The Return of Jack Slade

This is definitely a low budget picture but it has some pretty good production values. The film seems to be filmed totally outdoors and the use of polarizing or yellow filters made the sky shots dramatic. John Ericson's performance isn't particularly dramatic but for a 50s oater it was was above average. He's almost "too pretty" for this kind of role. I thought the winning over of Mari Blanchard was sort of hokey given that she stole Ericson's gun in the beginning of the movie. I found the romance between the two sort of forced but she was nice eye candy.

Nevil Brand played his usually great bad guy and he's one of my favorite western actors along with Jack Elam.

It was pleasant to see Angie Dickinson in one of her early performances.

One of the bones I have to pick with this film is a certain lack of realism. Cowboys of the period didn't wear belts to hold their pants up. They wore suspenders. Pants of the period didn't have belt loops