classicsoncall Well I would have lost a bet big time on whether Randolph Scott and Angela Lansbury ever played romantic leads opposite each other. Somehow that just doesn't compute with me. It doesn't help that Scott was sixty eight at the time of filming, with Lansbury looking quite lovely at thirty years of age. My image of Lansbury was formed during her "Murder She Wrote" days, so catching her as a saloon gal singing 'Mother Says I Mustn't' is just a bit too far removed for me to process. Although I have seen her in other early pictures she made, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised when she shows up looking glam any more.Though it was relevant to the story of an aging town marshal attempting to wait out the transition from lawlessness to civilized society, I don't think I've seen another Western where so many of a town's citizens were looking for the lawman to retire. With a pretty good record of keeping the peace, you'd think they'd want him to hang around some more. That angle probably could have been written somewhat better, it kept distracting me every time Molly (Ruth Donnelly) or Doc Wynn (Wallace Ford) tried to convince Calem Ware (Scott) to retire.One scene I had trouble with was the showdown between gunslinger Harley Baskam (Michael Pate) and the marshal. It didn't even look like Ware went for his gun, almost as if he was accepting the forced retirement some of the folks of Medicine Bend were recommending. Talk about a tough way to go. I've been watching Hugh O'Brian in his Wyatt Earp TV series, and he made it a regular practice to crease bad guys in the head, but I have this nagging suspicion that it wouldn't have been all that easy to do. Here it looked like Ware was a goner, even if the shot by Baskam went astray; I'm sure he was aiming for the body.But as usual in these Fifties oaters, the formula brings Calem back around to face his enemies another day, and less than twenty four hours or so since he got plugged. Using the old 'under the swinging door' trick, Ware takes out Baskam who already had his gun drawn in what would have been an unfair shootout. If you've been in enough westerns like Scott, I guess you knew how to make things work out.

rickdumesnil-55203 not a very bad western......predictable.....but fun to see Randolph Scott practically always in a good humour and looking good for his advancing age. the action is alright and the actors do their jobs....but i don't get Angela lansbury. in all her roles she ruins the movie for me I'm sorry but she doesn't pull my heart strings at all. yes luckily randy was in this film because i don't think i would have reached the end. i have 4 more Scott westerns to watch i hope they fare better than this one and Angela is not co starring or even a character actress. oh i forgot the atmosphere of the movie really passes well and the town is well depicted. maybe a few known character actors....gabby Hayes...Andy devine...Walter Brennan would have helped it get better

MartinHafer Randolph Scott made a ton of Westerns and you could almost always rely on them to be well-acted, intelligently written and a bit better than the genre. While this film certainly doesn't stand out among these many films, it certainly is good and worthwhile--particularly if you've become a Randolph Scott fan like me.I liked how this film didn't deny that Scott was getting older. He plays a sheriff with a fast gun who realizes that he's made a lot of enemies by enforcing the law over the years--and his reflexes aren't exactly as good as they used to be. I loved how he took a nap by locking himself in one of his back jail cells--so that no one could sneak up on him! Scott deals with a couple angry jerks looking to take him down near the beginning of the film. I particularly loved the barber's chair scene--I wasn't too surprised by it but it was handled well. However, now he has something different to deal with--a greedy and amoral gambler who is determined to get rid of the sheriff once and for all. So, he brings in a hired gun who soon shoots Scott. Now this is the only real problem with the film. It expects us to believe that a gunman who hates Scott shoots him from about fifteen feet and the bullet somehow glances off Scott's head! Even I could have made this shot, and I'm no gunslinger! So you are expected to believe this and not question this plot line for the rest of the film to work. However, I was able to temporarily suspend disbelief and liked what happened next.The acting and writing are fine and Scott is helped by having some excellent support in the film. It's a good old fashioned story about one man defying the odds--somewhat like HIGH NOON or RIO BRAVO. I especially liked how it all ended.Memorable and worth seeing, though look for the Scott films directed by Budd Boetticher to see his best film or his final film that was directed by Sam Peckinpah.

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.