Oscar®-winner* Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mockingbird) stars in this ?brilliantly cast? (The Hollywood Reporter) Western epic featuring ?an unusually fine story and magnificent direction ? unleashing dramatic power seldom found in this type of film!? (Daily Variety)

A band of outlaws, led by tough, gruff Stretch (Peck) find themselves knocking at death?s door after becoming lost in the treacherous western Badlands ? only to find their salvation in a lonesome town called Yellow Sky, where the only inhabitants are a doddering old man and his mysterious, alluring daughter. But their deliverance from danger is short-lived when the gang discovers a fateful secret hidden within the dusty, rotting walls of this ghost town ? one that will turn brother against brother in a desperate battle to the death!
It seems no one has ever had an unkind word for Yellow Sky, yet somehow this handsome, hard-edged, and very well-made late-'40s Western remains little-known. That may change with its release on a DVD so crisp and luminous, one wants to swear off Technicolor and luxuriate in the frosty glow of its highlights, the velvet blackness of its shadows, and the electric silver-gray of its desert skies.

Story's pretty good, too. Seven men led by Gregory Peck ride into a small Southwest town, wet their whistles at the saloon, then hold up the bank with a minimum of fuss. Escaping should be a cinch, except for a troop of cavalry who reduce their number to six and watch the survivors ride off into a desert they probably won't live to cross. Unexpected salvation looms in the form of Yellow Sky, a ghost town where the bandits find water, an old man (James Barton) and his tomboy granddaughter (Anne Baxter)--and the tempting rumor of gold. That's when the real trouble starts. The criminal partnership is severely strained by greed, several varieties of lust (for the girl as well as the treasure), the troublesome onset of conscience in some breasts and its total absence from others--notably Richard Widmark's.

Yellow Sky re-teams director William A. Wellman and writer-producer Lamar Trotti, who five years earlier had made The Ox-Bow Incident, an authentic but rather pretentious Western classic. Yellow Sky's opening scene is all but lifted from Ox-Bow (along with two character actors), but this time around, Wellman eschews self-importance and just concentrates on spinning a gritty yarn (from a novel by W.R. Burnett). Apart from sequences shot in Death Valley, the principal location is Yellow Sky itself, a grand ruin set against the timeless backdrop of the Alabama Hills. And oh yes, the man responsible for those awesome whites, blacks, and silver-grays is Joe MacDonald, the cinematographer of My Darling Clementine. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Rating:
Summary: WILLIAM A. WELLMAN, OPUS 62
Comment: ***** 1948. Directed by William A. Wellman. 1867. A gang of bandits, led by Gregory Peck, must cross the desert in order to escape the army after their last hold-up. They finally arrive to a ghost town where they meet an old prospector and his granddaughter. After three or four screenings of YELLOW SKY during these last years, what striked me the most yesterday was the religious references scattered throughout the film by the screenwriter and the director. The crossing of the desert, numerous allusions to the seven deadly sins and Anne Baxter as the temptress are only a few clues you can find in this remarkable film. This is also Richard Widmark's fourth movie and his first western; four parts, four incarnations of bad guys that stay in our memory. Masterpiece.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Western Film Noir
Comment: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: From the Secret Files of Harry Pennypacker
Cheyenne Warrior: The Original Screenplay with Author Commentary
Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake

YELLOW SKY (1948) is a black-and-white, almost noirish western from director William A. Wellman.

Gregory Peck and film noir icon Richard Widmark star as the leaders of an outlaw band that robs a bank, then makes their escape over a vast, deadly desert. They reach the ghost town of Yellow Sky, only populated by crusty old prospector James Barton and his daughter, Anne Baxter.

When the outlaws discover than Baxter and Barton are hiding a cache of gold, they decide to take it for themselves, but by this time Peck has fallen for Baxter and his loyalties are thus challenged.

Wellman's staging of the final shoot-out between Peck and Widmark may defy audience expectations, but it is certainly an interesting and memorable artistic choice.

This exciting, well-acted adult western co-stars John Russell and Harry Morgan as members of the gang.

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the greats!
Comment: I do not know how I ever missed this movie, being the movie buff that I am. Gregory Peck and Richard Widmark were great. Gregory Peck was such a magnificent actor, and you add to that the the talents of Richard Widmark, with his trademark smile and laugh, along with the beautiful Anne Baxter and a good story; and you cannot lose.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Really great movie
Comment: Yellow Sky is definitely a classic black and white western and well written and acted. Gregory Peck does a great job and plays his role well. Ann Baxter is also really wonderful in her part. Realism is added by the fact that she is not heavily made-up as was Marilyn Monroe in The River of No Return. Her natural and almost rugged look is refreshing. I especially like the ending and the good moral values that come out there. I highly recommend this movie.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Yellow Sky
Comment: Gregory Peck was cast against type for his role in Yellow Sky. His character, Stretch, is the leader of a gang of outlaws. It's a gang of seven & they rob a bank in a small Western town getting away with about $6,000. As they're making their escape a cavalry patrol (don't know where they came from) gets in the chase. One outlaw is killed. They're forced to escape across a salt flat that's about 60 miles across. The cavalry patrol decides not to chase them. As Stretch & his band of outlaws trek across the salt flat one outlaw loses his horse. They finally get across the salt flat & stumble upon a ghost town by the name of Yellow Sky ("The fastest growing town in the territory" a sign proclaims). The only inhabitants of the town are an old man & his daughter. To make this short, they have been prospecting for gold & have about &50,000 worth. Of course, the outlaws want it.

Gregory Peck is good in the role of Stretch. Unlike most of Peck's portrayals that are urbane & suave, in Yellow Sky he has a beard & he's dirty. Anne Baxter portrays Mike, the granddaughter, & says Stretch smells bad, worse than an Apache. Other members of the gang include Richard Widmark as Dude, a gambler who wants only one thing: the gold. Dude causes an insurrection within the gang against Stretch. The gang wants the gold but Stretch is more worried about making an escape. John Russell (star of ABC's The Lawman in the late fifties) is a member of the gang also. It's a good role for him also sporting a beard. All he really wants is the woman. The only other member of the gang the general public will be familiar with would be Harry Morgan (Col. Potter of M*A*S*H) as Half-Pint. His role is minor & he also sports a beard.

This isn't a bad movie. It was filmed mostly in Death Valley. Unlike most Hollywood Westerns of this era (1948) it's stark, bleak & dirty. This isn't a romanticized account though the character of Stretch does have a change of heart & direction by the conclusion of the story. The other odd thing about the movie is the lack of a musical soundtrack. Only the beginning & conclusion of the film do we hear any music. This isn't a bad movie but it's not an outstanding one, either. The main attractions are Anne Baxter in an early role & Peck's casting against type. Yellow Sky is the type of movie, if it had been made in the seventies or later, would've really been a gritty & filthy portrayal of realism. The near rape scene of Anne Baxter's character would've been considerably more graphic. It's unfortunate, at times, that today's movie makers don't allow us to use our imaginations more instead of the graphic violence & sex scenes that they show us.

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