Best of the Badmen (1951)

A pleasant enought post-civil war western. Robert Ryan plays a cavalry officer who pardons some former members of Quantrill’s raiders. This displeases the local carpet-baggers who hoped to collect the bounty of the raiders and thus, through a series of technicalities, Ryan becomes an outlaw and ends up running with the former raiders. There’s a love tetrahedron involving Claire Trevor, who plays the head carpet-bagger’s former wife.

It’s pretty enjoyable but definite B-movie territory. There’s a few plot holes (the one I enjoyed most was right at the end, where the hero casually announced “I’m off to clear my name” without seeming to appreciate that it doesn’t really work like that and he’s definitely participated in a few bank robberies in addition to his initially being framed). The character development is also somewhat rushed in places: the heroine comments on how the hero is slowly becoming more and more confortable with his outlaw lifestyle when all we’ve seen of his outlaw lifestyle is a brief montage.

However, if you don’t go in expecting too much it doesn’t disappoint.