Don Costello

Gary Cooper (1952's "High Noon") gives a marvelous, tongue-in-cheek performance as a fumble-fingered cowpoke who is mistaken for a notorious bandit and almost gets killed by both sides of the law all while managing to capture the attention of Loretta Young. William Demarest co-stars as Cooper's trusty sidekick and Dan Duryea plays the villainous Monte Jarred for whom Cooper is mistaken.

A remake of Robert Montgomery's 1934 hit Hide-Out, this superb film directed by Robert B. Sinclair (known for his classic Broadway productions of The Philadelphia Story, Dodsworth and Pride and Prejudice) creates a mesmerizing dance between innocence and a life gone wrong. When a gangster's frontman (Sterling) is wounded by police, he escapes to a farm where he's taken in by a kindhearted family. Lying about his identity and hiding out from the law, he soon finds himself in love with the oldest daughter (Marsha Hunt) and even becomes close friends with her younger sister (Virginia Weidler). It's not until the detectives on his trail finally catch up to him that he undergoes a powerful life-transforming shift. This unusual Hollywood love story mixed with a gangster-themed police caper revealed undeniable chemistry between the two leads, Sterling and Hunt, who were again teamed in a 1941 film, The Penalty.