James Stewart and John Wayne pair up for the first time and we get to see just how poor of an actor Wayne can be. Sure he’s a legend and I’ve enjoyed many of his movies but I could never warm to his bland one trick acting.
Senator Stoddard returns to the town of Shinbone where he gets coaxed by the local reporters to tell them why he’s visiting their little town for some funeral of an old man in a simple pine box. So the Senator tells his tale of how he came to this town all those years ago when there was no law or order. He tells the tale of a group of people who were thrown together by an outlaw and how the killing of that outlaw has changed and shaped their lives.
It is a really interesting look into how an event has burdened a man and his wife for years and how, as hard as he might try, he can not shake the legend. I had the sense that Stoddard would have done things differently had he known the results many years later. A thoroughly entertaining watch and an 8/10.