River at Sundown

Don't come between a woman and her family. That's the moral to Murray's (Spirit of the Moon) entertaining ninth western, which seems to pack every cliche of frontier mayhem into a single year in the life of man-killing matron Holly Porter. Separated from her husband and son during a renegade Sioux attack, badly wounded and left for dead, Holly vows to rescue her kidnapped son and reunite with her missing husband--then proceeds to fight her way through Sioux war parties, buffalo stampedes and raging floods, prejudice, horse thieves, arson, rape and her own cowardly, murderous brother-in-law. Soon, every member of the lawbreaking element has either stopped lead or been left swinging from a tree limb. We can't help but follow the wanderings of this doting mother and devoted wife, if only to see what coldblooded heroics she'll perform next. (Oct.)