The film begins with a group of townsfolk dragging John Cord (Joel McCrea) from a rope tied to a man's horse. Yes, their plan is to drag him to death. Apparently five years earlier, Cord and his gang of cowboys entered the town and tore the place apart and spread a lot of misery. Inexplicably, he's back as one of the leading citizens in the town has hired him to take the town's cattle to market. How could this be?! After all, he was convicted of standing by and doing nothing to stop his men from an orgy of destruction. And, why is Cord so angry?! After all, the dragging seems more than justified when year hear about all the hellish things his men did to the town! And, why does Cord agree to take the job?! None of this makes any sense....and that's okay. Just keep watching!! It will make sense by the end.

This is a very good western...which isn't a surprise considering it stars Joel McCrea. Even the most ordinary of westerns were made better by his solid acting...and this is a decent film to boot. Well worth seeing...mostly because it is unique...and that's very rare with westerns.

I wasn't blown away by Cattle Empire, however I do think it is worth the look. The production values are impressive, Joel McCrea is splendid, Gloria Talbott is a welcome presence and Charles Marquis Warren's direction is passable. Also the film starts brilliantly and the climax is pretty strong.

What didn't do it for me though was the film's length, it is far too short. The story felt rushed and underdeveloped and the script is decidedly patchy. Less of an issue is the pace, but it is still an issue, if the film had slowed down a little more the characters, story and script could have done with more credibility.

All in all, a decent film but nothing really to blow the mind. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Cattle Empire opens with Joel McCrea being dragged through the streets of a small western town. He's a former trail boss who went to prison because he was held legally responsible for his crew shooting up a town and a lot of people getting permanently injured. That's a first in all the westerns I've ever watched and there've been a lot. But now the big cattle baron in the area, Don Haggerty who incidentally married McCrea's girl Phyllis Coates has need of his services. Haggerty has to get his herd to market and beat another baron's herd there or they win an army beef contract and Haggerty goes broke. Haggerty was also blinded in the fracas that put McCrea in prison.

So much nobility in one western I could hardly believe it. McCrea always on film epitomized the strong silent western hero maybe more than any other player. But it was just too much for me to swallow.

Steve Raines, Rocky Shahan, and Paul Brinegar wound up on the Rawhide series the following and all three have parts in Cattle Empire. Possibly they were cast after being seen here. In fact Eric Fleming was very much in the Joel McCrea mold as Gil Favor the trail boss, but he was not a candidate for sainthood as McCrea is here.