The typical western of the 1940s and 1950s is shown here where a woman seeks adventure from a dull life in 1885's Vermont to go out west and teach. There she finds Joel McCrea, a rancher, involved in trying to prove that Brian Donlevy, dressed in black to depict evil, is the cattle rustler.

Faye Bainter must have been gunning for another supporting actress nomination in one scene where she tells our heroine about frontier justice. She was quite effective there. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for McCrea's performance. He was rather dull in a role which would have been perfect for Gary Cooper.

Our schoolteacher is never shown in the classroom but can lecture McRea on transitive and intransitive verbs. That was ridiculous for this period peace.

Naturally, the two get off on the wrong foot and there are complications during their courtship due to frontier justice. Remember cattle rustlers were automatically hung.

Cowpoke good guy , known as the Virginian, Joel McCrea , and his best colleague called Steve , Sonny Tuffs , both fall for Molly, Barbara Britton , the Eastern Schoolmarm who is come to their Wyoming town . Steve wants to make some quick money and joins up Trampas , Brian Donlevy , and his cattle rustling band .After that , the Virginian leads a posse against the cattle rustlers . Things go wrong when The Virginian must take a hard decission .

Good Western based on the 1902 classic novel by Owen Lister about a ranch-hand defeating the local bad guys . The main issue of the movie is an interesting premise , as The Virginian is forced to choose between frienship and the code of the west and Molly wonders if she can accept the country's harsh ways . It has fine interpretation from a top-drawer cast , such as Joel McCrea , Brian Donlevy , Barbara Britton . Joel McCrea gives a decent acting as the tough cowboy who is betrayed by his best friend , deciding between bring him to justice and alienating the pretty schoolteacher he is in love with . Donlevy is perfectly cast as the outlaw leader Trampas . And a very good support cast such as : Sonny Tuffs , Fay Bainter, Tom Tully , Bill Edwards , Paul Guilfoyle , Mark Lawrence , among others . The motion picture was well directed by Stuart Gilmore who was one of the best Hollywood editors . Although he also made a few fulms such as Captive man, Half-breed , Target and Hot lead.

There are several adaptation about this novel : First silent retelling The Virginian 1914 by Cecil B DeMille with Dustin Farnum , Jack Johnston . Classic early talkie 1929 by Victor Fleming with Gary Cooper , Walter Huston , Mary Brian , Richard Arlen . 1962 popular TV series mostly directed by Earl Bellamy with James Drury , Doug McClure , Lee J Cobb , John McIntire , Stewart Granger . TV rendition with Bill Pullman , John Savage , Harris Yulin , Colm Feore , Diane Lane . 2014 by Thomas McKowsky with Trace Adkins , Steve Bacic, Victoria Pratt

... and the comparison is made more interesting because this film is almost a word for word remake of the 1929 version starring Gary Cooper. Most remakes of early sound films had to make huge changes in the plot just to please the production code. Just take a look at the mess that the 1941 version of the "The Trial of Mary Dugan" is versus the 1929 version, which had its plot completely changed due to production code issues. Here, there is no such issue.

Joel McCrea, always overly humble when discussing his own acting ability, said that he'd get a script and after reading it, often know that the studio wanted Cooper and couldn't get him, and he was their second choice. I doubt that, but here we get to judge the two actors in the same role as "The Virginian" 17 years apart. The two films are practically the same even down to the visual and audio cues - Trampas dressed in all black, the bird call that is synonymous with affable but ultimately tragically lazy Steve, etc. The one thing they didn't do that would have looked just plain silly by 1946 standards is dress McCrea in all white as the good guy, which they did with Cooper as the hero in 1929.

I think I prefer Mary Brian as Molly in the 1929 version versus Barbara Britton in this version. Mary Brian played Molly as a strong smart woman, but a woman of New England, unfamiliar and puzzled by the ways of the west. Here Ms. Britton plays Molly as a bit of a befuddled weakling, easily evoked to tears. No befuddled weakling would travel across the continent to teach school in a wilderness.

If you've never seen the 1929 version, you'll probably like this one. If you like Joel McCrea I'm almost sure you'll like it, but if you've seen the early sound version the ghost of that early sound marvel is likely to raise its specter more than a couple of times as you watch it.