AllMovie

By the beginning of the 1950s, with the growing encroachment of television, Republic Pictures had long passed its heyday as a source of prime Western entertainment. Ride the Man Down was an exception, mostly by virtue of first-rate direction by Joseph Kane, who'd been a mainstay of the studio since the 1930s; this time out, Kane had a first-rate script as well, by Mary C. McCall Jr. (based on a story by Luke Short), plus a cast of solid, respectable box-office names and a budget that allowed for full-color shooting. The resulting film is a little slower moving than some of Kane's best work, but the director makes up for it with a rich array of serious, complex, and colorful performances. Among the best work here is the performance of J. Carrol Naish as the county sheriff who is caught between the two sides in the range war. And when the action does come -- which is often -- it's got Kane's sure hand behind it, pushing the tension and excitement, and the violence levels up fairly high for a Western of this type.