La corde est prête

Up until the 1960s, westerns were a HUGE genre for Hollywood-- particularly the 1930s-50s. Thousands of westerns were made...so many that no one could possibly see them all. However, if you've seen a bunch there are certainly some common themes...and the theme in "Star in the Dust" has been seen before...quite a few times. However, there is nothing to set this one apart from the rest...and I would recommend you first see "Rio Bravo"...with a similar theme but simply a better film.

Sheriff Jorden is set to hang Sam Hall (Richard Boone) but has a problem....one group of folks wanna string him up and not bother waiting until the court appointed time...and another group wants to rescue him. Jorden (John Agar) and his two deputies (James Gleason and Paul Fix) are deputies on hand to try to carry out his orders.

Aside from an insanely vivid and crazy stunt at the end (I still can't believe they did this!) and an appearance by Mamie Van Doren, I can't see much to set this apart from a bazillion other westerns. More a time-passer than anything else.

Star In The Dust is certainly an illusion to where Gary Cooper's sheriff's badge wound up at the end of High Noon. But John Agar's star never wound up there as he walks a fine line between homesteaders and cattlemen in this rather grim Universal western.

Hired killer for the cattlemen Richard Boone is scheduled to hang at sundown. But Agar's facing a real problem. The homesteaders just want to lynch him before the appointed hour because the cattlemen are fixing to break him out. Agar would also like to find out who exactly hired Boone to intimidate the homesteaders. He did more than intimidate, he's hanging because he killed three of them.

Head of the cattlemen is Leif Erickson and his sister Mamie Van Doren is supposed to marry Agar. Boone has a girlfriend also in Coleen Gray, a plain Jane sort who never got any attention until Boone. Now she's ready to do anything for her man.

Terry Gilkyson, country singer and songwriter sings The Ballad of Sam Hall which is Boone's character and serves as a kind of Greek chorus to the events.

Though Agar's star never winds up in the dust, the film is a decent enough B western, grim and violent.

Very Gunsmokish-type movie. Standard 1950s Western Movie fare with a righteous sheriff outnumbered by the opposition, with the standard range war backdrop of farmers versus cattlemen. Opposition naturally led by a powerful baron who practically owns the town. Another standard theme. A love story thrown in, complicated by its trail that leads from the sheriff's office straight to the baron's ranch house. A ballad singer on a guitar, accompanies the audience throughout the film, adding an interesting feature to the movie. Not unentertaining. Slightly an above average production.

Star in the Dust is directed by Charles Haas and adapted to screenplay by Oscar Brodney from the novel "Law Man" written by Lee Leighton. It stars John Agar, Mamie Van Doren, Coleen Gray, Richard Boone, Leif Erickson, Harry Morgan, Randy Stuart and James Gleason. Music is by Frank Skinner (Joseph Gershenson supervising) and Technicolor cinematography is by John L. Russell Jr.

We are in the town of Gunlock and Sheriff Bill Jorden (Agar) is set to hang hired killer Sam Hall (Boone) at sunset. Only he finds himself in the middle of the Ranchers and Farmers because one lot want to help Hall escape, and the other want to lynch him post haste. With the exception of his two trusty deputies, Sheriff Jorden - already having to carry around the weight of not being as good as his dad was at the job - can't trust anyone and has it all to do to ensure things are done legal like.

It begins with a shot of a Sheriff's badge in the dust, and sure enough from that moment on the feeling of watching a poor High Noon/Rio Bravo knock off is hard to shake. Pic is erring towards psychological smarts with a half decent screenplay put forward by Brodney, and the cast can't be called for being poor since most are good enough when given enough screen time to work with. Though it has to be said that Agar is just a touch too wooden, overplaying his weary lawman act and it grows tiresome entering the last third of film.

Pacing is deadly slow, and as a number of characters are introduced along the way, there's barely any action to cling onto as a point of dramatic worth. There's a decent fist fight on show, and a wickedly enjoyable girl scrap, which even involves any weapons that are handy! A brilliant piece of stunt work in the finale is to be highly applauded, but other than that we are sort of plodding through to the end. Biggest crime comes in under using Boone as the villain, he's on in it for short moments at a time, and he's hardly given a biting script to spout.

The guitar based musical score is quite dreadful and irritatingly it's practically non stop when the story moves out of the jailhouse. I understand why the usually reliable Skinner was going for sombre tones in the play, but it's a dirge, and when the narrative perks up a notch, the guitar shifts into something that sounds like it belongs in animation Batman instead of a psychological Western. Bonus is the colour photography, lovely lenses from Russell and the TCM print is gorgeous. But again there's an irk, for the story rarely ventures out of the town so we are denied and sparkling Technicolor landscapes.

It does have fans, and it really isn't a bad Western as such, it's just not a good one either. It goes through the motions and wastes a good cast and potential for character dynamism. 5/10

Footnote: Clint Eastwood is in the mix for a walk on part, keep a look out for him.

For a Western movie this was very boring and had very little going on. There is no real plot and only a couple of muddled and drama-free sub-plots.

The movie is about some hit-man in a cell who is awaiting hanging for the killing of some cattleboys. The sheriff wants a peaceful hanging (!) without having to prove that he's as good a Sheriff as his father was. And a couple of other minor characters serve no purpose other than to complicate matters for petty reasons.

There are a few silly fight scenes that remind of the A-Team with the wooden furniture falling apart very easily. And, as always, there are embarrassingly fake fights in which there is no penetration seen or any

shown. Were there any R-rated movies in the 50's? But the most annoying thing about this movie is the songs but the 'singing narrator' who only ever uses the same tune but uses marginally different words each time. Ugh! If this is on TV on a Sunday afternoon…miss it. Go out for a walk, even if it's raining.