Randolph Scott (in a role originally slated for
John Wayne) trudges stoically through the West, hunting down the seven men responsible for the murder of his wife in a Wells Fargo station holdup. As the film opens, we see him dispatching two of the miscreants during a driving rainstorm. The worst of the bandits, Lee Marvin, is still at large, and a showdown is inevitable. Though the victims are deserving of their fate, the script is careful to detail the moral deterioration of Scott, who'd quit his sheriff's job to go on this unauthorized death hunt. Seven Men from Now is one of the best of the Randolph Scott/
Budd Boetticher collaborations, as well as one of the few not released by Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide