I have always liked watching Glenn Ford. Never one of the Hollywood greats, never an Oscar winner, and yet a versatile performer who clearly took acting seriously, and could deliver a dramatic part with the same quality as a comic one.
Unfortunately, in A TIME FOR KILLING he appears only for short bursts, and his motivations and actions are less clear and honorable than I would expect from a senior Union officer.
His opposite number in the film and in the ranks of the captive Confederate soldiers is George Hamilton, who I have always rated a mediocre actor, with the exception of his roles in THE VICTORS and HOME FROM THE HILL. Hamilton's motivations - apart from wanting to escape and get some payback on the "yellow bellies" - are even more enigmatic than Ford's: he actually allows, even endorses, two of his men to engage in a knife fight just to keep things lively, when in fact the escapees should be trying to put a greater distance between themselves and the Unionist pursuers led by Ford.
In the end, inevitably, the underdogs are defeated but pretty Inger Stevens takes some of the sheen off Ford's victory by rather high-mindedly walking away.
Pedestrian cinematography, acting, and script. 5/10.
Unfortunately, in A TIME FOR KILLING he appears only for short bursts, and his motivations and actions are less clear and honorable than I would expect from a senior Union officer.
His opposite number in the film and in the ranks of the captive Confederate soldiers is George Hamilton, who I have always rated a mediocre actor, with the exception of his roles in THE VICTORS and HOME FROM THE HILL. Hamilton's motivations - apart from wanting to escape and get some payback on the "yellow bellies" - are even more enigmatic than Ford's: he actually allows, even endorses, two of his men to engage in a knife fight just to keep things lively, when in fact the escapees should be trying to put a greater distance between themselves and the Unionist pursuers led by Ford.
In the end, inevitably, the underdogs are defeated but pretty Inger Stevens takes some of the sheen off Ford's victory by rather high-mindedly walking away.
Pedestrian cinematography, acting, and script. 5/10.