An idealistic circuit judge (Joel McCrea) comes to town to arrest and prosecute a hot-heated young man for murder. When the man’s cattle baron father (John McIntyre) objects, circumstances rapidly deteriorate into a fight of one judge against a whole town.

Jacques Tourneur was a master of the B-movie. Born in Paris but based in the USA, he most famously directed a series of short, inventive, and hugely effective horror films and thrillers for producer Val Lewton including Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie, and The Leopard Man (both 1943). In 1955 he directed Stranger on Horseback for producer Robert Goldstein: this 66-minute supporting feature was released by United Artists.

It is a superb example of Tourneur’s work. Despite a small production budget and a brief running time, Tourneur assembles a strong cast around a tightly developed screenplay by Herb Meadow (creator of Have Gun Will Travel) and Don Martin. While it broadly works with familiar archetypes, it plays out its narrative with efficiency and a bold, direct style. It also improves as it goes: while early scenes may appear a little formulaic, once the characters and situations are established, it simply gets tighter and more intense.

Star Joel McCrea was a veteran actor whose work had crossed a number of genres and studios since the 1930s, although as he got older he became best known for westerns – indeed, from 1946 he starred in nothing else. Stranger of Horseback was one of two 1955 westerns in which he featured; the other was Tourneur’s Wichita. He plays judge Rick Thorne with gravitas and dignity: a serious man engaged in serious business.

The supporting cast includes a gruff, gravelly John McIntyre as cattle baron Josiah Bannerman, as well as a flashy, heightened Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) as his son Tom. Emile Meyer is particularly strong as local sheriff Nat Bell, although it is John Carradine who draws a lot of attention as Bannerman associate Colonel Buck Streeter. It is a mannered, eccentric performance that does not quite match the film around it.

Miroslava Stern plays the film’s key female character – Bannerman’s niece Amy Lee – in full femme fatale mode, adding a light element of film noir to the piece. A Czech actress who forged her career in Mexican cinema, she makes a strong impression through a combination of striking looks and impassioned acting. Sadly Stranger of Horseback proved to be her final screen performance: shortly before the film’s release, she took her own life.

B-movies were intended to extend the value of a movie screening, by providing audiences with a short work of entertainment prior to the main feature. Tourneur always understood his assignment, and kept his films brief, dramatic, and effective. With distributors and movie theatres generally ignoring their content in favour of the main features, they were a place where enterprising filmmakers could exercise their craft and push envelopes both technical and creative. It is amazing what Tourneur achieves in just over one hour. In a modern age of bloated, 150-minute blockbusters, it is a lesson from history on just how efficiently entertaining a movie can be.

1955 West is a review project to watch as many western features from 1955 as possible, in order to gain a ‘snapshot’ view of the genre at its height. According to Letterboxd, there were 71 westerns released that year. You can see all of FictionMachine’s reviews of them to date by clicking here.