Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

ThiefHott Too much of everything

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

zardoz-13 Anybody who knows anything about Hollywood westerns from the 1950s knows that John Wayne loathed Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon" because Gary Cooper's sheriff sought help from the cowardly townspeople and nobody other than his Quaker wife can to his aid. "Red River" director Howard Hawks and Wayne waited seven years later and made "Rio Bravo" as a corrective to "High Noon." Clearly, neither Wayne nor Hawks saw "Gun Crazy" director Joseph H. Lewis' town taming oater "A Lawless Street" (1955) with rugged, square-jawed Randolph Scott who plays a town marshal under similar circumstances. The big difference here is Scott doesn't go searching for help from the townspeople. As it turns out, the townspeople realize by fade-out that they had let their town marshal shouldered too much of the burden while they refused to behave responsibly and share the burden of maintaining safety with the town. Early, in the action, one of the villains observes that half of the people in Medicine Bend are "too yellow to fight back" and the other half are in the pocket of the villainous businessmen. Indeed, the town marshal surrenders both his star and his six-gun after he has cleaned up the town and departs in a buggy with his wife (Angela Lansbury of "Murder, She Wrote") after a lengthy separation between them because she could not tolerate the anxiety as a lawman's spouse.The town of Medicine Bend is about to take on renewed life as a mining boom town because the captains of industry are going to do the smelting in town instead of shipping the ore hundreds of miles out of town. The economic forces behind this move are unscrupulous businessman Hamer Thorne (Warner Anderson of "The Caine Mutiny") and saloon entrepreneur Cody Clark (John Emery of "Spellbound"), and they mean to get things underway by hiring a professional gunslinger, Harley Baskam (Michael Pate of "Hondo"), to liquidate the star packer, Caleb Ware (Randolph Scott of "The Tall T"), and Baskam beats Caleb on the draw in Cody's saloon. The catch is that Baskam's bullet puts a part in Caleb's skull and Dr. Amos Wynn (Wallace Ford of "Freaks") conceals this vital information from everybody. While the villains are living high, wide, and handsome, Wynn has managed to stash Caleb in his own jail to recuperate. Thorne and Clark are either buying out everybody else in Medicine Bend who supported Caleb or killing them. One irate saloon owner, Abe Deland (Frank Ferguson of "Johnny Guitar"), refuses to sell out. He grabs a gun behind his bar, but the gimlet-eyed Baskam drills him. Meantime, Thorne and Clark ride out to the sprawling ranch of Asaph Dean (James Bell of "Blood on the Sun") who initially empowered Caleb to pin on the star three years earlier. A professional town tamer, Caleb has survived many attempts on his life, and two from killers hired by the sleazy Cody. In the first instance, our stalwart hero is relaxing in a barber's chair, getting a shave, when a third-rate gunman, Dingo Brion (Frank Hagney of "Fighting Caravans"), enters, glimpses the marshal's gun and gun belt hanging up nearby out of reach, and brandishes his own six-shooter to make short order of him. Caleb surprises his adversary and plugs him twice with a derringer concealed beneath the sheet covering him. Scenes with heroes surviving shoot-outs in barber shops in westerns are numerous, such as in Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter" and Tonino Valerii's "My Name Is Nobody." The second instance involves a mustached Hispanic with a knife, Juan Tobrez (Don Carlos of "Wyoming Renegades"), who throws and misses Caleb. Under the circumstances, Hispanics could clamor about racial stereotyping because a Mexican wielded a knife. Appropriately, Cody comes to Caleb's aid and guns down the Mexican, largely because he hired the knife-slinger! Ultimately, Caleb meets his match in Baskam, and they duel in the traditional western sense in Cody's saloon. Caleb receives a serious head wound, but he doesn't die. When Baskam steps forward to deliver a coup de grace, Dr. Wynn pulls a gun on the gunslinger, and explains that Caleb is dead. Meantime, a sub-plot that smolders on a back burner involves performing artist and vocalist, Tally Dickenson (Angela Lansbury), who turns out to be Caleb's estranged wife. When he was the lawman in Apache Wells, he was constantly in jeopardy, and she couldn't handle it so she abandoned him. Thorne has imported her into Medicine Bend, but he doesn't know that she is estranged from Caleb. Some days pass, and Caleb emerges from his enforced confinement and tangles with Baskam again, but he doesn't give him a fair chance. In this respect, Caleb's action predate John Wayne's action against sharp-shooting gunslinger Christopher George in "El Dorado." Altogether, "A Lawless Street" qualifies as an intelligent, above-average horse opera with Randolph Scott that doesn't wear out its welcome at 78-minutes.

