Here’s a classic Western indeed – one of the definitive examples of the ranch-wars subgenre. George Stevens directs this 1953 emotional confrontation between white and black hats, with Alan Ladd starring as Shane, the loner who rides in to help ranchers being squeezed out by a greedy adversary – and Jean Arthur and Brandon de Wilde play, respectively, the widow and her son that he protects at great personal risk. The scene-stealer, of course, is Jack Palance as Jack Wilson, a ruthless hired gun who played one of the most indelibly evil screen villains of the Fifties.