Robert Mitchum ditches his fedora and trench coat for a Stetson and chaps in this evolutionary noir-stained Western. Robert Wise’s stellar “A” picture debut is complemented by screenwriter Lillie Hayward’s adaptation of Luke Short’s novel transplanting the rain slicked alleys of 1940s Los Angeles into the wide-open spaces of the 19th -century West. Gorgeously lensed by ace noir cinematographer Nicholas Musaraca, this picture was the forerunner of a darker genre of Westerns that became preeminent on the big and small screens during the next decade.