**_Vengeance Western in the shadow of the awesome Sierra Nevadas_**

Robert Lansing and Patrick Wayne star as bounty hunters seeking their wicked prey (Slim Pickens). If there’s any doubt as to how evil the latter is, the opening scene removes it.

Steely-eyed Lansing is surprisingly good as the laconic protagonist. You might remember him as Gary Seven in the Star Trek episode “Assignment: Earth,” which he did shortly after this movie. He went on to costar in “Empire of the Ants” ten years later wherein his character’s range was limited to grim and grimmer. Meanwhile Patrick Wayne is fine in the role of the sidekick; I don’t get where critics say he was miscast or that his acting was lousy.

The first half is pretty much as good as any 60s’ Western you could name, featuring brutal action, quality drama and spectacular locations, but the flick drops the ball in the second half with a contrived dilemma and the unlikely (not to mention tedious) way it plays out. Then Lansing’s character does something at the end that is inorganic to the proceedings and so the movie leaves you with a bad taste.

Despite my criticisms, if you like mid/late 60s’ Westerns like “Nevada Smith” and “Will Penny,” as well as traditional ones like “Shane,” this is cut from the same cloth. It’s just the weakest of ’em for the reasons cited. But at least it tried something different, I suppose. Plus it’s nice to see Gloria Talbott, whom some might remember from “I Married a Monster from Outer Space” eight years prior. She called it a day in acting after this.

It runs 1h 32m and was shot in Jan-Feb 1966 at Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, which is a 3½ drive north of Los Angeles in the Sierras, as well as Olancha Dunes, which is a 35-minute drive south of there.

GRADE: C+