Lo sceriffo di ferro

Sterling Hayden plays a sheriff in the West whose son is accused to holding up the stage and murdering the driver. So many facts seem to point to this being true but what makes it so tough is that the sheriff needs to testify against his own kid! However, despite this, he spends his time trying to prove that, perhaps, this is still a mistake and some other person is actually responsible.

I watched this movie for one reason--Sterling Hayden. He was an amazingly talented and underrated actor who managed to bring a lot of toughness and realism to the parts he played--why he's pretty much forgotten today is beyond me. I am not just talking about his roles in bigger films like "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Killing" or "Dr. Strangelove"--but even his appearances in seemingly smaller films where he managed to make ordinary material seem extraordinary. However, this is a rare case where no matter the talents of Hayden, the film was a lifeless mess--thanks to a confusing and overly wordy script. It should have been a lot better and they should have trusted the actors to have been able to make the film work without all the needless twists and turns.

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.

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.

Iron Sheriff differs from most oaters or horse operas that feature wordless passages like long horse chases or showdowns performed under melodramatic music. I was reminded of western paperbacks I'd read in youth that, unlike those broad western film formulas, turned out to be thickly populated with characters with ambiguities, tics, or backstories. Instead of the films' standard linear revenge narrative, these novels' plots often involved confusion, discovery, and makeshift alliances. Correspondingly, this film's often-short scenes cut quickly to other settings and scenes.

Other posters are right that Iron Sheriff resembles a mystery--it uses a standard mystery-genre technique by introducing the actual culprit early and briefly but in the midst of distracting action, multiple characters, and a changing scene. Other posters are also correct that the extensive supporting cast is a prime attraction--another testament to the stable of talent developed by the late studio system.

Title actor Sterling Hayden looks great as ever but moves through the script on cruise control. After I identified the Sheriff's son Benjie as Darryl Hickman, elder brother of Dwayne Hickman of Dobie Gillis, my wife one-upped by identifying Kathi Nolan, the actress playing Benjie's girlfriend, as the future Kate McCoy, who would clang the triangle to summon The Real McCoys to dinner. Another treat is John Dehner, who dignified everything he appeared in.

I'll watch anything with Sterling Hayden in it, even the stuff he isn't so good in and the terrible stuff that he's the best thing in, just because when he's good he's wonderful and because he's one of my great heroes, not in the movies, but in life. I expected The Iron Sheriff to be one of the many less than good little pictures Hayden did during the mid-Fifties. As a Western, that's just what it is -- less than good. Cheap look, cheap sets, cheap costumes, poor action sequences (what little there are of them). In a world where Lonesome Dove and Deadwood exist, this is the kind of Western it's really hard to sit through. Except: it's actually got a pretty good plot angle, and the way it works out is interesting and believable (for the most part). It's much more of a murder mystery than a Western, perhaps no surprise coming from the pen of longtime Perry Mason writer Seeleg Lester. Hayden is the titular sheriff, dead set on proving his son innocent of murder. But the more he looks, the more evidence he finds of his son's guilt. Ultimately he has to face the age-old dilemma, choosing between love and honor. The film works out the story well and fairly satisfyingly, plot-wise, though the film-making is nothing to write home about. The script and some performances by people I normally don't care for much in movies (and whom I reevaluated after this) -- people like Mort Mills and Constance Ford -- make this one far more interesting and worth catching than I'd expected. It's one of Hayden's least impressive jobs, no matter how much I admire him. But the picture is sort of okay. Especially if you like a good detective story.