O Xerife de Ferro

Director Salkow I know nothing about but on the strength of this flick, perhaps I need not bother find out more. The finished B product is uneven, you keep listening to witness accounts after the fact, a courtroom situation that seems too modern for those times, and you just do not know what to believe. The final chase happens immediately after Hayden arrives on the scene with a marshall dogging him for fear of murdering the supposed culprit, who is so pathetically afraid that he provides the single most unusual touch to an otherwise run of the mill film.

Salkow extracts an unusually pedestrian performance from Hayden, who has the thankless task of confirming in court that a dying man blamed his son for the killing of stagecoach rider Fielding (who appears only at the moment of impact). I have to say that Hayden seems too wooden in his delivery of the indicting statement, and looks oddly ambivalent after that.

While not extracting better from an actor of Hayden's talent is criminal, I readily forgive Salkow for failing to score a meaningful portrayal with a substandard actress like Constance Ford. In truth, I cannot recall a single outstanding performance in the film. The culprit does not deserve remembering for any particularly successful characterization, only for being so useless at his job and pathetic in his effort to flee - there was something unintentionally comic about that entire sequence.

One unresolved mystery in this movie that still haunts me: what happened to the money in the Chinese fellow's box? Who stole it and for what purpose? Could it be the culprit when he realized that the cash was not in the stagecoach anymore?

Be that as it might, the whole McCoy hinges on a freshly minted silver dollar. As the saying goes, the dollar makes the world go round!

Cinematography: nothing to write home about.

Big plus: 73' long (but I still fell asleep during the courtroom scene).

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.

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.

A Detective/Courtroom Drama set in the Old West with Sterling Hayden Leading the Proceedings on a Mission to Discover the Real Killer. His Son has been Accused of Robbing a Stage and Shooting the Driver. He is in Jail and On Trial when the Movie Begins and the Running Time is Spent on Uncovering what really happened.

Most B-Westerns aren't as Talky or Concerned with Sleuthing, but this one sure is. A pretty Good Cast of Familiar TV Faces and John Dehner Standing Out as the Boy's Attorney. There are Numerous Town Folks who are Suspect and the Movie is Different enough to Warrant Attention.

Things Twist and Turn quite a bit and there are Riding and Gunplay in the End with Hayden the Sheriff Almost Losing It. Certainly Worth a Watch for its Unique Take on Standard Western Movie Stuff and the Game Cast and Story are Interestingly Off Beat.

When this movie started today on GRIT, I didn't expect much. I expected good enough acting from Sterling Hayden and a solid "B" movie, but it was really much more.

I generally believe that over-selling a story makes the person reading my review like it less, what a departed friend of mine called "the contrapositive effect".

So no spoilers, no hints, just, as others have noted, if you like a good whodunit and like the Western setting, you should watch this movie. By the way, there was some A movie acting by a fine ensemble cast. One scene reminded me of Cary Grant's facial expressions in the final scene of An Affair To Remember. Acting without words. You can't beat it.