_**“Shut up, Wesley!”**_

In the Old West, a drifting gunman (Ray Milland) finds himself in a Southwest town wrongly accused of a crime. He hides out in the basement of a young woman whose father is invalided upstairs (Mary Murphy and Ward Bond). Can he escape before being lynched by a vengeful mob? Raymond Burr, Lee Van Cleef and Alan Hale Jr. are also on hand.

"A Man Alone" (1955) is the first of five films directed by Milland. It mixes the brutal realities of the Old West with some quality mood. While mostly a town-bound Western (and often in the Sheriff’s residence), there’s also some spectacular photography of the Southwest (listed below). Meanwhile Milland comes across as a James Stewart lookalike.

If you can roll with a couple of contrivances, the story is good with interesting explorations of morality. For instance, is dishonest gain acceptable as long as no one dies? Even if it can be justified, what if innocent people wind up dead? How long can a generally good person keep up the lie and live with their conscience?

The movie runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot at Republic Studios in Los Angeles with location work done at Snow Canyon outside St. George, Utah. Other locations cited are Arizona (Paiute Wilderness Area & Colorado City) and New Mexico.

GRADE: B