Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Richie-67-485852 I like Westerns and here we got one on our hands with a different approach story-wise. In fact this movie does what I look for which is a story within a story making one want to follow the movie and plot screen by screen. Helping this along are the stars and supporting cast doing a great job in making us buy what they are selling no problem. I like the outdoor shoot, the snow, horses, weather and the stark reality of this. Men on the move because they robbed a payroll stop by a town and terrorize it. The thing is this town is out in the middle of nowhere. They soon take-over and there are some tense scenes a coming courtesy of the women being at risk by bad guys that don't give a hoot or a holler except to have a good time and the sooner the better too. Pure animal nature in these men which should remind all who watch that men have work to do until the beast is not only tamed but disposed of. Think: we were made in the image of something better. I like Burl Ives and he does his Westerns justice. The guy delivers as a good or bad guy so you are in for a treat. Robert Ryan can do no wrong either. I like the horses trying to travel in the snow for its realism. The bad guys are trying to get away and we get to see how the gold drives them not the will to survive. The Indians used to comment how these little yellow rocks made white men mad. Here you get a good glimpse of that native Indian philosophy. One of my favorite beliefs that I stand behind is demonstrated in this movie. Never give up your gun...ever! When you do, you no longer have a say so in your own life. Of course the argument that you are alive because you did goes to work as well. You decide. Notice the look on the faces of the women who were forced to dance with filthy, murdering, low down vermin against their will. If looks could kill, the men would be dead. While I was watching this scene, I was reminded that when scheming, evil-based and short on morals and character men who do whatever it takes to get ahead like to spend their money on what decent people spend it on only their guilt won't let them enjoy as men only beasts of the field. You see that today with tyrants, dictators, drug dealers, pimps and thieves. It is not what a man comes to have as much as how he came to have it. Ill-gotten gains gives no peace, closure or satisfaction only the illusion of these things. That point is made in this film as well. Good movie for a sandwich and a tasty drink plus a snack of choice to follow. For added pleasure, watch this with a chill and you will set the mood quite nicely. Enjoy

jeremy3 This movie has so much to it. It is about a band of outlaws who invade a small town in the mountains during the winter. Now, Robert Ryan plays a pretty tough guy, and he can best a big guy in the fight but not all of them. That is the whole point. It is about the limits of being human. Burl Ives plays a character that you do not know whether to love or hate. He is very wise and charming, but also spends all his time trying to make decisions to keep his crew of roughnecks happy. He has a sense of justice, but also can turn and become the dictator as well. So, Robert Ryan's character knows that he cannot defeat the whole band, so he lets them know that this is their last chance to get out of town and make it to the warmer valley below, or self destruct in a town with just four women. In the end, he beats the outlaws not by strength and force, but by using the ultimate powers of nature to outwit and defeat the outlaws. The freezing cold and snow is what ultimately defeats them. I think this is a very unique and wonderful movie. I can't help but think that Robert Altman probably was inspired by this film to do McCabe and Mrs. Miller, another movie about nature as the ultimate decider.

Drago_Head_Tilt There's a fine off-beat (b/w) western hiding behind that generic title. In a small snowed-in outpost town, a land dispute between self-appointed lawmaker Robert Ryan and other residents is interrupted by the arrival of runaway cavalry soldiers and gold thieves (led by Burt Ives, who's very good, as is the whole cast). It's more psychological than action-packed, and never quite plays out the way you'd expect. Based on a novel by Lee Wells. With Tina Louise, Venetia Stevenson, Nehemiah Persoff, Elisha Cook Jr. (barely in it as a barber), Jack Lambert, Lance Fuller, Frank De Kova, Dabbs Greer, William Schallert, Betsy Jones-Moreland (LAST WOMAN ON EARTH), Arthur Space and Robert Cornthwaite. It would make a good bleak winter western double-bill with THE GREAT SILENCE. Yordan wrote that other notably weird western JOHNNY GUITAR, among others.Movie reviews at: spinegrinderweb.com

dbdumonteil This is an excellent western by Andre de Toth. It is mainly remembered for its final thirty minutes,an extraordinary ride in the snow ,where the director makes the best of black and white pictures while he's filming all the tired horses ...Hell freezes over.But the first hour is absorbing as well with its depiction of an one-horse town lost in the snow,a dead end where one never really knows which ones are prisoners and which ones are guards .The "ball ",during which the four women are really having a bad time (particularly Tina Louise)is one of the most violent scenes ever filmed in a western .And all they are doing is dancing.It has to be seen to be believed! Robert Ryan is ,as always,excellent ,as a tired blasé man who just wants to live in peace.