may have understood that he was at the twilight of a long career at age 72. Henry King was one one of the few directors still active from the silent era, yet he proved himself capable of handling the contemporary story elements of Philip Yordan and the demands of filling the CinemaScope screen.

Gregory Peck rides into town to witness the hanging of four men that he has chased for six months. The men, he was told, raped and killed his wife. The night before the hanging, the four outlaws escape, taking with them the daughter of one of the townspeople. Peck joins the posse in pursuit. Along with the posse is Joan Collins, the woman Peck almost married about five years earlier. The posse stops at the Mexicanborder. While Peck goes crosses a geographical border, he is urged to cross personal borders earlier. At one point, Joan Collins tries to convince Peck to let the past be, and to discontinue his pursuit. After Stephen Boyd has raped the woman he abducted from the town, Collins can't get Peck to kill the outlaws soon enough. The ending is more incisive than The Man who Shot Liberty Valance with its conclusion of "print the legend". The Bravados ends with Peck gracefully accepting the accolades of a hero, in spite of his newly found knowledge and appropriate self-doubts.

Lance Mannion has written about the emphasis of Catholicism in The Bravados. While Henry King's own Catholic faith has served him personally and to varying degrees as a foundation for several