Rooster Cogburn

The “one-eyed peace officer” out of Ft. Smith and the Boston parson’s daughter at Ft. Ruby, with a Injun boy named Wolf, facing Hawk the notorious killer and Breed, a former scout, with various gunmen.

Millar at Goldstrike City hits the godawfulest most exact note in the depiction of a log-and-signboard settlement on the frontier, dead-on and unforgettable. The production is generally that way, a producer’s skills very much in evidence.

The male and female theme is very fine and worth the price of admission, critics could not see much if any point in it, and then the main action eluded their attention, stolen U.S. Army nitroglycerine and a Gatling gun for a robbery at Goldstrike.

And so, reportedly, a sequel was lost.

“A cheerful, throwaway Western” (Vincent Canby, New York Times), “a little artfulness, a little creativity, a little subtlety could work wonders” (Variety), “talent shouldn’t be thrown around like this” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times), “it fails dismally” (Geoff Andrew, Time Out Film Guide), “disappointing” (Halliwell’s Film Guide), all noted the citation from Huston.