LeonLouisRicci One of the Things that Elevates This One to Slightly Above Average for a Fifties Western is the Ever Present, Ever Humble, Ever Dependable, Ever Demanding, Randolph Scott, the Western Icon Who was Immortalized for His Contribution to the Genre by Mel Brooks in "Blazing Saddles" (1974),Astute Fans of the Western Know That His Collaborations with Budd Boetticher are the Highlights of His 60 Westerns, and Of Course, No One Could Forget His Curtain Call in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962).Angela Lansbury Does a Singing and Dancing Number, but Not Much Else. There is an Extended Fist Fight Between Scott's Marshall and a Hulk of Man (said to have killed a mountain lion with his bare hands because the cat scratched his face). Some Solid Supporting Actors Like Wallace Ford and Others, and the Steady Direction from Joseph H. Lewis Help Somewhat. This Beast of a Town is There to be Tamed by Scott, but He Needs the Help of the Townspeople to Be Successful. Will They Pitch In Before It's Too Late? Good Guess.Overall, Worth a Watch for Genre Fans. It's a Notch Above Standard Fare but Nothing that Special. Starting the Next Year Randolph Scott Starts the Ball Rolling with Some Very Special Stuff with Boettcher.

MARIO GAUCI This is really no lesser an achievement than the renowned Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher Westerns; then again, director Lewis was no slouch (for he made his fair share of minor classics)! Scott's role is typical – a legendary marshal involved in a HIGH NOON (1952)-type situation, where he's practically left alone to clean up a town riddled with corruption and violence – but the underrated actor invests it with warmth, humor, tenacity and a quiet dignity. The star, then, is supported by a most excellent cast: Angela Lansbury (a fine actress but a rather unlikely chanteuse), James Bell (a usurped town leader), Jean Parker (an ageing belle and the latter's wife), Wallace Ford (predictably in the role of the reliable town doctor), Ruth Donnelly (as Scott's gracious elderly housekeeper), Jeanette Nolan (as the wife of a revenge-seeking ex-con whom Scott has killed in self-defense), and an interesting trio of villains – powerful boss Warner Anderson (who also fancies himself a ladies' man and, in fact, strikes up relationships with both Parker and Lansbury throughout), shifty but nervous gambler John Emery and smooth gunslinger Michael Pate (making for a worthy opponent to Scott).The above-average script by Kenneth Gamet (an in-joke shows the calendar in the hero's room as being sponsored by Gamet's Vegetable Compound!) gives characterization reasonable depth: Scott and Lansbury are married but she had left him because of his dangerous job (a situation which she has to live through again now); Scott tells Donnelly that he hears The Beast (which symbolizes the scourge of the town) every morning until it's replaced by church-bells at the end of the picture. The highlights – most of the action seems to take place in and around one particular saloon, though in a montage we're shown that Anderson's 'protection' extends to many others in town – include an energetic and brutal fistfight between the hero and a dim-witted giant (who subsequently joins forces with him), an astonishing shoot-out two-thirds of the way involving Scott and Pate which ends with the former left for dead, and the splendid extended climax. On top of it all is the pleasing cinematography by an expert in color lensing, Ray Rennahan.

Robert J. Maxwell The story is simplicity itself. Scott is the marshall keeping the town (referred to several times as a wild beast) peaceful despite the efforts of two corrupt businessmen to take it over and run it on their terms. They hire a gunman (Pate) to come in and knock off Scott. At about the same time Scott's showgirl wife (Lansbury) shows up. They've separated because she doesn't want him using guns to earn a living. Or something like that. (Where have we seen this before?) Pate shoots Scott, who recovers later and shoots Pate. The businessmen are subdued by the rest of the townspeople who have come to their senses and acquired ethics. Scott hands over his badge because the beast has been tamed and the town no longer needs his kind of marshall. He rides off into the sunset with his wife and a carriage full of luggage and mulligan stew. The end.Angela Lansbury is a first-rate actress. She wows the audience in pieces as different as "The Manchurian Candidate," "Death on the Nile," and "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway. But she's given practically nothing to do here. Warner Anderson's acting is flat and matter-of-fact but he's okay. The other villainous businessmen are less than interesting, which is too bad because movies like this depend as much on the character of their heavies as they do on the star. Wally Ford is in the Thomas Mitchell/ Edgar Buchanan part. The movie's score blossoms during the overture to Lansbury's stage appearance. Elsewhere the score is overblown and sounds hastily assembled with comic notes where none are called for. The second half of the movie deteriorates. I cannot imagine why the rich ranchers and the rest of the townspeople (the wild beasts) have a sudden and entirely unmotivated change of heart and rally to Scott's side. Also, Scott gets to beat hell out of a human being the size of Man Mountain Dean, without using a gun. The two men have a lengthy and brutal fistfight and wind up with their shirts torn to shreds but not a drop of blood is spilled. But the first third of the movie gives Scott some scenes and dialogue that are outstanding for him, considering his usual persona. He shoots a man in self defense and is, if not ashamed of having done it, at least remorseful. The victim's widow has some sensible and believable lines too, and not favorable to Scott. Scott doesn't go on about his sadness -- he never goes on about anything. But we can sense the writers and the director giving him a chance to play something more than a heroic marble statue. It would have been nice had the rest of the movie been so played.