The Halliday Brand

It's "Freud on the Frontier" time in the tension-filled western The Halliday Brand. Ward Bond plays Big Dan, the despotic head of the Halliday clan, while Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair costar as Halliday's offspring Daniel and Martha. Intensely anti-Indian, Big Dan encourages a mob to lynch Jivaro (Christopher Dark), Martha's half-breed sweetheart. Despising his father's complicity in Jivaro's death, Daniel breaks off his relationship with the elder Halliday, casting his lot with Jivaro's father (Jay C. Flippen) and sister (Viveca Lindfors). The climactic showdown between father and son is superbly and innovatively handled by director Joseph H. Lewis.