Set in a small rural mountain town in Tennessee, a fortyish married sheriff (Gregory Peck) falls in love with the young daughter (Tuesday Weld) of a moonshiner (Ralph Meeker). It's a relationship that will lead to betrayal, violence and death. Based on the novel AN EXILE by Madison Jones and directed by John Frankenheimer (GRAND PRIX). It's an awkward film, something is askew but what? Tuesday Weld is fine but as much as I love Gregory Peck, passion was never his forte. His character is obsessed with this Lolita like country hillbilly but we never really sense it. Only once have I seen Peck show genuine passion onscreen and that was in DUEL IN THE SUN (he was actually sexy!) some 24 years earlier. As if sensing this, Frankenheimer keeps the love scenes down to a minimum. I felt a bit sorry for Estelle Parsons playing Peck's wife. She's obviously trying hard but her character is underwritten leaving her with not much to play with. The score consists of songs by Johnny Cash and that's what they sound like. They add nothing to the texture or emotion of the film. With Charles Durning (just awful) overdoing the red neck bit and Lonny Chapman.
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