The Man from Bitter Ridge
The Man from Bitter Ridge is a 1955 American Western film directed by Jack Arnold and starring Lex Barker, Mara Corday and Stephen McNally.
Plot
A special investigator, Jeff Carr, is deployed to the cattle town of Tomahawk to collect evidence on a number of stagecoach holdups and killings. The town's leading banker-politician Ranse Jackman and his gunslinging brothers resent Carr's inquiries, and blame the robberies on the upland sheepherders, led by Alec Black.Carr quickly discovers that Jackman and his henchman are the actual culprits, but a romantic conflict arises when Carr falls in love with shepherdess Holly Kenton, the woman who Alec Black is also courting.
Carr and Black ultimately join forces, killing Ranse Jackman and his brothers in a climactic gunfight. Jeff and Holly make plans to marry.
Cast
- Lex Barker as Jeff Carr
- Mara Corday as Holly Kenton
- Stephen McNally as Alec Black
- John Dehner as Rance Jackman
- Trevor Bardette as Sheriff Dunham
- Ray Teal as Shep Bascom
- Warren Stevens as Linc Jackman
- Myron Healey as Clem Jackman
- John Harmon as Norman Roberts
- John Cliff as Wolf Landers
- Richard Garland as Jace Gordon
Production
Filmmaker Jack Arnold on directing Lex Barker:Film critic Dana M. Reemes reports “without doubt, The Man From Bitter Ridge is one of Lex Barker’s best performances.”
Critical assessment
Describing The Man From Bitter Ridge as “a superb example of its genre and period,” biographer and film critic Dana M. Reemes notes actor Mara Corday's merits:Reemes adds that “a fuller disclosure of Miss Corday’s charms may be found in the October 1958 issue of Playboy magazine.”