"Othello in the plains" is how one critic described this film. That would be it in a nutshell except the black Moor is a gregarious rancher named Shep played by Ernest Borgnine. The Desdemona is his Canadian wife, a bored and unhappy Valerie French looking sultry and irresistible. She attempts to seduce Jubal (Glenn Ford) and fails, so there is no actual adultery going on except for something in the past between her and a senior ranch hand Pinky (Rod Steiger). Ford arrives out of the snowy mountains like Shane, nearly succumbing to the cold when he's saved by Borgnine who takes him back to his ranch. Ford recovers and wakes up in the cowhand barracks and meets the small group of cowboys. He gets along fine except with Steiger.

The whole story is one of psychological intensity and melodrama in a Shakespearean vein. Ford is noble and ethical, refusing to give in to the wife's advances, and yet Steiger suspects them of adultery anyway since he was formerly the wife's plaything. Borgnine likes Ford and offers him the job of foreman. We expect it to take on a King Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere dynamic with Ford being Lancelot, but it never happens. The motif is noticeable, but not entirely imitative and that's a good thing. Ford meets a group of Mormons in a wagon train and warms to one of the daughters. He's so comfortable with her that he tells her the most private details about his past. In particular he tells the story of how his mother wouldn't bother saving him when he was drowning, but his father does. We get the sense that there's something approximating an Oedipal theme here, but only faintly: Ford sees Borgnine like a father figure. But he doesn't actually want to replace Borgnine and possess the wife; it's just a silhouette of Oedipal suggestion based on Ford's close reverence for his father and contempt for his mother.

Ford meets a young Charles Bronson who is a cowboy traveling with the Mormons. He is terrific in this film, and I wonder if Sergio Leone saw Jubal. If I had seen Bronson here I'd want him in my westerns. He has such an authentic way about him: earnest, mysterious, tough, and yet good-natured deep down. He and Ford practice a little routine of Bronson tossing Ford a pistol, Ford catching it and firing instantly at a target. This will play a pivotal part in the movie later. Valerie French is convincing as a lonely and miserable housewife and also a sexy woman that few of us would decline. It's all the more impressive that Ford does so while everyone around him believes something is going on; it just has to be! Steiger becomes an Iago figure who finally whispers such implications into Borgnine's ear, who, for half the film has been oblivious to anything. When Ford accompanies French back to the ranch, Steiger continues working on Borgnine who still can't believe it. Just to prove Steiger wrong, he races back to the ranch to dispel this rumor. When he enters the bedroom and hears a sleeping French murmur “Is that you Jub?” Borgnine goes full expressionist eyeballs and explodes with jealousy.

Up to this point the drama is sustained by misunderstandings and incorrect presumptions, bolstered by French's manipulations. She doesn't deny being with Ford and says "So what if we were?" Borgnine rides off into town to confront an unarmed Ford in a saloon. Bronson is there too. When he sees Borgnine is about to gun Ford down with a rifle, he tosses a table at Borgnine and then a pistol to Ford who subsequently shoots and kills Borgnine. It's quite abrupt and tragic. We hope Borgnine was wounded but he's flat-out killed. He wasn't a bad guy at all, just driven to madness by jealousy founded on false information. Ford knows Borgnine was beloved in the region and there will be a posse after him. Keeping with his character of fleeing whenever life gets too rough, he leaves and finds refuge with the Mormons. Steiger meanwhile has found out about Borgnine's death. He confronts the wife and beats her violently. His punching her in the face on screen must have been shocking to 50s audiences. This wasn't a Bogart slap.

Sure enough Steiger forms a posse and they go after Ford. All of this builds up to a climax with Ford heading back to the ranch to find a beaten and dying French. She seems a pitiful character now and we sympathize even though much of this is her own doing. Steiger and the posse converge on the barn and the doctor in the posse checks on her and confirms she was beaten by Steiger. Now it's he who is the target of the mob. We don't see him hanged, but the film suggests he is about to be. We really are in Shakespearean territory with not only Borgnine shot dead, but the wife beaten to death and her final moments of redemption with Ford. Tragedy abounds. And it looks like we're to get a final duel between Steiger and Ford.

The film ends too abruptly for my taste with this revelation that Steiger beat French, Ford wasn't guilty of anything, all finally reaching a denouement. Suddenly in about 10 seconds the movie ends with Ford riding off accompanied by the Mormon daughter and Bronson. In effect, Ford is rejecting civilization and riding off with the outliers/outcasts. Many films in the 40s and 50s tended to wrap up quickly, the curtain falling immediately after the climax. That is the case here. Still, it's a powerful and taut piece of work, well-acted by a great cast and Steiger stands out for his intense method acting. Borgnine and French are intriguing characters—not quite stereotypes—and Ford is a good protagonist we want to follow. Director Delmer Daves would go on to cast Ford as a great antagonist in 3:10 to Yuma. His direction is striking and a couple tiers above someone like McLagen. Too bad there were no special features for the Criterion release.