AllMovie

Allan Dwan, whose screen career dated back a lot further than 1916, the year the first version of Bret Harte's lusty Tennessee's Partner was filmed, creates a lively, colorful piece of western adventure with enough shootin' and fightin' to satisfy the purist. None of that modern pseudo-intellectual noir stuff for Dwan, who apparently liked his oaters straight up. John Payne and Ronald Reagan may at first seem a little long in the teeth for this kind of robust melodramatics, but both play with accustomed easy charm and before long, you'll find yourself rooting not only for the "boys" themselves but also for their unusual friendship. Restored to the original RKO "Super-Scope," Tennessee's Partner remains a thrilling, old-fashioned western adventure made even more attractive by the luminous presence of Miss Rhonda Fleming, whose green eyes and crimson tresses appear to have been created with Technicolor in mind.