Jack Nicholson and Cameron Mitchell are two unlucky cowboys who mistakenly wander into the crosshairs of a merciless avenging posse in Hellman's relentlessly dark and brooding Western. As frightening as the bloodthirsty posse's inexorable justice is the lonely life of backbreaking toil, muttered prayers and pleasureless domesticity they encounter in the prairie Gothic home of a family of "sodbuster" farmers. An important showcase for Nicholson's little known talent as a screenwriter, Ride in the Whirlwind also reveals Hellman's preternatural ability to craft psychologically intense drama and an indelible sense of place on a shoestring Roger Corman budget. – HG