The Iron Sheriff

Iron Sheriff differs from most oaters or horse operas that feature wordless passages like long horse chases or showdowns performed under melodramatic music. I was reminded of western paperbacks I'd read in youth that, unlike those broad western film formulas, turned out to be thickly populated with characters with ambiguities, tics, or backstories. Instead of the films' standard linear revenge narrative, these novels' plots often involved confusion, discovery, and makeshift alliances. Correspondingly, this film's often-short scenes cut quickly to other settings and scenes.

Other posters are right that Iron Sheriff resembles a mystery--it uses a standard mystery-genre technique by introducing the actual culprit early and briefly but in the midst of distracting action, multiple characters, and a changing scene. Other posters are also correct that the extensive supporting cast is a prime attraction--another testament to the stable of talent developed by the late studio system.

Title actor Sterling Hayden looks great as ever but moves through the script on cruise control. After I identified the Sheriff's son Benjie as Darryl Hickman, elder brother of Dwayne Hickman of Dobie Gillis, my wife one-upped by identifying Kathi Nolan, the actress playing Benjie's girlfriend, as the future Kate McCoy, who would clang the triangle to summon The Real McCoys to dinner. Another treat is John Dehner, who dignified everything he appeared in.

Westerns were all over the screen both big and little in 1957. Maybe that's why Sterling Hayden looks terminally bored as the "iron" sheriff. Too bad, because the script keeps us guessing-- who really did kill the stage driver. (Stage drivers are always getting killed in Westerns. But, more importantly, in most scripts they just amount to expendable story props. Nice to see some actual concern here.) Anyway, the screenplay (Seeleg Lester) shrewdly manages to stay one jump ahead of us in the guessing game.There's also real fire-power in the supporting cast. A lot of familiar faces of the time, from the always cranky Will Wright (the judge) to shabby aristocrat John Dehner (the kid's attorney) to professional hayseed Frank Ferguson (the other attorney), while even the young lovers manage not to cloy. There's even a Broadway actress, the formidable Constance Ford who mostly gets to stand around.

Okay, with these promising elements why did my rating service give the movie a one-and-a-half out of four, while I would give it a two. Well, there is Hayden who just can't seem to get interested in the story-line. I counted his changes of expression, but after an hour, stopped at two. Most of all, is director Sidney Salkow. He must have come cheap since there's little evidence he cares about building the suspense of the who-dunnit, or even getting the actors to move around when they speak their lines. It's sort of like a slow-motion result, always deadly for an action genre like the Western. Anyway, the movie was a payday for a lot of veteran performers, and a different kind of story-line, especially if you want to take up the cause of the lowly stage driver.

Director Salkow I know nothing about but on the strength of this flick, perhaps I need not bother find out more. The finished B product is uneven, you keep listening to witness accounts after the fact, a courtroom situation that seems too modern for those times, and you just do not know what to believe. The final chase happens immediately after Hayden arrives on the scene with a marshall dogging him for fear of murdering the supposed culprit, who is so pathetically afraid that he provides the single most unusual touch to an otherwise run of the mill film.

Salkow extracts an unusually pedestrian performance from Hayden, who has the thankless task of confirming in court that a dying man blamed his son for the killing of stagecoach rider Fielding (who appears only at the moment of impact). I have to say that Hayden seems too wooden in his delivery of the indicting statement, and looks oddly ambivalent after that.

While not extracting better from an actor of Hayden's talent is criminal, I readily forgive Salkow for failing to score a meaningful portrayal with a substandard actress like Constance Ford. In truth, I cannot recall a single outstanding performance in the film. The culprit does not deserve remembering for any particularly successful characterization, only for being so useless at his job and pathetic in his effort to flee - there was something unintentionally comic about that entire sequence.

One unresolved mystery in this movie that still haunts me: what happened to the money in the Chinese fellow's box? Who stole it and for what purpose? Could it be the culprit when he realized that the cash was not in the stagecoach anymore?

Be that as it might, the whole McCoy hinges on a freshly minted silver dollar. As the saying goes, the dollar makes the world go round!

Cinematography: nothing to write home about.

Big plus: 73' long (but I still fell asleep during the courtroom scene).

A Detective/Courtroom Drama set in the Old West with Sterling Hayden Leading the Proceedings on a Mission to Discover the Real Killer. His Son has been Accused of Robbing a Stage and Shooting the Driver. He is in Jail and On Trial when the Movie Begins and the Running Time is Spent on Uncovering what really happened.

Most B-Westerns aren't as Talky or Concerned with Sleuthing, but this one sure is. A pretty Good Cast of Familiar TV Faces and John Dehner Standing Out as the Boy's Attorney. There are Numerous Town Folks who are Suspect and the Movie is Different enough to Warrant Attention.

Things Twist and Turn quite a bit and there are Riding and Gunplay in the End with Hayden the Sheriff Almost Losing It. Certainly Worth a Watch for its Unique Take on Standard Western Movie Stuff and the Game Cast and Story are Interestingly Off Beat.

When this movie started today on GRIT, I didn't expect much. I expected good enough acting from Sterling Hayden and a solid "B" movie, but it was really much more.

I generally believe that over-selling a story makes the person reading my review like it less, what a departed friend of mine called "the contrapositive effect".

So no spoilers, no hints, just, as others have noted, if you like a good whodunit and like the Western setting, you should watch this movie. By the way, there was some A movie acting by a fine ensemble cast. One scene reminded me of Cary Grant's facial expressions in the final scene of An Affair To Remember. Acting without words. You can't beat it.