“There's something a little too cautious about I Walk the Line, as if casting Gregory Peck as the upright but miserable sheriff, who falls for moonshiner's daughter Tuesday Weld, had undermined plausibility and kept the story of Tennessee amour fou as discreet as The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Weld deserves and requires extremism in her men, and so the picture falls short of being a hillbilly Blue Angel. But Weld is a good example of an apparent star who is actually too intransigent or private to play many mainstream roles. When Sam Shepard called her the Marlon Brando of actresses, perhaps he felt the dark, destructive urge in her to offend the system. In being so fully rural here--in voice, gaze, gesture and timing--she cannot help but expose the sophistication that Peck is trying to hide.
“There are several more gems of supporting work: Ralph Meeker as Tuesday's father, and Estelle Parsons, so brilliant as Peck's wife that you could believe he wants to leave her because he just can't live with acting that good. Then there's Lonny Chapman and a woman whose name I don't know and can't find (this is the measure of true supporting work) as a secretary in sheriff Peck's office.” David Thomson