The Lone Hand

This modest Universal Western (from a story by Irving Ravetch) only really becomes interesting if regarded as a companion piece to Cameron Menzies' Invaders from Mars, made the same year. Here, too, the rather dazed-looking Jimmy Hunt sees his slice of idealised Americana (ranch, faithful dog, strong Pa, pretty step-Ma) turn sinister, even nightmarish, this time when he finds out that Pa (McCrea) is a member of the outlaw gang that's terrorising the county. Sherman is hardly the director to make the most of such a situation, and indeed the film chickens out at the end - Pa's an undercover Pinkerton. But as a little-known contribution to the '50s cinema of unease, it repays investigation.