I senza Dio

In Medicine Bend, Marshal Calem Ware {Randolph Scott} is the man that brought law and order to the town, supported by the powerful rancher Asaph Dean (James Bell) and his reputation; his skill with his gun is frequently tested by gunners that unsuccessfully challenge him. When the greedy local businessman Hamer Thorne (Warner Anderson) brings the actress Tally Dickenson (Angela Lansbury) to perform a show for the locals, Calem is haunted by his past since Tally is his wife that left him in Apache Wells due to his dangerous way of life. Meanwhile Thorne associates to the scum Cody Clark (John Emery) and together they hire the outlaw Harley Baskam (Michael Pate) that is considered the fastest gunner in the region to duel with Calem and kill him and leave Medicine Bend ready for their dirty businesses.

"A Lawless Street" is a good western about a man that makes the difference in a small town. I am not a great fan of this genre, but I like a lot the elegant Randolph Scott, an actor that successfully performs the typical sheriff or cowboy in these movies. His characters have usually the same characteristics of a honest man with a past. Angela Lansbury is an actress that I used to see ad an old lady, and is it nice to see her with thirty year-old only. Michael Pate, Warner Anderson and John Emery perform great villains. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Obrigado a Matar" ("Forced to Kill")

The story is simplicity itself. Scott is the marshall keeping the town (referred to several times as a wild beast) peaceful despite the efforts of two corrupt businessmen to take it over and run it on their terms. They hire a gunman (Pate) to come in and knock off Scott. At about the same time Scott's showgirl wife (Lansbury) shows up. They've separated because she doesn't want him using guns to earn a living. Or something like that. (Where have we seen this before?) Pate shoots Scott, who recovers later and shoots Pate. The businessmen are subdued by the rest of the townspeople who have come to their senses and acquired ethics. Scott hands over his badge because the beast has been tamed and the town no longer needs his kind of marshall. He rides off into the sunset with his wife and a carriage full of luggage and mulligan stew. The end.

Angela Lansbury is a first-rate actress. She wows the audience in pieces as different as "The Manchurian Candidate," "Death on the Nile," and "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway. But she's given practically nothing to do here. Warner Anderson's acting is flat and matter-of-fact but he's okay. The other villainous businessmen are less than interesting, which is too bad because movies like this depend as much on the character of their heavies as they do on the star. Wally Ford is in the Thomas Mitchell/ Edgar Buchanan part. The movie's score blossoms during the overture to Lansbury's stage appearance. Elsewhere the score is overblown and sounds hastily assembled with comic notes where none are called for.

The second half of the movie deteriorates. I cannot imagine why the rich ranchers and the rest of the townspeople (the wild beasts) have a sudden and entirely unmotivated change of heart and rally to Scott's side. Also, Scott gets to beat hell out of a human being the size of Man Mountain Dean, without using a gun. The two men have a lengthy and brutal fistfight and wind up with their shirts torn to shreds but not a drop of blood is spilled. But the first third of the movie gives Scott some scenes and dialogue that are outstanding for him, considering his usual persona. He shoots a man in self defense and is, if not ashamed of having done it, at least remorseful. The victim's widow has some sensible and believable lines too, and not favorable to Scott. Scott doesn't go on about his sadness -- he never goes on about anything. But we can sense the writers and the director giving him a chance to play something more than a heroic marble statue. It would have been nice had the rest of the movie been so played.

Was it just me, but after Randolph Scott's Rag nomination in 1954, did he seem happier and more confident? Maybe not, but he seems to have an extra spring in his step in 1955's A Lawless Street. Every time he goes downstairs in his boarding house and enjoys breakfast with the landlady, he charms and flirts with her with a huge grin on his face; it's adorable.

Scottie McScottie Pants plays a sheriff in this movie, but one with enemies. The story arc is actually really entertaining, even though it seems simple enough. The secrets, double crosses, and surprising twists reveal themselves in perfect pace as the town turns against him. Only one person seems to be on his side, and even she has a difficult time of it because of their troubled past: Angela Lansbury. She's a dance hall girl in town for a performance, and Scottie's ex-girlfriend!

Sometimes western movies don't bother with authenticity. I always pay attention to details, like cleanliness of clothing, the outside appearance of buildings, and whether or not respectable women have platinum hair and eye makeup. A Lawless Street features a realism worth noting: the saloon performance by Angela Lansbury. Many times, old west movies glamorize the entertainment industry, showing thin, beautiful chorus girls all perfectly in step dancing to a full orchestral sound. In this movie, Angela's backup dancers weren't all thin and pretty, nor were they all perfectly in step. There were only a few instruments in the pit, and the theater itself was quite small. How refreshing! If you like seeing Scottie defy the odds when they're all against him, check out this entertaining western.

Classic western. A marshal(Randolph Scott)finds himself tired of taming the beast. A hired gunman(Michael Pate)is hired by businessmen(Warner Anderson and John Emery)to "take care of" the lawman so corruption can run the town. Plenty of action and strong supporting cast featuring: Jean Parker, Don Megowan, Wallace Ford and Angela Lansbury as the winsome showgirl. Pate as the gloved gunman practically steals the show. The stoic Scott proves why he has top billing.

As I said yesterday concerning another film with Randolph Scott and directed by Andre de Toth, this kind of western not made by Budd Boetticher has not the same taste and flavour as the latest's stuff. It remains very classic, predictable, not cliché ridden at all, on the contrary. But the directing skills of Joseph H Lewis are obvious. Though I will always prefer the last film - TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN - than this one. Good guys vs Bad guys scheme bores me more and more these days. I will always prefer Boetticher's seven westerns, the best for me starring Randolph Scott. Despite the good performance of Michael Pate as the villain. Jo Lewis put his trade mark however, with some camera work, angle and so on; such as the scene when Scott is wounded on the forehead.