Shaughnessy

Although in the short description of the movie it says Shaughnessy becomes a sheriff in a small town, he actually became a town marshall. Trivial, yes.

I watched the movie on Encore, mainly because I like westerns, having been born and raised in the west. I can even ride a horse, or at least I used to. But I digress.

It was obviously made for TV, as the breaks were quite obvious (Encore showed it without breaks). The notion of the outsider (in this case an Irish lad in the 19th century) going west for one reason or another has become somewhat of a cliché, but if the writing and acting are good you can ignore this. I thought it was definitely an OK movie, although I probably wouldn't have gone to see it in a theatre. On the other hand, there are a lot of worse movies being made even at this time.

The movie was certainly meant to be followed by a sequel (please pardon the redundancy) and I can only wonder if one was made. I would certainly watch it if there is one.

Please pardon the format, but this is the first review I've written in a long long time.

Submitted for your approval (please forgive me, Rod Serling),

Albert Hernhuter

In reading the book, "The Iron Marshal", I was a little disappointed that the director didn't follow the plot better in the film. The book is excellent but the movie is okay as well. I enjoyed the story line, the acting and the photography. The director did a pretty good job with the actors and the camera work. The final cut was good and the story flowed thru pretty well.

I've been looking for this movie to be released onto video so I can add to my collection, but so far nothing has been done.

If you happen to run upon it, I think you'll enjoy the movie.... I'm a big Louis L'Amour fan and I thought they did a pretty fair job on the movie.

Matthew Settle portrays an Irish American involved in dodgy stuff in New York. Eventually, the unloving attentions of a violent gang (is there any other kind?) persuades him to leave the girlfriend behind and legs it out West. Funnily enough, he faces similar problems there too. So is he a bad apple from the Big Apple? Course not, he's misunderstood. Is this a stereotyping drama? To an extent. Should you watch it? Depends whether you have anything more pressing to do, like ironing the carpet. There again, you could watch it to see what Linda Kozlowski gets up to when hubby Paul Hogan's not around.