Abilene Town (1946)

Director:

Edwin L. Marin

Writers:

Ernest Haycox (novel)
Harold Shumate (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 January 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Western

Plot:

Sheriff tries to stop homesteader conflicts in the West after the Civil War.

Plot Keywords:

Homesteader | Cattle | Abilene Kansas | Cowboy | Sheriff

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Dan Mitchell
Ann Dvorak	...	Rita
Edgar Buchanan	...	Sheriff 'Bravo' Trimble
Rhonda Fleming	...	Sherry Balder
Lloyd Bridges	...	Henry Dreiser
Helen Boyce	...	Big Annie
Howard Freeman	...	Ed Balder
Richard Hale	...	Charlie Fair
Jack Lambert	...	Jet Younger
Hank Patterson	...	Doug Neil
Dick Curtis	...	'Cap' Ryker
Earl Schenck	...	George Hazelhurst
Eddy Waller	...	Hannaberry

Also Known As:

The Homesteaders (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #11165)

Company:

Guild Productions Inc.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: [opening narration] Five years after the end of the Civil War, a thousand-mile cattle trail stretched from the plains of Texas to the railroad depots in Kansas. For ninety grueling days, through dust, heat, flies, loneliness, cowboys pushed Texas cattle northward on the Abilene Trail at an average speed of three quarters of a mile an hour toward Abilene...

Movie Connections:

Featured in Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

All You Gotta Do

A little of everything

Excellent, under-appreciated movie, which I suspect fell into public domain because only cheap copies from original prints seem to be available. Randolph Scott is rock solid in the unassuming characterization of a modest but moral man acting as a moderating influence between three distinct groups, the cattlemen, the homesteaders and the tradesmen in a frontier town. Each have their own agendas, and the most alluring enticement for Scott on the bad side of town is the brassy but captivating dance hall singer, Ann Dvorak, in one of the best performances of her career, who is so fresh and sexy in her several numbers that I can well believe a whole roomful of cowboys would just sit there, stone silent with their mouths open, staring at her as she dances and flirts through her songs. I don't know if her voice was her own or dubbed, but she could sure deliver those lyrics!

There's not a dull or extraneous scene in the movie, with many well cast characters, fistfights, gunfights, a cattle stampede, romance, comedy and first-rate film noir lighting and dialogue for those who care. And besides all that, I didn't notice until about the third time I'd watched it, Scott's horse follows him around when he's on foot like a pet dog. Very subtle, never made a focus of attention by the director, one of the old-timers who had the sense to let audiences find their own points of interest. I think it's a classic.