William A. Fraker directs Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Palance in this Western drama where a wild but likeable cowboy sees the world changing faster than he can figure out what to do with himself.

A very amiable, ambling swansong to the frontier… much like Lonely Are the Brave but less didactic or The Wild Bunch but action-light. There is rowdy knockaround and a final drawn out shoot-out that resembles the ending of The Man With Golden Gun but within a cattle plant rather than an island lair. In the main though, Monte Walsh is deftly character orientated, essaying how Marvin’s unrefined outsider considers romance and civilisation and obsoletion over adventure, larks and freedom. Told with nice humour and humanity… hell, even Jack Palance plays a good guy in this.

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