Day of the Outlaw

Day of the Outlaw is a 1959 American western film starring Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, and Tina Louise. It was directed by Andre DeToth; this was DeToth's final Western feature film. Plot Blaise Starrett is a ruthless cattleman who helped found the small, bleak community of Bitters, Wyoming. He is at odds with homesteaders who, having established new farms in the area, have taken to putting up barbed wire to keep their livestock from wandering. Starrett is particularly aggrieved with Hal Crane, who not only inspired this use of barbed wire, but is also married to Helen, the woman Starrett loves. In spite of the fact that Helen has told him she can never love him if he carries out his threat to murder her husband, Starrett sets his mind on doing just that. The stage is set for a final, bloody showdown when into town rides Jack Bruhn and his band of rogue cavalry men. This gang holds the town hostage while Bruhn, wounded in a recent bank robbery, receives treatment. Realizing that they would have no qualms about wiping Bitters out, Starrett tries to save his town. He takes the gang out into the desolate landscape, ostensibly to help them escape across the snow-covered mountains.