself. As played by Robert Ryan he's a wealthy, selfish spoiled brat, used to having things on his terms, not caring much for the feelings of others. I admired the film's bravery in having such a hard to like anti-hero, and still succeeding in getting us caught up in his struggle to survive. (If this were made today, Hollywood would never dare have a survival film hero this dark). It's sort of desert film noir – bright and colorful instead of black and white and shadowy, but the feel is the same – a world of seedy characters and moral quagmires. On first viewing, while always interesting, it lacked those deeper layers that make a classic noir. I enjoyed it, will re-watch it, but never felt deeply involved emotionally and started to forget it fairly quickly once it was done. Whereas, say, 'Double Indemnity', was permanently stamped on my brain from a first viewing. So this might not be a classic, but it's still well- worth catching.Hard to find on DVD, but there is a decent Spanish release you can track down. And rumor has it that a long overdue US release if finally in the works.

****SPOILERS**** Left alone in the desert with a broken leg millionaire Donald Carson, Robert Ryan, chances of survival are almost nil with his scheming employee and wife Joseph Duncen & Geraldine, Willian Lundigan & Ronda Fleming, purposely letting him die of exposer. By not reporting his whereabouts to the police and sending them on a wild goose chase some 70 in the other direction from where Carson is.Were not really told if Carson's accident was planned by Duncan & Geraldine or was a golden opportunity that they both took advantage of. Still it gave the two the excuse to have Carson put out of their lives and take over his multi-million dollar investment empire. When he's eventually found dead with them getting off Scot-free by letting the broiling and inhospitable desert do their dirty work.In the desert with little food and water Carson at first about gave up on surviving. Later as he became more and more outraged by what his wife and her lover did to him his anger drove Carson to bring himself back almost from the dead to have his revenge on them.Back home Geraldine and Duncan live it up in Carson's mansion expecting any day now to hear the news that he was found dead in the desert. But the longer they wait the more they become curious and fearful that Carson may have, just may have, survived! That would mean 10 to 15 years behind bars not the life of luxury that they were both looking forward to.Penetrating story about crime and punishment with an amazing twist ending that turns the tables on Carson's would-be murders. With an inferno that's hotter and more deadlier then the worst desert heat wave. Robert Rayn as the millionaire businessman Donald Whitley Carson III who's always used to having things done for him is driven to do things for himself. As he tries to get back to civilization and get even with those who left him for dead in the desert. Getting help from an old desert prospector Sam Elby, Henry Hull,as Carson tracked by both Duncan and Geraline who came back to the scene of the crime to see if Carson was really dead and if not finish the job by making sure that he is. Carson attacked by Duncan in Elby's cabin, after Duncan knocked out the old man, has it out with him as the place goes up in flames from the carnage that resulted. Geraldine who tried to double-cross her lover Duncan by leaving him out in the desert, like she did to her husband Donald Carson, gets side tracked when the car she was to make her getaway hit a sharp bolder ripping up the gas-tank causing it, the liquid, to flood and damage the drive shaft immobilizing it . The movie comes full circle when Geraldine is left alone in the desert and of all people her husband Donald Carson, whom she tried to murder, came driving along the wind swept and deserted desert road, with old man Elby, to give her a lift back home for a long stretch in the State penitentiary.