The Virginian (1946)

Set in 1885, a young woman (Barbara Britton) sets out from Vermont by train to Wyoming where she has a job as a school teacher. It's there she meets a cowboy (Joel McCrea) known as The Virginian and eventually falls in love with him. But she discovers the ways of the West are contrary to her upbringing. Based on the novel by Owen Wister and directed by Stuart Gilmore (THE HALF BREED). The third film version of the Wister novel, previously filmed in 1914 and 1929 and would eventually be filmed again in 2000. Handsomely shot in three strip Technicolor by Harry Hallenberger (LOUISIANA PURCHASE), it's an above average western despite Gilmore's lackluster direction. The relationship between McCrea and Britton and the film's finale echo the Cooper/Kelly aspect of HIGH NOON (1952). There's a lynching scene that's disturbing even though the victims are cattle rustlers. With Brian Donlevy, Fay Bainter, Sonny Tufts and Tom Tully.