Outstanding film, but several small touches seem to elevate it above the others:
1) Along w "High Noon" one of the first/best usages of Western morality play genre. The simplicity of the West really makes it work.
2) The Technicolor and Montana setting gives it a rich and dreamy quality.
3) Speaking of dreamy, how did Jean Arthur ever get the part? She was over 50, more the cynical, wise-cracking city girl, but casting genius it was! I drafted my own article a few weeks ago basically saying "Jean Arthur was the most to-die-for actress". Something about that earnest lilt in her voice (and previous roles in popular Capra films as won-over loyal g.f.?)
4) Little things, like the slow-walking dog, and when Elisha Cook gets sprung back a few feet after being baited/shot by Palance...now that's close to the way a real Western gunshot worked! Have never seen that elsewhere. Also the sort of "nuance" of Ryker ("we got here first") and Ben Johnson ("I reckon something's come over me") Most Westerns don't bother with that!
5) The bar fight scene unfolds REAL SLOW, which allows tension to build (you don't see that today!) We get to feel Shane's dilemma as if we're there. Calloway’s words “what’ll be sodbuster, lemon, strawberry, or lilac” hit me like the 70s “what’s the matter hotshot, you too smart to take a hit on this joint?” (In actual fact, Shane had surely imbibed a few whiskeys and me a few joints, but the point was that we were trying to go straight!)
6) The rest simple guilty pleasure, watching Ladd/Heflin have each other's backs, watching Shane work Arthur's woman and mommy instincts, wondering if Shane makes it (he seems awfully rubbery in the saddle at the end).
7) Laconic? Ladd makes Eastwood and McQueen look like chatterboxes? Quite effective. G Cooper also eye-widens and winces his way through "High Noon".
8) This and “High Noon” possibly the biggest sources for later "Blazing Saddles" spoof?
9) Brandon deWilde is slightly annoying but gets the job done. It could have been worse if the part had gone to Tommy Rettig, Johnny Crawford, or Tommy Kirk.
10) If allowed one movie to take to desert island, this is it, I could watch 1000 times.
