The son (Gary Cooper) of a North Carolina tenant farmer, who was run out of town many years ago, returns home to get his revenge on the tobacco baron (Donald Crisp) who sent him packing. Meanwhile, two women will have an important role in his plans. The madam (Lauren Bacall) of the local brothel who loves him and the tobacco baron's daughter (Patricia Neal) who he loves. Based on the novel by Foster Fitsimmons and directed by Michael Curtiz (WHITE CHRISTMAS). This succulent piece of melodrama is a corker of an entertainment. Michael Curtiz, keeps the storyline on the straight and narrow without any extraneous secondary plots or characters to slow it down. Cooper's Brant Royle is the epitome of a man driven more by hate than by ambition in his rise to power. But the film belongs to Patricia Neal's arrogant, flirtatious Southern belle. Neal is so mesmerizing that it's easy to see why Cooper's character chooses her over Bacall despite the fact that she is obviously so wrong for him. Cooper is very good here as a man who stops at nothing to get what he wants, only to find himself destroyed by the very thing(s) he wants. The strong score is by Victor Young. With Jack Carson, Jeff Corey, Gladys George, Elizabeth Patterson, Cleo Moore, Nita Talbot and Marietta Canty.
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