Règlement de compte à Abilene Town

The film is set in 1870 , post civil war , in Abilene ( a biblical name meaning city of the plains ), the pattern of the other celebrated cow towns of the Old west . Randolph Scott is the brave sheriff of Abilene along with Edgar Buchanan , they are fighting to stifle the conflicts between homesteaders ( led by a young Lloyd Bridges ) and cattlemen who hire gunfighters ( Jack Lambert ) . Meanwhile he develops a loving triangle between a Saloon girl ( Ann Dvorak ) and a good girl ( Rhonda Fleming ).

The picture gets action Western , shootouts , a love story , musical numbers ( in charge of a gorgeous Anne Dvorak ) and is quite entertaining . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians, production values and pleasing results . The film is totally set in Abilene ( Kansas )which was the first of the major railhead cattle towns . From 1867 to 1872 it was a booming depot , shipping some one million Texas Longhorns by railroad to Kansas City and Chicago and meat markets in the East . The place was selected as a terminus for Texas cattle drives in 1867 . Then the long drives began from Texas over the Chisholm trail . At trail's end in Abilene the rowdy,free-spending cowboys attracted saloon keepers, gamblers , brothels and all types of frontier riff-raff , the town became notorious for its lawlessness . Gunmen were hired for a time to keep the peace in Abilene ( in the film the peacemaker results to be Randolph Scott and actually Wild Bill Hickok ) . With the numerous presence of homesteaders the town prospered , stabilized and grew , its lawabiding citizens decided to discourage the troublesome cattle trade with his transient cowboys and early requested the Texas cattlemen to drive their herds elsewhere , which they soon did and Abilene's role as a wild cow town came to an abrupt ending.

The motion picture is directed in sure visual eye by Edwin L. Marin . He realized a variety films of all kind of genres , though especially Western , the best are starred by Scott , all well screen-written ( as Abilene , Canadian Pacific , Cariboo trail , Fighting man of the plains ). In fact his last films were Westerns until his early death at 52 .

Uncompromising town Marshall Randolph Scott attempts to get to the bottom of a terror campaign against peaceful homesteaders who've settled on government land used by cattlemen in the plains around Abiline, Kansas.

Scott gives an appropriately stern performance in this low-budget independent production, but this just isn't as good as his color studio westerns he made in the following decade.

The script is intelligent but a bit too talky, failing to ignite any real fireworks until near the end.

Cowardly Sheriff Edger Buchanan and Lloyd Bridges as a heroic farmer give adequate support, but villainous Jack Lambert is a real standout.

Ann Dvorak's incredibly leggy costumes are a real treat.

Five years after the end of the Civil War the town of Abilene, Kansas serves as the end of the trail for the cattle drives from Texas and is dependent upon them for their economic well-being. However, times are changing and farmers are moving in from the East to start new lives in this area. Randolph Scott, as the town marshal named "Dan Mitchell" realizes that the cattlemen and the farmers cannot mutually coexist and trouble is about to start. He also has another problem (which most men would envy) which is that two beautiful women are in love with him. The first is a saloon dancer by the name of "Rita" (Ann Dvorek) and the other is the daughter of one of the town merchants named "Sherry Balder" (Rhonda Fleming). Neither wants him to risk his life by getting involved in the violence that is likely to occur. At any rate, rather than divulging what happens next I will just say that this is a fairly good western which manages to entertain for the most part. Now, normally I don't mind a film in black and white, but there was a reason Rhonda Fleming was nicknamed "the Queen of Cinemascope" and although she still looked great, black and white just doesn't do her any justice. But that's just my opinion.

There's a good Western buried somewhere in this meandering screenplay. Someone in production apparently decided it was not a movie for the audience to take seriously. Thus, Edgar Buchanan's county sheriff provides more than just comedy relief, coming perilously close to acting the buffoon. Ann Dvorak's dance hall entertainer shows spunk, but the overproduced musical numbers are obviously there to build up her star billing. Between the comedy, the music and the romance, not a lot is left for plot development.

And that's too bad, because the clash between Texas trail herders, and newly arriving homesteaders is nicely set up. Naturally the two sides are in conflict over land use; however, the focus here is on the commercial effect each side has on the town's prosperity. On one hand, the cowboys keep the saloons and bordellos busy (this latter, of course, is just hinted at), but they also shoot up the town and bring little business to the merchants. On the other hand, homesteaders offer the prospect of steady trade with the merchants and are peaceable, but they don't patronize the saloons or carouse in the bordellos. Thus the town's business interests split into two competing factions based on commercial self-interest.

Now, this amounts to an interesting approach to the usual farmer vs. rancher conflict and provides a lot of plot potential. But this potential goes largely unrealized because of digressions with Buchanan, the unnecessary Scott-Fleming romance, and the overlong musical numbers. Note, as an indicator of the poorly disciplined script, its treatment of tallying up the potential profit numbers. Merchants are shown switching sides once the profit margins favoring homesteaders are calculated. But the script can't resist continuing this with a brief comedic follow-up which turns a serious and revealing point into an unnecessary laugh line. In a matinée Western, this might be forgivable, but Abilene Town is not a cheap production-- note all the extras in the crowd scenes.

Anyway, Scott makes a very believable town marshal, ditto Dvorak as a musical performer, but glamorous Fleming looks out of place in the unglamorous role of a merchant's daughter. As a virile homesteader, Lloyd Bridges really shows more energy and ability than the part calls for and is obviously on his way to a bigger career. And when Scott says at the end something like-- This is the way towns change-- after facing down the cowboys, I expect he was uttering a genuine frontier truth. Even then, towns went where the money is. Nonetheless, the movie wastes a lot of that kind of potential, but may still please those who like to mix comedy, music, dance, and romance into their shoot-em-up's.

Excellent, under-appreciated movie, which I suspect fell into public domain because only cheap copies from original prints seem to be available. Randolph Scott is rock solid in the unassuming characterization of a modest but moral man acting as a moderating influence between three distinct groups, the cattlemen, the homesteaders and the tradesmen in a frontier town. Each have their own agendas, and the most alluring enticement for Scott on the bad side of town is the brassy but captivating dance hall singer, Ann Dvorak, in one of the best performances of her career, who is so fresh and sexy in her several numbers that I can well believe a whole roomful of cowboys would just sit there, stone silent with their mouths open, staring at her as she dances and flirts through her songs. I don't know if her voice was her own or dubbed, but she could sure deliver those lyrics!

There's not a dull or extraneous scene in the movie, with many well cast characters, fistfights, gunfights, a cattle stampede, romance, comedy and first-rate film noir lighting and dialogue for those who care. And besides all that, I didn't notice until about the third time I'd watched it, Scott's horse follows him around when he's on foot like a pet dog. Very subtle, never made a focus of attention by the director, one of the old-timers who had the sense to let audiences find their own points of interest. I think it's a classic.