A slightly unfocussed heist movie that is still an interesting and entertaining mix of emotional melodrama and crime caper. The plot has three professional thieves (Stephen McNally, Lee Marvin and J.Carroll Naish) arriving in the small Arizona town of Brandenville to rob the local bank. As they plan their robbery a range of townsfolk move in and out of focus: Shelley Martin (Victor Mature) the mine foreman who didn't fight in the War; Harry Reeves (Tommy Noonan), the bank manager who's a Peeping Tom by night; Boyd Fairchild (Richard Egan), the alcoholic son of the mine owner; his nymphomaniac wife, Emily (Margaret Hayes) and Linda Sherman (Virginia Leith), the local nurse who appears to be the object of sexual fantasy for all the locals. Directed by Richard Fleischer, who manages to keep all the threads of the story interesting although few of them weave together into a satisfying whole by the time of the violent climax. A number of the subplots are also underwritten leaving little time to sympathise or empathise with the characters. The film looks great with an expansive widescreen look and some beautifully intense colours. Fleischer does well to create and maintain a credible noir feel despite the bright, daytime setting for the action. Unfortunately there isn't a particularly stand-out performance, the most entertaining possibly being Lee Marvin's Benzedrine-sniffing, child-stomping hoodlum and Ernest Borgnine's pitch-fork wielding Amish farmer. ( )