One of my favourite westerns as of a week or so ago when I first saw it. Its style feels both of its time and also quite unique as a sort of hybrid of both film-noir and western, two of the most prominent genres of Old Hollywood.

The film is very lean, clocking in at not much more than an hour, but manages to cover a lot of ground with almost ruthless efficiency. Although the focus is on the central dilemma - a mob captures three men suspected of murder, but there is dissent among the mob over what to do next - most of the actors get moments here and there that make that make their characters feel more lived-in and believable. The film is also impressively ahead of its time in deconstructing mob justice, masculinity, and class - note that the dissenters in the group are predominantly outsiders by way of geography, race, age, or masculinity. That a film could convey all of this so unflinchingly in 1943 is beyond impressive.

A special shout-out to Dana Andrews for his stand-out performance as the unofficial leader of the captured men, and to sweet-faced William Eythe, one of many actors who died too soon, and who gets an emotionally climactic moment near the film's end.