Man of the West

Link Jones is a reformed outlaw living quietly in a small Arizona town, where his neighbors trust him enough to send him east to Fort Worth with money to hire a schoolteacher. On the journey he travels with Billie Ellis, a singer, and Sam Beasley, a gambler. When their train is robbed, the three are left stranded, and Jones leads them to the isolated shack where he grew up among outlaws. There he finds the old gang still in residence, led by Dock Tobin, the man who raised him and now expects him to rejoin the fold. To survive and protect his companions, Jones pretends he is willing to take up his former life again.

Anthony Mann directed this 1958 western, the sixteenth of the twenty films in his directing career, following The Tin Star and preceding Cimarron. Reginald Rose wrote the screenplay, and Walter Mirisch produced. Gary Cooper stars as Jones, with Julie London as Billie, Lee J. Cobb as Dock Tobin, Arthur O'Connell as Sam Beasley, Jack Lord as Coaley and John Dehner as Claude Tobin among the twenty-one credited cast members.

The film holds a 7 out of 10 rating on IMDb from around 11,000 votes and 6.6 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 245 votes. A smaller critics' sample rates it 8.6 out of 10, well above the audience scores.