"A man has to have something besides a gun and a saddle."
Few list Delmer Daves among the great Western directors, but he spent the '50s making interesting, off-beat oaters: Broken Arrow (1950), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), The Hanging Tree (1959). Cowboy (1958) suffers from a bland title and scattershot story, but transcends the unpromising premise.Chicago hotel clerk Frank Harris (Jack Lemmon) joins a cattle drive captained by Tom Reece (Glenn Ford). Harris dreams of seeing the Old West, though he also holds a torch for Maria (Anna Kashfi), daughter of a cattle baron. Harris's romantic illusions vanish; trail life proves tough, Reece uncompromising, and Maria marries another man (Eugene Iglesias). The tenderfoot hardens himself while drifting apart from Reece, threatening to go his own way.
Based on writer-adventurer Frank Harris's real experiences, Cowboy offers a jerky narrative bolstered by set pieces. Like the later (though far grimmer) The Culpepper Cattle Co., it's more interested in deconstructing range life than storytelling. Individualism acts as a callous, with Reece tersely burying a dead cowhand and moving on. Rattlesnakes, Indians, rowdy cows and internal dissension prove equally dangerous. An aged cowhand (Brian Donlevy) departs bemoaning the trail's spiritual emptiness.
Writers Edmund H. North and Dalton Trumbo fare best exploring Harris and Reece's interplay. Harris accuses Reece of heartlessness; Reece stops Harris from rescuing a friend or pursuing Maria, unhappily married to a Mexican cowhand. Naturally, Reece is more pragmatic than unfeeling; Harris, hurting from rejection, becomes detached and cold, until Reece mentors him into sense. It's a familiar dude-goes-west narrative with unusual bite.
Daves made the most of modest budgets, and Cowboy feels far more expansive than its 92 minute runtime suggests. The centerpiece is a simultaneous stampede and gunfight, where Reece and his men rescue Harris from hostile Indians. There's a long interlude at Maria's ranch with bull stunts and Harris staring down a quartet of suspicious vaqueros. Charles Lawton Jr.'s handsome photography gives Cowboy commendable energy, even in its weaker passages.
Glenn Ford proves perfect casting as the tough, fatherly old boot with a weakness for gambling and a soft spot for opera. Jack Lemmon's an odd sight in a Western, but outside the comic bookends he restrains himself for a tough, focused performance. Brian Donlevy and Victor Manuel Mendoza have memorable turns as Reece's right-hand men; Dick York is a younger, pricklier cowboy. Strother Martin features as an ill-fated cowboy.
One strength of the Western is that familiar tropes and story elements can be reused in interesting way. On its surface, Cowboy isn't drastically different than Red River or other cattle epics, but tough, efficient storytelling makes it worthwhile.