The Iron Sheriff

The Iron Sheriff manages to combine both western and noir elements in its making. It also is a pretty good courtroom drama.

The title role of The Iron Sheriff is played by Sterling Hayden and as you can gather he's one strict enforcer of the law. That includes arresting his son Darryl Hickman who's been identified as the perpetrator of a stage holdup where the driver was killed. Hickman's been identified by a dying I. Stanford Jolley as the perpetrator, but Jolley has it in for Hickman because he's been getting too serious with his daughter Kathleen Nolan. With all the evidence against him, still Sterling Hayden goes on a quest to find the real culprit, especially after some exculpatory evidence is found.

There's a town full of suspects and each has their own agenda for or against the sheriff, something like the divided public opinion in High Noon in Hadleyville as far as sheriff Gary Cooper was concerned. The Iron Sheriff also is a much better telling of the same kind of story that was told in the John Wayne film Cahill, US Marshall. The Duke in his movie was bound by the parameters of his image and Sterling Hayden did not have that problem.

This western has some pretty good courtroom scenes with Judge Will Wright, prosecutor Frank Ferguson, and defense attorney John Dehner who may have turned in the best performance in the film. I have to confess that I was surprised at who the culprit eventually turned out to be.

If it's run again on TCM try to catch it.

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.

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.

I was a bit disappointed when I discovered this feature. I expected more action. But It is no bad after all. A flat, somewhere oater western, with lots pf talk, trial, funny dialogue, and an inexpressive Sterling Hayden as ever.

But it seems to be a rare western.

Do not look for gunfights, violence or Indians in this one.

I must admit that Sidney Salkow used to show us more better action films such as Sitting Bull or Blood on the Arrow; I don't mention his pirates or other adventure movies.

In short, a unusual western that deserves to be seen.