Cattle Town

I despair of seeing many rare vintage films on TCM UK.So i was very surprised to find this entertaining western in a midweek afternoon schedule.Dennis Morgan here becomes the standard singing cowboy.He must have known that the writing was on the wall when Warner's cast him in this film.However that was probably more to do with their desire to cut down their list of contracted actors.Morgan is supported in the comic sidekick role by George O 'Hanlon,of the Joe McDoakes series.There is a lot of action in a routine plot and Dennis takes every opportunity to sing a song.Its no classic but it is well worth a view if TCM ever show it again.

(1952) Cattle Town WESTERN

All it is, is just an excuse for singer/ actor Dennis Morgon playing as Western gov't assistant Mike McGann to sing some unmemorable old Western tunes (not country) to aid cattle from being stolen from wealthy businessman from another town or district. There's a good saloon brawl somewhere in the middle of the picture, topping it off with a 'sped-up' or 'fast-forward' fight with the main star duke it out with two people, a known technique done used to be done on old black and white Western tv shows- and doesn't work on adults but may be convincing to see with kids. Anyways, as far as the singing goes, it's like listening to old choir songs, like some old Roy Roger films or John Wayne's 45 minute short Western films who is by the way not even using his own voice, except to say that all the tunes are simple and uninspiring, like some other old musicals when their is no punch and the viewer is just staring at the screen completely stoned- it's really that bad.

Directed by Noel M. Smith and starring Dennis Morgan, there's not a lot to write home about here for Western fans. Yet there's just enough of good old fashioned yee-haw to keep it from stinker status. Plot is set in post-civil-war Texas and finds crafty Notherners buying up the land for nefarious gains. In comes the government envoy to investigate, at the front is tough guy Mike McGann (Morgan).

It's a curious mix of gunfights and singing - including a barber quintet - but the action is well staged and not in short supply, while the finale is rather rousing as cattle go berserk. It never sits still so there's no boredom factor - as it runs at just a little over 70 minutes - and Morgan (in his last WB role) is a likable leading man for this type of material. 5/10

Cattle Town is a low budget western with a fairly mundane plot and some dodgy singing thrown in.

It's a strange film that doesn't seem to know whether to be a serious Western, a Romance or a Musical. In the end it decides to amalgamate all three so we are just left with a confusing and messy hybrid. The lead actor Dennis Morgan who comes across as plain smug, and his sidekick, just don't convince at all. They are way too jovial, randomly and annoyingly bursting into some plain awful songs. It is therefore hard to take this effort at all seriously which is a shame as there was a germ of a decent film here.

I wasn't expecting much but I was expecting more than I got. Even with it's short running time I was left praying for the end well before it finished. It's not often you are rooting for the hero to be shot and killed but this is one time when it would have been a blessed relief. This is a very poor western and certainly among the worst I have seen. Avoid.

Western from Warner Bros studios starring of course Dennis Morgan, the "home" actor for this period and this kind of films. But I don't know the director, I would have rather expected Edwin L Marin or Ray Enright, "home" Warner film makers, also specialized in westerns. That said, it's a good common western, in the Warner style, without "fat", without any useless scene and a Dennis Morgan very comfortable in this role. I won't see it again because, I repeat, there is nothing special, nothing to remember compared to the gigantic mass of westerns produced all over decades. That's all I had to say.