Good start, but then it gets ruined

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Guy Madison made this picture near the end of his series run in "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok". I'm currently watching "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" running on Encore Westerns, and trying to decide who the better looking lawman was, Madison as Hickok or Hugh O'Brian as Earp. I guess it could be a toss up, so I bring it up for the reader to decide.Now if Michael Landon appeared here, it might have been a three way contest. Instead, his 'Bonanza' Dad Lorne Green played the quintessential bad guy/town boss who didn't like to get his own hands dirty, so he hired out gunslingers to do his nasty work. None of them proved to be a match for Madison's character, Steve Burden, who outdrew and out fought every henchman Rice Martin (Green) threw up against him. That included his wife Fern Martin (Valerie French), who had no problem using up men like paper towels and throwing them on the scrap heap.The story plays out rather formulaic, but what bothered me were the couple of times Steve Burden allowed himself to get up close and personal with the shrewish Fern Martin (French). I guess if part of his plan was to draw her out to expose her husband's rustling operation and implication in a friend's death at the beginning of the story, then it worked. But even if it hadn't, Fern made the same fatal mistake a lot of outlaws do when she shot her husband with three witnesses present. Losing one's head like that is always a bad career move.Since I brought up the Wyatt Earp TV series earlier, keep a sharp eye out for a couple of that show's regulars in the cast. Myron Healey doesn't last long in this story when he's shot by Burden to open the picture; he portrayed Doc Holliday for a couple of seasons along side O'Brian. Also on hand was that show's Old Man Clanton, Trevor Bardette, here playing an opportunistic weasel by the name of Willis, picking up stray jobs and booze for pay from Rice Martin. He's the guy shot off the roof by El Solito town sheriff Harker (Robert Burton), in a move described by Burden as 'the best shot he's ever seen'.

This is a very poor western; I found it difficult to watch. For the first 80% or so, it has a ridiculous, pompous, almost juvenile, turgid screenplay. A second strike against it is that it is bad despite its decent production values and cast. One interesting aspect is that it is unlike most poor movies which often start out as an intriguing, entertaining situation, but are eventually found out for what they are when it's silly plot plays out for all to see. But this movie reverses that -- things actually improve in the end.Typical of the many embarrassing plot contrivances is when Valerie French, the wife of the overwhelmingly richest man in town, sneaks into Guy Madison's room. She walks up to him (a complete stranger to her); they embrace and she offers to hook up with him if he'll take her from her husband! In another silly scene, Lorne Greene (the husband) is in a Guy Madison-friendly place at night, and he tells Madison that he has hired someone to kill Madison. By all rights Madison could safely and should have killed Greene right there, but no.Some decent scenes at and near the end of the movie do NOT redeem it: (1) there was a fun, campy whose-afraid-of-Virginia-Wolf-type scene between Greene, French and Greene's lawyer (who is involved with French). They let it all hang out. Greene leaves a gun near the other two; French grabs it, points it at Greene and clicks the trigger, but Greene deliberately left it there unloaded. Still Greene won't let his wife leave him! And (2) there is a suspenseful shoot-out at the end, which leads to a twist in the story.

Guy Madison plays the title role in The Hard Man, a rather ruthless deputy sheriff who prefers to bring in his fugitives draped over the saddle. Saves a lot of judicial proceedings that way. But when an old friend he's sent to track down tries to outdraw him, Madison is forced to shoot Myron Healey who's been accused of murder. Before Healey dies he gives Madison a convincing story he was framed. Shooting down a friend who may have been innocent sends Madison off to a nearby town looking for answers. All lines of inquiry lead to cattle baron Lorne Greene and his wife Valerie French.I don't think Lorne Greene was cast as Ben Cartwright in Bonanza on the strength of this role. Greene's a mean one here, a guy who has increased his herd through rustling and he's got a nice batch of gunfighters on the payroll to keep questions to a minimum.However Valerie French who played Ernest Borgnine's unfaithful wife in Jubal plays exactly the same kind of part here. She's looking for a way out of her marriage, one way or the other. Both these issues figure prominently into why Healey was killed.The Hard Man is a nicely done adult type western with some solid performances by Madison and the rest of the cast. With some bigger name players this film would be more known, but I can't fault anyone either behind or in front of the camera for their work.

This is a better western than some made in the 50's. Guy Madison is good as the reluctant fast gun. Lorne Greene (pre-Bonanza) is excellent as a thoroughly ruthless land baron. Valerie French is pretty. Myron Healy who has been in countless pictures is not even credited but is the reason for Guy Madison to go to the town where Lorne Greene is the boss. Madison does a good job of showing how a lawman can sometimes be as ruthless as the outlaws if not careful. He is forced to kill his friend and then finds out the friend may have been framed as a killer. He rides to the town where his friend committed the crime and runs into a lot of road blocks (most notably Lorne Greene's character) as well as a beautiful woman that he is not sure of.