The Tall Men was neither the first nor the last Western to steal liberally from Howard Hawks's Red River, but mark this one "all in the family": William Hawks, Howard's brother, was the producer. Raoul Walsh directed, and his lusty, back-slapping way with both male-female dust-ups and testy masculine friendships is on abundant CinemaScope display. Clark Gable stars (his first of three films in a row with Walsh) as an adventurer who, along with younger brother Cameron Mitchell, sets out to separate the coolly ambitious Robert Ryan from a considerable sum of money. Instead he and Ryan wind up on-again/off-again partners-cum-rivals. There's an epic cattle drive (of course), and the chance to get snowbound in a cabin with Jane Russell. The Western locations are 'Scope-worthy, and Gable and Russell keep up a running contest as to who can growl from deeper in the chest. Advantage Russell. --Richard T. Jameson
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