A combination of a frontier predisposition to hang three men suspected of murder and rustling, and circumstantial evidence, lead to their lynching. Rarely has a film had as its focus such a heavy topic as this one, and it is to this day difficult to sit through, mainly because it does such a fine job of putting the viewer into the inevitability of a long, protracted night, where the executioners delude themselves into believing that right is on their side. All the while, the hanging awaits. Maybe the best parts are those of Anthony Quinn and Jane Darwell, especially Darwell, whose character as the kindly matriarch of the Joad family in Grapes of Wrath is polar opposite of the crude and cruel woman she plays in this film.
Review of The Ox-Bow Incident
