The Ox-Bow Incident is less of a western and more of a study of herd mentality and mob rule, bordering on anarchy, in a western setting. This 1943 film was adapted from the 1940 novel of the same name written by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. The book itself was based on a true story.

The setting for the story is in Nevada in 1885. Two drifters, Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and Art Croft (Harry Morgan Billed as Henry Morgan), ride into the town of Bridger Wells only to discover that a local rancher has been killed and his cattle stolen by a gang of rustlers. The townspeople are up in arms over the death of the beloved rancher and vow to find the perpetrators. With the sheriff absent from town on an investigation, a posse is formed and the citizens vow to hunt down the villains and hang them on the spot. Gil Carter and Art Croft join the posse, not so much be cause they want to, but because they don't want the unruly mob to become suspicious of them. Control of the posse is taken over by Major Tetley (Frank Conroy) who seems to be the dominant personality in the town, the alpha male, if you will.

This begs a question. It was probably not overly done at the time this movie was made but today it is almost a cliché. Why, in so many western stories, both in the movies and on television, does the richest and most influential person in town seem to be an ex-Confederate Army major or colonel? Another cliché in this movie is when Carter and Croft first ride into town, a forlorn looking mongrel dog lopes across the street in front of them. Of course, when they leave town, the same dog crosses the street behind them, going in the opposite direction.

The posse rides out of town and the search takes on a party atmosphere. When the villains are caught, the major holds a vote on whether the suspects should be hanged on the spot or taken back to the sheriff. Only seven of the twenty-eight people in the group want the law to handle the situation.

The movie tells a great, thought provoking story in a span of only seventy-two minutes using a tight plot. This disproves the theory that too many filmmakers seem to have today that a great film must have a long running time.

The story follows the plot of the book fairly well with the only major difference being that Art Croft is the main character in the novel and not Gil Carter. Their roles are reversed for the movie.

The Ox-Bow Incident was nominated for best picture but the Oscar went to Casablanca.