A pleasant, contemporary New Mexican western with a rodeo background, this movie is also known as "Riding Tall". For once the background is kept firmly center screen and we are spared all the customary Hollywood-style trappings of rodeo lore, including the stock library takes of clowns, crowds and even the spills (in which the hero is always so obviously doubled). Here these elements form an integral part of the plot. They are not there just for some gratuitous background thrills. Andrew Prine delivers an easy, likable performance. Gilmer McCormick likewise makes her character a very attractive, interesting and sympathetic person who gains all the more credence by the script's avoidance of the customary wallowing in a lot of background filler about her being on the road. She gives a tenuous explanation and leaves it at that, a device that makes her characterization all the more believable. The script also keeps to the Greek unities of time and plot, concentrating on the Prine character who is on screen just about all the time. Fortunately, Prime is very capable of carrying the movie all by himself, if necessary. He plays his role with sympathy, likability and conviction. Happily, this movie was obviously lensed on real locations, but technical credits – including a pleasant music score – are thoroughly professional.
Review of Squares
