This is a sturdy western with a remarkably strong cast, featuring beautiful colour photography, and an interesting character study.
Burt Lancaster plays a stolid, dependable foster son who reluctantly has to face down his reckless foster brother played by Robert Walker. Walker and Lancaster play off each other well, their naturally opposing acting styles intensify the conflict between them.
The "Cain and Abel" plot is redefined within western terms in MGM's Vengeance Valley. Burt Lancaster stars as ranch-hand Owen Daybright, who has been raised as a son by rancher Arch Strobie (Ray Collins). When Strobie's natural son Lee (Robert Walker) fathers an illegitimate child, he tries to shift the responsibility and wrath of the vengeance-seeking brothers of the baby's mother (Sally Forrest) on to Owen, whilst Joanne Dru co-stars as Lee's long-suffering wife Jen, who harbours a secret yen for Owen.