More a northern than a western, as it takes place during the Klondike gold rush in Yukon and Skagway Alaska. Anthony Mann directs Stewart right off the heels of The Naked Spur and audiences in 1954 were growing accustomed to Mann-Stewart westerns, a winning collaboration much like Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott. The story is by Borden Chase, known for Red River, Bend of the River, Winchester 73, Vera Cruz, and Night Passage. This time Stewart has Walter Brennan as his sidekick, playing a jovial old coot he'd be famous for in Rio Bravo. Stewart is driving cattle to Yukon and has a run-in with Judge Gannon played marvelously by John McIntire, who was so outstanding in Winchester 73. Gannon is a good villain but he has a more Mephistophelean presence, often appearing affable and teasing Stewart who portrays his customary tormented and psychologically conflicted personality. Stewart is the prototypical lone wolf who knows the wilderness, how to survive, and wants to keep to his own business, even standing by as evil is done around him. The whole film is about him being forced to make a decision and stop straddling the fence.

Stewart agrees to help with a supply run to Dawson Yukon, much like in Bend in the River, but he goes back to take the cattle that was seized by Gannon. Gannon learns of this and pursues Stewart until he crosses the Canadian border. Stewart has two love interests: the good girl (Renee Vallon)—a French-Canadian girl with braids and a winter cap, who is particularly sensitive about being called freckle-face—and the bad girl (Ruth Roman), a saloon owner and associate of Gannon whom initially saves Stewart by hiding him in her bed on a ferryboat while he's being pursued. She is ravishing in this film and it's no surprise Stewart wants the bad girl, but we know he'll wind up with the good one. The film opens with several moments that rhyme with Bend in the River. We get the similar northwest setting, a ferryboat crossing rivers, and Stewart playing the seasoned cattle driver/escorter on horseback.

It's familiar but fresh because of the colorful side characters, Walter Brennan's and Gannon's charisma, and the gradual tension and moral dilemma as Stewart finally makes the right decision. He's almost shamed into it by the end when a drunkard is made sheriff and can't stand up to one of Gannon's henchmen, who earlier had shot a man for complaining about being claim-jumped. Gannon travels to Dawson Yukon, buying up all the claims and using strongarm tactics to keep everyone submissive. Stewart stays out of it until Brennan is killed by Gannon's gang and Stewart himself is wounded badly. He's disabled for a time and unable to use his gunhand. It all comes to a head when Stewart, shamed by the Dawson townspeople and the two ladies in his orbit, grabs his pistol belt in a dramatic scene and sends his horse into town unridden as a distraction; the saddle has a little tinkle bell attached to it that alerts Gannon's crew to his presence.

The final shootout is not cliched but staged in a new way, with Stewart creating a distraction with his horse at night and shooting it out with Gannon under the floorboards of the saloon porch. The bad girl (Ruth Roman) is shot in the back during the gunfight and just as Gannon's men prepare to rush Stewart from the saloon, the townspeople approach as an armed mob. It's an interesting resolution in that Stewart finally made the right decision, but one wonders if he was actually needed when the townspeople have rallied themselves with guns in a previous scene. They were convening on the saloon anyway with or without Stewart's help.

I do like Bend of the River and The Naked Spur more than than this film, but The Far Country is really a close third. It's highly entertaining excellent, even if it might be the weaker although not the weakest of the Mann/Stewart pictures. The special features on the Arrow blu-ray are wonderful, including substantial featurettes about Mann and Stewart, the making of the film, and analysis by Kim Newman, film historian whom I've seen on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. He's a horror aficionado but knows a hell of a lot about westerns and has insightful things to say.