from a bare description of the toll gate major plot element and one might think it a revisionist western of the 60 or 70 . our hero be a robber and killer and and arsonist while the love interest be a single mother whose shiftless husband abandon her and their child while twice our criminal hero be unofficially release by authority in return for some good deed and and this be present a a praiseworthy act while the only act which be present a truly evil be the betrayal of one family and the betrayal of a criminal associate while the hero try to go straight and but turn back to a life of crime after he can not get a job while the hero be on the run from both a sheriff posse and a criminal gang while the hero final redemption be accomplish by strangle a man with his bare hand and toss his body over a cliff while and the good bad man end the film by send the young mother and her child back to civilization and rid off alone into the mexican desert and never ( presumably ) to pay for his life of crime . just go to show you that there be nothing new under the sun . of course and the toll gate doesn not display quite the cynicism or moral nihilism of it successor represent the hero redemption be set up when he surrender to the posse after read a passage from the bible . can not quite imagine clint eastwood do that . the toll gate an excellent movie by any standard and and hart be a very fine actor and not give to the broad histrionics often use to convey emotion in the day before sound . positive .