A much underrated Marlon Brando Western which gives ace cameraman Russell Metty a field day: a scene with Brando hunched in purple cloak behind a makeshift grave and crooked cross topped with a goat's skull is a breathtaking tableau that stirs up thoughts of Hamlet and Yorick.

Brando, almost unrecognisable at the start beneath a mass of whiskers, is a buffalo hunter whose prize stallion is stolen by a sadistic band of Mexican brigands.

His venture into their town to regain the horse provides a centrepiece of tension that rises to a crescendo in an arm-wrestling match between Brando and the bandit leader (thoughtfully played by John Saxon, all flashing smile and innate insecurity) with two scorpions waiting to greet the arm that falls first.