Review of The Fiend Who Walked the West

I just watched this film for the first time since 1958, and it's much better than I thought it was when I was a 12-year-old. It's fast-paced even at 101 minutes, more violent than I remembered, and consistently well played. I find Robert Evans chillingly credible as psychotic killer Felix Griffin -- perhaps closer to Peter Ustinov's Nero in "Quo Vadis" than to Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death" (on which this film is based), but certainly not "ludicrous," as one critic whose opinions I respect has written. Hugh O'Brian and Stephen McNally also deliver strong performances, and the rest of the cast is fine. Recommended for fans of Westerns and brutal crime films.