This film was not popular with critics in its time. And small wonder, for it makes excellent escapist entertainment out of a racialist theme. It's something of a mystery how a black man ever got elected as sheriff of Colusa County in America's deep south, but, this implausibility swallowed, there's a lot of old-fashioned Hollywood excitement in the events that follow. Jim Brown is a bit too stolid as the sheriff, but there are first-class portrayals from George Kennedy and Fredric March, and a valuable series of supporting cameos, headed by Clifton James, that all contribute to the hot, sticky atmosphere in which tensions can almost be seen to burgeon. But the song commentary, though it includes Gentle on My Mind, only breaks the suspense.


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