The Proud Ones

"A MAN OF FIERCE PRIDE...and six-guns to match!"

1956 1h 34m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 38

Western

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Robert Ryan plays an aging sheriff responsible for law and order in a frontier cattle town. Virginia Mayo plays his fiancee. As if handling wild cattle drovers isn't enough, a crooked casino operator from Ryan's past comes to town. An early scuffle in the casino leaves Ryan with vision problems that interfere with his duties. Jeffrey Hunter who came to town with a cattle drive encounters Ryan, who killed Hunter's father when Hunter was young. Feelings of animosity soon change as Hunter begins to sense Ryan is telling the truth about his father. What follows is a plot that continues to thicken to the inevitable showdown.

“A MAN OF FIERCE PRIDE...and six-guns to match!”

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Cast

Robert Ryan
Marshal Cass Silver
Virginia Mayo
Sally
Jeffrey Hunter
Thad Anderson
Robert Middleton
Honest John Barrett
Walter Brennan
Jake
Arthur O'Connell
Jim Dexter
Rodolfo Acosta
Chico
Ken Clark
Pike

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert D. Webb
Writers: Joseph Petracca, Edmund H. North
Languages: English, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

70 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert D. Webb, shot by Lucien Ballard. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Lionel Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Hugh S. Fowler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Robert Ryan and Virginia Mayo and Jeffrey Hunter carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A MAN OF FIERCE PRIDE...and six-guns to match!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0049639 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert D. Webb directs. Lucien Ballard behind the camera. Lionel Newman scores. Hugh S. Fowler cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

170 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.
3Directed by Robert D. Webb, shot by Lucien Ballard. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Lionel Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Hugh S. Fowler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Robert Ryan and Virginia Mayo and Jeffrey Hunter carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A MAN OF FIERCE PRIDE...and six-guns to match!".
8IMDB entry: tt0049639 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 38 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Original score: Lionel Newman
Editing: Hugh S. Fowler
Costume design: Travilla
Makeup / hair: Ben Nye
Runtime: 94 min · 1h 34m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Proud Ones (1956)

Also by

Robert D. Webb

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-04-09
★ 7.5/10
A thriving town sells its soul. The Proud Ones is directed by Robert D. Webb and adapted to screenplay by Edmund H. North and Joseph Petracca from the Verne Athanas novel. It stars Robert Ryan, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Mayo, Robert Middleton, Walter Brennan, Arthur O'Connell, Ken Clark and Rodolfo Acosta. A De Luxe Color/Cinemascope production, with music by Lionel Newman and cinematography by Lucien Ballard. Flat Rock, Kansas, and the coming of the railroad and the trail herds has the town eagerly planning for prosperity. Cass Silver (Ryan), the no nonsense marshal of Flat Rock is expecting trouble, and he gets it… Splendidly mounted Oater that features a strong cast and colourful Scope photography by one of the masters of his craft. The story is hardly breaking new ground, the narrative clearly harks to more well known genre pieces of the 50s, though the oedipal theme that runs throughout adds an extra dimension. In trying to steer the pic away from formulaic over drive, the makers insert an affliction on our tough old boy marshal, namely he is suffering bouts of dizziness and blindness, which naturally couldn't have arrived at a more inopportune moment since Cass Silver has pretty much got to tackle the town's bad eggs on his own. Or has he? Enter Hunter's angry young man, gunning for Cass because he killed his outlaw father, allegedly in cold blood. And this is where we get oedipal from, and it adds some meat to the formula skeleton. This is very good Western film making, plenty of machismo fuelled set-pieces, plenty of brooding and yearning, and it all builds to a ripper of a climax. There's few surprises in store, and Mayo and Brennan are sadly wasted, but this deserves to be better known and more importantly, it deserves to be thought of better than merely being a High Noon clone. Besides which, Robert Ryan is ace, no matter his age he always delivers grace and grizzle in equal measure. 7.5/10
CinemaSerf2026-01-24
★ 7/10
“Cass” (Robert Ryan) is the sheriff of a frontier town who just about manages to keep law an order. Then a blast from his past arrives to upset his carefully crafted equilibrium. “Barrett” - rather anachronistically called “Honest” (Robert Middleton) arrives in town bent on a little expansion. Initially, it looks like his luck might be in as an early altercation between “Cass” and one of his goons sees the lawman take a clout to the head. Shortly afterwards, headaches and double-vision ensue, and then just when he thinks things can’t be much worse for him and fiancée “Sally” (Virginia Mayo) in rides “Thad” (Jeffrey Hunter). He’s running with some beeves but, believe it or not, he also has an axe to grind with the “Cass” who killed his pa. Now, with his eyesight failing and “Honest” seeing a chance to cement his control of a town of largely spineless and venal folk, “Cass” has to convince the young “Thad” that his father wasn’t the man he thought he was, and that he ought to think about taking a badge himself. Though he doesn’t really feature so often, it’s really Middleton’s suave and sophisticated character that helps make this western just a bit different from the usual processional affair. Ryan, too, delivers solidly as his character must deal with the fact that his sight is failing, and therefore so is his usefulness - to the town and to his gal. Hunter does enough and Mayo, well I think she only ever had parts designed to let her smile but never really contribute much more, and there are a few scenes here that keep the action front and centre. I was surprised at just how underused Walter Brennan was, but it’s still an enjoyable outing peppered with some menace as we go along.