Horizons West is a 1952 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Robert Ryan, Julie Adams and Rock Hudson
After returning home from the Civil War, young Neal Hammond is eager to resume ranching in Texas, finding comfort in his familiar surroundings. However, his brother Dan yearns for greater ambitions. When Dan’s efforts to break into the business world are blocked—humiliated and beaten in a poker game by the unscrupulous carpetbagger Cord Hardin—he turns to a darker path. Dan assembles a rustling gang and uses his illicit gains to build a vast land empire. As opposition to his ruthless pursuits rises, the one standing against him is none other than Neal himself, now serving as the new Marshal of Austin.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Neal always refers to his Patient Childhood Love Interest Sally as "Pigtail". She doesn't have a pigtail, but presumably she did when they were children.
- Ambition Is Evil: Ben Hammond returns from the war craving success, yet that desire slips into a darker pursuit of wealth and power: a gold fever of the soul. This leads him down the path of crime and corruption, and ultimately leads to his death. His brother Neal is content to return to the family ranch, and ultimately survives and thrives.
- Battering Ram: The lynch mob uses a battering ram in an attempt to break down the door of the marshal's office to get to Dan Hammond.
- Cain and Abel: Brothers Dan and Neal Hammond end up on opposite sides of the law in post-Civil War Texas.
- Call to Agriculture: After the Civil War, Brothers Dan and Neil Hammond return to Texas and to their parents' ranch. Neil is happy to simply help run the spread, but Dan's ambition is to build an empire. At the end of the movie, following his brief stint as a lawman and Dan's violent death, Neal returns to running the ranch with his father.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Cord Hardin and his men kidnap Neal Hammond and torture him in an attempt to get him to divulge information about his brother Dan's cattle rustling operation (which he actually knows nothing about).
- The Dragon: The trigger-happy Dandy Taylor is Dan Hammond's right-hand man and chief enforcer.
- Ironic Nickname: Being played by the 6"7" James Arness, 'Tiny' McGilligan is anything but tiny.
- The Magic Poker Equation: In the poker game against Cord Hardin, Dan Hammond draws a king high full house. Hardin draws two cards and then lays down an ace high full house.
- Non-Protagonist Resolver: Dan Hammond is shot and killed by one of Neal's deputies while he is holding his father Ira and brother Neal at gunpoint.
- Patient Childhood Love Interest: Sally Eaton says that she has been in love with Neal since she was two. When he returns from the war, he finally notices her as a woman. She does offer Neal's brother Dan the chance to woo her away from Neal, but Dan isn't interested. By the end of the film, Sally and Neal are an item.
- The Rustler: Dan Hammond builds his criminal empire by rustling cattle from the ranches of Cord Hardin and the other carpetbaggers, while avoiding the ranches of his friends. He drives the stolen cattle to Mexico and sells them, then uses the money to buy up land in Texas cheaply by using loopholes in the law.
- A Taste of the Lash: During his Cold-Blooded Torture of Neal Hammond, Cord Hardin starts thrashing him with a heavy belt. When Lorna interrupts him, Cord hands the belt over to his foreman to continue the thrashing.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Dan Hammond likes to be addressed as Major Hammond; the rank he held in the Confederate army. Among his gang, his right-hand man Dandy Taylor insists on everyone addressing him as 'Major'.
- Torches and Pitchforks: After the corrupt judge says there is not enough evidence to arrest Dan Hammond for Frank Tarleton's murder, a lynch mob forms and attempts to drag Dan out of the marshal's office and hang him.
- Turn in Your Badge: The marshal of Austin is relieved of duty due to his association with Dan Hammond.
- Villain Protagonist: Dan Hammond's attempt to enter business is thwarted when carpetbagger Cord Hardin beats and humiliates him in a poker game. So Dan forms a rustling gang and parlays his ill-gotten gains into a land empire.
