Stranger on the Run (DVD)

From Don Siegel, the legendary director of Madigan, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick and The Shootist, comes this first-rate western starring screen greats Henry Fonda (The Ox-Bow Incident), Anne Baxter (Yellow Sky) and Michael Parks (Nightmare Beach). Washed-up, alcoholic vagabond Ben Chamberlain (Fonda in an atypical role) drifts into a godforsaken railhead town looking for a woman named Alma. When that woman winds up dead, Ben finds himself wrongfully accused of murder by the corrupt railroad chief deputy Vince McKay (Parks) and his trigger-happy posse. McKay gives him a horse; some supplies and a one-hour head start into the desert before sending his band of cutthroats after him. Scripted by Dean Riesner (Play Misty for Me) from a story by Reginald Rose (12 Angry Men), Stranger on the Run boasts a strong supporting cast including Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street), Sal Mineo (Rebel Without a Cause), Lloyd Bochner (Point Blank), Michael Burns (TV’s Wagon Train) and Madlyn Rhue (It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World).