Man in the Saddle (1951)

In some ways a fairly standard B-movie Western, but a good one, possibly the best early 50s Randolph Scott Western. Randolph Scott plays a small-scale rancher, whose ex has run off with the local cattle baron (she’s after the cattle baron for his money and his ruthless ambition, while Scott offers a more genial, laid-back approach to life, but with less financial success). The cattle-baron (Alexander Knox) never trusts that she’s really over Scott and so sets out to drive Scott off, with the added bonus of expanding his ranch while doing so. On top of this there’s a second love triangle involving Scott’s (less mercenary) female neighbour.

The plot of obviously pretty straight-forward, but the love-triangle aspect gives it some motivation beyond the basic “land-baron wants more land”. One interesting feature is that the romantic outcome is basically settled in the first 10 minutes of the film, and the rest of the plot deals with the outcome of that, rather than working towards the ending. Throughout the film the tension ratchets up nicely as Scott tries to avoid a violent situation escalating while the Knox’s hired gun presses the situation further.